BKB Pregame Intel: Iowa Hawkeyes

The Big 10's top team heads for Evanston where they've lost 4 of the last 5 to the Northwestern Wildcats. Itrs eating at their coach, but the Iowa Hawkeyes want to stay on top of the conference. NU wants to stay above .500 so we have a verrrry interesting matchup Wednesday night...

Welsh Ryan has to feel like a black hole if you're a Hawkeye

And while the Iowa Hawkeyes are 7-2 in conference they're 2-2 on the road this year. A road trip to this group of Senior's "house of horrors" probably isn't a welcome challenge right now.

What might have been a "lucky" shot by walk-on Michael Jenkins last year gave the Cats a win. The year before, Vedran Vukusic hit a winner off a dribble.

“Northwestern has given us fits over the years,” Alford said. [Daily Northwestern]

But the big news in the Big 10 so far is the rise of Iowa to the top of the conference.

They've done it with guards Jeff Horner and Adam Haluska, both averaging in double figures, and a combined 10+ rebounds a game. Horner is also Iowa's career 3 point leader, hitting 232 of 635 for a 36.5% average over his 4 years.

Then there's forward Greg Brunner, with his 9 double-doubles so far this year [he averages 13.8 points and 10.6 rebounds a game] and leads the team with 30 offensive rebounds in the 9 conference games. He needs just 6 rebounds to become the Hawks all time leading rebounder.

But Brunner sometimes has defensive lapses and is a little worried about NU's Vedran Vukusic.

Me, personally, I sometimes get into what coach calls 'no man's land,' and it's not really helping, it's not really guarding my guy, so it's not really doing anything. You can't, definitely, do that on him because he can burn you in many ways. He's a very crafty player." [HawkCentral]

A good trivia question might be "who is Iowa's third guard?" The answer is 6-2 Junior Mike Henderson of Waterloo Iowa, averaging 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game - you can't forget him in the mix. He also has a season high 4 steals in one game and hits over 55% of his 3 point shots.

The key to the game for the Hawks seems to be confidence, something that usually comes with being on top of the league, and experience...

"We're a veteran team - you have you go in confident," Adam Haluska said. [Daily "We know we're a good team. Now, we need to work on becoming a better team."

The Last Word:

Bill Carmody - Very physical team, very athletic, more athletic than many people give them credit for so its going to be a struggle for us.

[But] I think we're playing OK right now so I just look forward to the challenge. [Big 10 Teleconference]

Steve Alford- If we can shoot the ball well on the road and still play the kind of defense we’ve been playing all year, then we give ourselves an opportunity to win.

We’ve just go to go up there and play our basketball.
[HawkeyeNation.com]

We've played well enough to win, but we've played well enough to lose up there." [Hawk Central]

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Coach Roy's Purple Reign 'Cat'egories:

The Big Gun	#1 Adam Haluska	17 ppg average
Deadeye Dick	#34 Erek Hansen	58.7% shooting avg
The Bomber	#2 Jeff Horner*	66 3 point attempts
Off the Boards	#44 Greg Brunner	10.6 rebounds/game
Charity Stripe	Haluska	88.9% FT Shooting
Super Sub	#23 Doug Thomas	17.2 mins, 5.4 pts/game
Pickpocket	Brunner**	10 Steals
Helping Hands	Horner	56 assists
Mr. Defense	Hansen	26 Blocks, 21 def boards

Notes: * Adam Haluska has 53 attempts, hit 39% of his treys.
** Mike Henderson has 9 steals, Jeff Horner 8

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Expected Starters

		PPG+	RPG+
Guard	#1 Adam Haluska [6-5 Jr] #2 Jeff Horner [6-3 Sr] #35 Mike Henderson [6-2 Jr]	15.3 12.9 7.7	4.8 3.9 4.3
Forward	#44 Greg Brunner [6-7 Sr]	14.0	10.1
Center	#34 Erek Hansen [6-11 Sr]	6.7	4.0
	Totals:	56.6	27.1

These 5 have started all 9 conference games

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Off the Bench
[Have Played in most games, or Averaging 9+ mins]:

	Games - Starts	Minutes	PPG+	RPG+
#23 Doug Thomas #11 Tony Freeman #5 Alex Thompson	9-0 8-0 9-0	17.2 14.4 12.2	5.4 2.6 2.1	4.4 1.1 2.6
Totals:		14.6	10.1	8.1

Notes: The Hawkeyes are outscoring opponents in the Big 10 70.8 to 67.0. 

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Challenges for the Wildcats:

• Slow down the H & H boys
• Try to stop Brunner inside - have to get him out of the lane
• NU has to take control at both ends and we need more rebounding.
  

Once again this is a team with a good inside presence and two, maybe three hot shooting guards. The difference this year is that this team also plays defense well.

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Game Starts at 7 PM - Wildcat Time

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Television: ESPN+Local -  Larry Morgan and Shon Morris

• WWME in Chicago
• KGAN Cedar Rapids,
  
• KDSM Des Moines,
  
• KWQC Quad Cities,
  
• KYOU Ottumwa and
  
• cable systems in Mason City, Sioux City, Council Bluffs-Omaha and Kansas City.

Radio:

• WGN AM 720 , with Dave Eanet and Dave Kaplan
• NUSports
• Hawkeye Radio Network, Gary Dolphin
  
• XM Radio 197
  

Gametracker: NU Sports

You can also Chat in the New Purple Reign Free Chat room

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Statistics from the Iowa official site
Links are to the original story source of the quotes

Go Cats
Beat 'em All!

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Copyright 2006 by PurpleWildcats.com/Purple Reign
Quotes Copyright 2006 by original holder as noted