Getty Tyler Cook of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates a win over Michigan. The Hawkeyes face the Cincinnati Bearcats in the NCAA tournament.
While the Iowa Hawkeyes had a strong regular season with a number of quality wins, they fell short to the Michigan Wolverines in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 tournament and draw an unfortunate matchup in the seventh-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati is fresh of an AAC tournament win featuring a notable takedown of number-one seeded Houston. These two teams have only met once before and it actually happened in a first-round March Madness matchup in 2005 where, coincidentally, seventh-seeded Cincinnati handily beat tenth-ranked Iowa.
#7 Cincinnati Bearcats vs #10 Iowa Hawkeyes Betting Line
(Betting Line and Total courtesy of Oddsshark.com)
- Cincinnati Bearcats vs Iowa Hawkeyes
- Friday, March 22nd – 12:15 pm ET
- Point Spread: Cincinnati Bearcats (-3.5)
- Point Total: 137.5
Cincinnati vs. Iowa March Madness Bracket Projection & Picks
Behind one of the nations most fearsome defenses, the Cincinnati Bearcats have put together an incredibly strong 2018-2019 season. While they did suffer one bad loss to ECU, the rest of Cincinnati’s losses came to tournament teams and they have a number of quality wins under their belt. Despite not facing the caliber of opponent that Iowa sees on a nightly basis, Cincinnati has looked the part of a tournament contender and poses an incredibly dangerous matchup to any team based on their defense alone.
We 👀 you, @IowaHoops‘ @connor_m30!
Meanwhile, Iowa got off to a hot start but stumbled whenever faced with a high-quality Big 10 opponent (except Michigan). While Cincinnati doesn’t reside in the Big 10, they are undoubtedly one of the more dangerous teams in the nation. Iowa relies heavily on controlling the ball and pace of a game but against Cincinnati, that gameplan could prove to be troublesome. Cincinnati’s stout defense matches up well with the Hawkeyes and the slow pace of play coupled with the Bearcats halfcourt defense could result in a fairly big deficit early for the Hawkeyes.
Although Iowa has a flair for the dramatic and has been known to hang around in games they shouldn’t (just ask Michigan), Cincinnati and their defense are a flat out bad matchup for the Hawkeyes in the first round. The Hawkeyes have shown that they don’t have the best defense in the nation and have been gouged by multiple tournament-caliber teams in the Big 10, couple that with the fact that they don’t have a truly dynamic scoring talent (though Tyler Cook is a very good basketball player) and you have the recipe for a dominant Cincinnati win.
Look for Cincinnati to win and handily cover as they move on to the round of 32 with a big-time statement win.
Pick: Cincinnati Bearcats (-3.5)
Other Southern Region Matchups
#1 UVA vs #16 Gardner Webb
#2 Tennessee vs #15 Colgate
#3 Purdue vs #14 Old Dominion
#4 Kansas State vs #13 UC Irvine
#5 Wisconsin vs #12 Oregon
#6 Villanova vs #11 St. Mary’s
#8 Ole Miss Rebels vs #9 Oklahoma Sooners