After getting blown out in its last two road games, Wisconsin (12-8) will look to reverse that trend on Monday evening in Iowa City against No. 19 Iowa (14-5).
To put it mildly, that will not be an easy task.
Carver-Hawkeye Arena has a well-deserved reputation as one of the toughest places to win on the road in the country, and Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes are arguably the Big Ten’s hottest team at the moment, having won four straight and eight of their last ten. That stretch includes victories over No. 12 Maryland, No. 19 Michigan, and No. 24 Rutgers, all of which came in Iowa City.
While Iowa was expected to be a solid team this season, I’m not sure anyone thought they would be this good, especially once one of its top players, senior guard Jordan Bohannon, opted to shut down his season after playing in ten games to undergo hip surgery. The loss of Bohannon’s leadership and productivity (career scoring average of 12.3 points per game, 39.8 percent three-point shooter) could have been devastating.
Instead, the Hawkeyes have managed to thrive in his absence, thanks in large part to the emergence of one of his teammates into a full-fledged superstar and a few others stepping up to the plate and taking on larger roles.
With that said, here are three players in Iowa’s rotation who Badger fans should make sure to keep an eye on in this matchup.
Luka Garza – Center
Current stats: 23.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 56.1 FG%, 38.5 3P%
Garza was certainly one of the Big Ten’s better big men throughout his first two years at Iowa, but the 6-11, 260-pounder from Washington D.C. has taken a quantum leap in his third season.
The junior center’s production has absolutely exploded in 2019-20, to the point where he has launched himself into the conversation for National Player of the Year honors. Garza leads the Big Ten and ranks No. 5 nationally in scoring average, with the conference’s No. 3 field goal percentage. He also cleans up on the glass, currently sitting second in rebounds per game.
A multi-dimensional offensive threat who dominates the paint and can stretch the floor from beyond the arc, Garza has been straight-up unguardable at times for the Hawkeyes. He has scored in double figures in all but one game, a stretch that has included some jaw-dropping performances: Garza dropped 44 points (17-32 from the floor) in Iowa’s loss to Michigan in December and 34 (13-19) to go along with 12 rebounds in an 89-86 defeat to Penn State earlier this month.
Garza is coming off of another monster outing the last time out against Rutgers in which he racked up 28 points on 11-17 shooting to go along with 13 boards.