Iowa basketball: 2019 Big Ten Conference Tournament predictions

The 2019 Big Ten Conference Basketball Tournament begins Wednesday. Here’s our breakdown of contenders, pretenders, sleepers, and the Iowa basketball team.

Wednesday is the official start of the 2019 Big Ten Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament, but the Iowa basketball team won’t be tipping off until Thursday evening at around 830 PM Central Standard Time.

With the Hawks in the middle of a four-game slide, the longest such streak in the Big Ten, it’s seemingly more and more unlikely that they are going to make a run to win the whole tournament, but it ultimately depends on which Iowa basketball team actually shows up.

Is this the team that beat Michigan at home or is this the team that lost Sunday to Nebraska after giving up a 16-point lead?

Fortunately, I will say this, the Iowa basketball team does have about as favorable of a schedule as they could have. With a first-round bye, the Hawks would then take on the winner of the Northwestern vs Illinois game before moving on to playing a rematch against Michigan. There’s definitely hope, but let’s not forget that the Big Ten is absolutely stacked from top to bottom, and this year’s conference tournament is going to be a blast to watch.

Below is the finalized schedule.

Now that the official schedule is released, here’s who we think the true contenders for the title are, which teams are sleeper picks to win or, at the very least, make some noise, and which teams are ultimately going to fall flat out on their face.