Men's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Wisconsin

No. 18 Hawkeyes play Badgers to conclude three-game homestand.

Breaking down Monday's game between Iowa and Wisconsin.

Game facts

Time and place — 7:30 p.m. (CST), Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City

TV — BTN (Kevin Kugler, play-by-play; Stephen Bardo, analyst)

Radio — Hawkeye Radio Network

Records — Iowa 14-5 (5-3 Big Ten), Wisconsin 12-8 (5-4)

Rankings — Iowa is No. 18 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls.

Series — Wisconsin leads, 85-81.

The lineups

Iowa — Joe Wieskamp (F, 6-6, Soph., 15 ppg.), Luka Garza (C, 6-11, Jr., 23.2 ppg.), Joe Toussaint (G, 6-0, Fr., 6.9 ppg.), CJ Fredrick (G, 6-3, Fr., 10.9 ppg.), Connor McCaffery (G, 6-5, Soph., 6.5 ppg.)

Wisconsin — Aleem Ford (F, 6-8, Jr., 7.7 ppg.), Nate Reuvers (F, 6-11, Jr., 13.8 ppg.), D'Mitrik Trice (G, 6-0, Jr., 9.1 ppg.), Brad Davison (G, 6-4, Jr., 8.9 ppg.), Kobe King (G, 6-4, Soph., 10 ppg.)

The lines

Spread — Iowa -5 1/2

Over/under – 135

The analytics

NET — Iowa 22, Wisconsin 30

KenPom — Iowa 14, Wisconsin 31

Sagarin — Iowa 16, Wisconsin 36

What to watch

The Hawkeyes are on a four-game winning streak and are in the thick of the Big Ten title chase. But with a traffic jam ahead and behind them, they can't afford a home stumble.

Wisconsin is its typical defensive self — the Badgers rank 20th nationally in scoring defense, giving up an average of 61.1 points. Iowa, though, has done well against defensive teams this season — the Hawkeyes scored 85 points on Rutgers in last Wednesday's win.

Reuvers' job will be trying to handle Garza, the Big Ten's leading scorer. The Badgers may try to pack the defense against Garza, which means Iowa's 3-point shooters will have to be sharp.

Iowa gets a ranked Maryland team on the road on Thursday before coming back home to face a ranked Illinois team. The Badgers always present a problem, though, and this is just another in a series of tests for the Hawkeyes.