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College basketball analysts still view Iowa as a contender despite back-to-back losses
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Iowa has hit a bit of a rough patch in the schedule recently, dropping its last two games to Illinois and Indiana.
However, ESPN’s Laphonso Ellis and Seth Greenberg aren’t giving up on the Hawkeyes potential in March Madness.
The main reason for that faith is Iowa center Luka Garza, who continues to mount a National Player of the Year campaign. He’s averaging 26.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game with a true shooting percentage of 65 percent.
“You talk about value, you have one of the most explosive offensive teams in the nation with the leading candidate for player of the year in (senior center) Luka Garza,” Ellis said on College GameDay via 247Sports. “He can play with his back to the basket, shoots 46 percent from three at 6-11 and he’s got shooters all around him.”
Greenberg echo’d that sentiment and talked up the rest of Iowa’s roster as well.
“First and foremost, they’ve got Garzilla, one of the toughest matchups in all of college basketball,” Greenberg said. “If you double the Garzilla, he spits it out. You throw to Garzilla, you don’t double him, he scores it. And then they’ve got shotmakers all around him. (Junior wing) Joe Wieskamp, one of the best rebounding guards in America, can also beat you off the bounce, CJ Fredrick — these guys can help you when you need shotmakers, big-shot Jordan Bohannon.”
Iowa will look to get back in the win column on Tuesday, Feb. 2 against Michigan State.
Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.