Iowa Basketball: Bracket Breakdown

March is everybody’s favorite time of the year. Spring is in the air and college basketball is about to get wild. Where does the Iowa basketball team stand as of right now?

As it usually is, the battle for seeding in the Big Ten tournament is still very relevant. Iowa has a chance to get all the way up to the fourth spot assuming they beat Michigan on Saturday and Michigan State loses to Ohio State on senior day in East Lansing (not likely). If Iowa wins and nothing really odd happens, they’d be staring the five seed right in the face and would have to play on Thursday against Illinois or Minnesota, most likely.

However, if they end up losing to Michigan on Saturday, they could fall all the way to the eight seed and would take on either Northwestern or Penn State. I can’t imagine them falling all the way to the eight spot, but it is most definitely in play at this point in time.

If I was a betting man, I’d say the five seed a likely spot for them. I don’t see them losing yet another game on Saturday to Michigan.

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As far as the NCAA Bracket projections go, Iowa continues to fall. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Hawkeyes as a five seed playing in Denver in his latest bracket. He has the Hawkeyes paired up with San Diego State as the 12th seed. The Aztecs are currently 20-8 ranked 50th in the RPI. They have a good win against California and don’t have a lot of bad losses. They always seem to have a pretty good squad and are apart of the dreaded 5-12 matchup.

If Iowa were to get passed SDSU, they’d most likely have Duke waiting for them. Duke has several playmakers and are always a dangerous team come March. Mostly because of their head coach, that Coach K guy, or whatever. Kidding, of course. The Blue Devils and the Hawkeyes would matchup well.

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CBS’s Jerry Palm has the Hawkeyes seeded even lower. He has them as a six seed playing in Brooklyn taking on another tough mid-major program. The VCU Rams, who were a part of a Final Four not too long ago, would be Iowa’s opponent. Their best win came against St. Joe’s back on January 5th, and they have two close losses to both Duke and Wisconsin back in late November. You can’t really take much from those losses because they came so long ago.

If Iowa were to get by the Rams, their opponent would likely be the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Mountaineers are known for their suffocating defense. They have six RPI top 25 wins along with six losses. Their marquee win came when they defeated Kansas at home by 11. With the way this Iowa team is playing right now, I don’t think they’d have any shot at beating a WVU ball club hitting it’s stride.

As we all know these are just projections, but it’s always fun to get a look at where they might end up.

Although, before they start thinking about NCAA projections, they need to take care of business on Saturday against Michigan. That game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. CST.

Stay locked into Dear Old Gold for constant coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

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