Fun Facts: Illinois-Iowa

This is Iowa's next-to-last home men's basketball game. Time flies.

Once, someone told me 'Time flies, why don't you?” I thought that was rude.

That said, here are your Fun Facts:

1. Illinois and Iowa are both 17-10.

2. The Fighting Illini have won 18 of the last 25 games against Iowa, but the Hawkeyes have won three of the last four in the series. However, Illinois has won four of the last five meetings in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

3. Iowa has shot 50 percent or better from the field in four of its last six games. That didn't used to be a big deal. But only Gonzaga and Notre Dame are shooting over 50 percent over the entire season.

4. The Hawkeyes have shot just 40.8 percent from the field against nonconference teams, but have made 46.5 percent of their shots against Big Ten foes.

5. Illinois leads the nation in free throw percentage at .790, and is .804 in Big Ten games. The school record for a season is .744, set 18 years ago.

6. Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff made 16 of 27 free throws (59.3 percent) against nonconference teams. In the 14 Big Ten games since then, he is 30-of-35 (85.7 percent) from the line.

7. If there's a wider swing between a team's highest and lowest offensive productions, you tell me what it is. Illinois scored 114 points against Coppin State on Nov. 16, and 43 points at Nebraska on Jan. 11.

8. The Illini totaled just 102 points in their last two games, against Wisconsin and Michigan State.

9. Twelve of Illinois' 15 players are from Illinois. Six are from Chicago and two others are from Chicago suburbs.

10. Five of the most-prominent Illini players have last names with four letters. Nnannu Egwu, Malcolm Hill, Kendrick Nunn, Rayvonte Rice, Jaylon Tate. Only one of the nation's top 25 scorers (through Sunday) has a four-letter last name. He is Tyler Haws of BYU.

11. Hill (16.4 points per game) and Nunn (13.8) have the highest combined scoring averages of any pair of sophomores on a team from the Power Five conferences. Hill has increased his scoring by more points per game than any returning Big Ten player. He averaged 4.4 points per game last season.

12. Egwu was the three-time Intramural Coach of the Year at St. Ignatius High School in Chicago.

13. Jon Ekey gave Illinois a 66-63 win at Iowa last March when he made a 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left. Ekey played then played four games for the Saitama Broncos in Japan. He returned to the U.S. and has gone into his business in Kansas City with his brother as general contractors.

14. Illinois has towns named Havana and Cuba.