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Iowa vs. Utah men’s basketball glance: Time/TV/game info (Dec. 21, 2024)
Hawkeyes and Utes score a lot. Iowa will try to outscore Utah this time after losing to the Utes in a March NIT game in Salt Lake City.
Dec. 20, 2024 10:44 pm, Updated: Dec. 21, 2024 12:18 pm
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What: Iowa (8-3) vs. Utah (8-2), men’s basketball
When/where: 5:07 p.m., Saturday, Sanford Pentagon, Sioux Falls, S.D.
TV: BTN (Chris Vosters, Shon Morris)
Livestream: Fox Sports Live
Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates, KRUI-FM
Series: Utah leads, 2-0
Line: Iowa by 1.5
Iowa’s next game: New Hampshire in Iowa City, Monday at 6 p.m.
What to know: The pace of this game should be fast.
Through Thursday Iowa and Utah were 11th and 14th, respectively, in national scoring average with 87.2 and 86.6 points per game.
Nine months ago, Utah defeated Iowa 91-82 in a second-round NIT game in Salt Lake City. The leading scorer was guard Gabe Madsen, who made seven 3-pointers and scored 31 points. He’s averaging 19.8 points this season.
This season, he has been joined his brother, Cincinnati transfer Mason Madsen (11.1 ppg). The two, from Rochester, Minn., have combined for 70 three-pointers in 10 games. Almost three-quarters of the shots the brothers have taken were threes.
Utah’s losses were against Mississippi State in Mississippi and at home against St. Mary’s. They haven’t played a ranked team.
The Utes lead the nation in assists with 21 per game, and are eighth in the nation in field goal defense, 37.0 percent.
When Iowa last played in Sioux Falls, it defeated Utah State 94-75 in 2021. Keegan Murray scored 35 points, and Kris Murray added 17. The brothers were a combined 19-of-25 from the field.
The Hawkeyes are two games from resuming Big Ten play, and seek to be 10-3 overall when they go to Wisconsin Jan. 3. They have averaged just 6.3 turnovers over their last three games. Iowa is fourth in the nation nationally and Utah eighth in assists-to-turnovers ratio.
Iowa’s Brock Harding has averaged 13.2 points and 6.8 assists over the last six games. Sophomore center Owen Freeman has averaged 17 points in that same stretch, making 45 of 59 field goal tries for 76.3 percent.
Hawkeye backup forward Seydou Traore might be out for a second-straight game. "I don't know,“ Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Thursday. ”Not too optimistic."
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