Big Ten MBB Tournament Set; Iowa Earns 7-Seed
The 2023-24 Big Ten regular season finished up today, so the only thing left for the Big Ten this season is the Big Ten Tournament. The seeds were chaotic until the final weekend, when the end of the season finally locked teams into their seeds. Iowa's home loss to Illinois on Sunday made them the 7-seed.
As the 7-seed, Iowa gets a single-bye and will start Big Ten Tournament play on Thursday. Iowa will face the 10-seed Ohio State (19-12 overall, 9-11 Big Ten) at 5:30 PM CT on Thursday, March 15. BTN will televise the game.
This will be the second-straight in which Iowa and Ohio State meet up on the second day of the Big Ten Tournament. Last year, Iowa was a 5-seed and fell to the 13-seed Buckeyes in an upset. The Hawkeyes couldn't find their range from deep in that game (4-of-17 from beyond the arc) and struggled with turnovers as well.
Iowa earned a 79-77 win over Ohio State in the only previous meeting between the teams this season. That loss came a bit over a month ago, with Ohio State mired in what became a five-game losing streak. It was a tight game throughout, with Iowa pulling out the win thanks to a 20-point night from Tony Perkins, a 17-0 advantage in transition scoring, and some clutch free throw shooting by Patrick McCaffery.
READ MORE: Iowa 79, Ohio State 77: A Redemptive Victory
Shortly after that loss, though, Ohio State began to turn its season around. The Buckeyes won six of their final eight games and enter the Big Ten Tournament on a four-game winning streak, which has included victories over some bad teams (Rutgers, Michigan) and some pretty decent ones (Michigan State, Nebraska).
The season really began to turn for the Buckeyes after former head coach Chris Holtmann was fired on February 14. Ohio State beat eventual Big Ten regular season champion Purdue in the first game with interim head coach Jake Diebler in charge. The Buckeyes went 5-1 with Diebler in charge down the stretch and enter the Big Ten Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the conference.
Iowa has won three Big Ten Tournaments, most recently in 2022. Iowa has experience winning four games in four days to win the tournament as well (a feat they would need to duplicate this season to claim another Big Ten Tournament title), doing so as a 5-seed in 2022 and a 6-seed in 2001. No 7-seed has ever won the Big Ten Tournament and only one team has won a Big Ten Tournament from a seed lower than a 6-seed (Michigan won the event as an 8-seed in 2017).
If Iowa is able to get by the Buckeyes on Thursday -- no sure thing, given Ohio State's recent red-hot form -- the Hawkeyes would be rewarded with a third game against Illinois (23-8 overall, 14-6 Big Ten) in three weeks. The first two games didn't go Iowa's way; maybe the third time will be charm?
Iowa's NCAA Tournament hopes took a large blow with the loss to Illinois on Sunday; getting onto the right side of the bubble now will take a decent-sized run in the Big Ten Tournament this week. At minimum, that will likely mean beating Ohio State and Illinois on Thursday and Friday. But before Iowa can worry about a potential third game with Illinois, the Hawkeyes will need to focus on beating the Buckeyes on Thursday. Without a win in that game, the best Iowa can hope for in terms of postseason play is a trip to the NIT.