Preview: Gophers vs. Iowa

The Gophers host their third ranked team in a row Saturday afternoon when the Iowa Hawkeyes pay a visit to The Barn. The Hawkeyes are currently sitting alone in first place in the Big Ten, but they have had some struggles on the road. The Gophers should have won the first meeting of the season when they fell in triple overtime at Iowa City, so hopefully revenge will be a big motivator this time around.

Iowa’s four primary scorers are Adam Haluska (15 ppg), Greg Brunner (14 ppg, 10 rpg), Jeff Horner (13 ppg, 6 apg), and Mike Henderson (8 ppg). It was 6’11″ center Erek Hansen, however, who really hurt Minnesota in game one. Hansen finished with 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots in that game and really had his way inside against the smaller Gophers.

Also key for Iowa in that first game were the 23 rebounds (7 offensive) grabbed by Brunner. He wasn’t all that effective offensively despite scoring 17 points, but he absolutely killed Minnesota on the boards. The Gophers played good defense in holding Iowa to just 39% shooting, but they shot an equally poor 35% themselves and weren’t able to hit the one big shot they needed to win.

Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:

1. Battle of the Boards. Minnesota really needs to outrebound the Hawkeyes this time. They actually came pretty close in the first game despite Brunner’s monster night, but close won’t cut it. The Gophers need to win the hustle battle, and that starts with crashing the boards.

2. No Soup for Hansen. Erek Hansen cannot be allowed to dominate the game like he did last time. Jonathan Williams was the one Gopher able to keep pace with him, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds in 33 solid minutes. We need Williams to do that again.

3. Glory Days. The Gophers need to forget about Wednesday’s collapse at Michigan and think back to the days of yore ““ when they dominated Michigan State and Indiana the past two weekends. If they play with the mindset they did in those games, there’s no reason why they can’t beat the Hawkeyes as well.

This is definitely a winnable game, but it’s hard to know what to think after Wednesday. I’m hoping that Minnesota’s recent success at home combined with Iowa’s occasional road struggles with result in a third-straight home victory over a ranked opponent. My prediction: Minnesota 64 Iowa 62.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.