Yes, Nate Reuvers won’t defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes by himself on Monday night in Iowa City. He will need help. He will need his teammates to compete with the vigor and pride one would expect after the Wisconsin Badgers no-showed against the Purdue Boilermakers this past Friday in West Lafayette.
Reuvers, Wisconsin’s main man in the middle, can’t expect to outplay Luka Garza. Iowa’s sensational big man is a Big Ten First-Team All-America lock and a genuine Player of the Year candidate. Outplaying Garza in a one-on-one matchup is an overly ambitious expectation. It doesn’t square with reality. Here’s the thing, though: Reuvers doesn’t have to outplay Garza.
Brendan Stiles has covered Iowa athletics for several years through multiple outlets. He has a radio segment every Friday afternoon — 5:20 p.m. Central time — at 1700 The Champ in Des Moines. If you want someone who is attuned to Iowa basketball and knows what makes the Hawkeyes succeed or fail, Brendan is a terrific resource.
I asked him for his main insight into this game. This is what he said:
“The key matchup will undoubtedly be Nate Reuvers going toe-to-toe with Luka Garza, who is continuing to make a case for not only Big Ten Player of the Year honors, but national as well. If Reuvers can hold his own against Garza, the Badgers have a chance to steal this game on the road. If Garza has his way with Reuvers, though, it will be a long night for Wisconsin.”
There you have it. It’s not matter of Reuvers getting the better of Garza. Merely putting up a good fight and not getting demolished is Reuvers’ task. If he shows he belongs on the same court and doesn’t allow Garza to run wild, Wisconsin’s team identity and cohesive defense can have their desired effect. If Reuvers gets trucked by Garza, however, the damage of such a blowout (if it happens) will spill into the rest of the game and make life very unmanageable for Wisconsin.
One subplot of the Reuvers-Garza matchup is the question of how many minutes Wisconsin coach Greg Gard will allot to Micah Potter. Gard can’t put Potter on Garza — that would be a total mismatch in Iowa’s favor. Reuvers has to be reasonably effective against Garza if only because few other players on the Badgers’ roster can handle Garza. Reuvers is the central figure of this game for Wisconsin whether he likes it or not. Given that Wisconsin seems to keep running into road opponents at the worst possible time, the idea of Reuvers needing to handle an unwelcome assignment fits the mood and the situation for the Badgers.
This figures to be an uncomfortable game for Wisconsin. No one has a more uncomfortable assignment than Nate Reuvers. Let’s see how he handles it.