Mike Hlas

The number of teams in the hunt for automatic berths in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has shrunk from 362 to 160.

Iowa’s Big Ten tournament opener against Ohio State on Thursday in Minneapolis is the definition of a must-win, and that’s to get to a probable must-win Friday against Illinois.

Previewing Thursday’s Big Ten men’s basketball tournament second-round game between Iowa and Ohio State at Target Center in Minneapolis, where Hawkeye basketball teams are 6-0 over the last 53 weeks.

In the meantime, the number of teams in the hunt for automatic berths in the NCAA men’s basketball tournamenthat has shrunk from 362 to 199.

Iowa 6-foot-10 freshman Owen Freeman has done more than average double-digits in scoring in securing Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, and the sky may be the limit.

Freeman was the conference’s Freshman of the Week nine times. Also, Hawkeye guard Tony Perkins (2nd-team) and forward Payton Sandfort (3rd-team) are got All-Big Ten recognition. .

Tim Legler, normally in the role of an NBA analyst for ESPN, was put to use by SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt Sunday night to discuss Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

Hawkeyes finish 10-10 in the Big Ten, are No. 7 seed and will play hot Ohio State in Thursday’s second round of the Big Ten tournament

Iowa has played its best basketball of the season over its last five games. With a win Sunday night, the Hawkeyes should close in on a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Ben Krikke, Patrick McCaffery and Tony Perkins have combined to score over 4,000 points at Iowa, and didn’t buckle when an NCAA tournament berth seemed highly unlikely a few weeks ago.

Previewing Sunday’s Iowa men’s basketball game against Illinois: The Hawkeyes close the regular season with a banger against the Illinois team that beat them 95-85 in Champaign two weeks ago.

The Iowa men’s basketball team has been playing its best ball of the season the last three weeks, and has a chance for a fourth Quad 1 win in that time when it hosts Illinois Sunday night.

Sixth-ranked Iowa State came from 14 points down to silence No. 20 BYU down the stretch and seal an 18-0 home record in its Hilton Coliseum season finale.

It’s a first for the Hawkeye junior, who followed a 26-point triple-double at Northwestern Wednesday with 23 points at Northwestern Saturday.

Six spots settled for NCAA men’s basketball tournament, 62 to go. In the meantime, the number of survivors in the fight for the national-championship is down to 211 out of 362 teams.