Fun Facts: Ohio State-Iowa

Saturday's Ohio State-Iowa basketball game is a big one for the Hawkeyes. So was Iowa's previous game. So is its next one.

The biggest one will be its last one. Either the Hawkeyes will win the national-title or they'll fall short. Almost everyone falls short. That's kind of sad.

So let's brighten the mood with some Fun Facts.

1. Ohio State has won its last five games at Iowa. The Hawkeyes won the last two at Columbus, including their 71-65 victory last month.

2. The series between the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes stands at 77 wins apiece.

3. After Googling '77-77,” the first entry is this.

4. Iowa got three true road wins (North Carolina, Ohio State, Minnesota) by Jan. 13, the fastest a Hawkeyes team has reached that mark since the 1998-99 season.

A footnote: I dig for these factoids on my own, though that often means reading sports information department releases. However, I got this one from @IowaHoops, and I'm not above swiping others from useful Twitter sources. Fun Facts are all around us. So are Un-fun Facts.

5. Ohio State freshman forward D'Angelo Russell is one of the 25 Wooden Award midseason candidates. He leads the nation's freshmen in 3-pointers (48) and assists (90). He's also second in freshman scoring at 18.1 points per game. Duke's Jahlil Okafor averages 18.9.

6. This one came from @mbenson6: Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff is the first Big Ten player to notch 22+ points, 5+ rebounds, 4+ assists and 4+ blocks (at Minnesota Tuesday) in a conference game since Minnesota's Joel Pryzbilla against Iowa in 2000.

7. Uthoff and North Carolina's Marcus Paige had eerily similar games in successive nights Tuesday and Wednesday. Uthoff had 22 points in a 2-point road win. Paige had 23 points in a 2-point road win over North Carolina State.

Here's a column I wrote when the two squared off in a high school game at Cedar Rapids Jefferson four years ago.

8. This is the first time Iowa has played the men's basketball team of the school with the reigning football national-champion since it faced Ohio State in the 2002-03 season.

9. Columbus is the site for NCAA tournament second-round/third-round games (They'll return to being called first-round/second-round games next year, which isn't a moment too soon.) in March. So is Omaha, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Portland, Louisville and Charlotte. Here's how I rank my preferences, based purely on the degree of difficulty and cost of getting to them on short notice after Selection Sunday's pairings are announced:

First, obviously, is Omaha. Then: 2. (tie) Columbus and Louisville; 4. (tie) Pittsburgh and Charlotte; 6 (tie) Seattle and Portland; 8. Jacksonville. That's if airfares to Jacksonville resembled what they were the week before the TaxSlayer Bowl.

In personal preference of cities: 1. Portland (was there for the 2009 NCAA tourney, loved it); 2. Pittsburgh (very underrated city); 3. Seattle; 4. Louisville (I covered the NCAA tourney there three years ago and thought it was a fine site with a lively downtown); 5. Omaha; 6. Charlotte (I've never been in the city, so this isn't a fair ranking. It has a good airport, though.); 7. Jacksonville (I just spent a week there and don't expect to ever return.); 8. Columbus.

10. If the NCAA sends Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa (assuming they all make the tournament, which is more than an assumption with so much of the season lefts) to Omaha, I will never say another unkind word about that organization.