.jpg "Iowa-at-Virginia-Tech-(ESPN2)")
It hasn’t been a great start to the season for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa was seen as one of the favorites in the Cayman Islands Classic as one of the few big name teams present at the tournament. However, the Hawkeyes went just 1-2 during their time in the Caribbean and came in seventh place out of eight teams. Now, they will get a chance for redemption. They must travel to face a solid Virginia Tech Hokies side in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and know that a win here will be big for their resume.
This war on the floor will go down Tuesday, November 28, 2017, at 9 p.m. ET at Cassel Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Tuesday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Virginia Tech is off to a 5-1 start and is 4-1 ATS. The Hokies have a nice win over Washington, but also suffered a tough loss to the St. Louis Billikens as a 13-point favorite. Virginia Tech hasn’t played much of a schedule this season, being at least a seven-point favorite in every game. Every one of the Hokies games has finished over the total.
Iowa crushed three bad teams to start the season before traveling to take part in the inaugural Cayman Islands Classic. The event was somewhat laughable in how poorly it was produced, but the real concern for the Hawkeyes was their performance on the court. Iowa allowed at least 80 points in each outing and lost outright as a seven-point favorite to both Louisiana-Lafayette and South Dakota State.
Key Stats
According to Ken Pomeroy, Virginia Tech’s offense is the real deal. The Hokies haven’t gotten very lucky in this hot start and are ranked as the 19th best offense in the country.
The shooting numbers from the starters are bonkers at this point. Justin Bibbs and Kerry Blackshear Jr. are each hitting at least two-thirds of their field goals and are combining to average 34 PPG. Ahmed Hill is shooting the lights out for this team and is 22-37 from beyond the three-point line and is hitting over 60 percent of his field goals too.
Justin Robinson is the only starter to not be hitting at least 54 percent from the floor, but he has been productive in other ways. He is averaging two steals a game at this point and is the team’s main distributor too, with over four assists per game.
Matchup to Watch
It will be interesting to see how Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes are able to deal with the Hokies shooters. Iowa is outside of the top 120 in defense according to Pomeroy’s numbers, but he at least makes sure to keep fresh guys on the floor. The Hawkeyes rotate players in and out often and 10 players are averaging at least 14 minutes per game.
This team has had plenty of rest heading into the game, so they should be fully ready to go. Ahmad Wagner is considered questionable with a shoulder injury, but the rest of the team is healthy.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
There are few teams that have played a worse schedule than Iowa thus far. Their strength of schedule is ranked 337th in the nation and to see this team sitting at just 4-2 with such a bad slate of opponents is concerning.
That’s why I’m going to lay the points with the Hokies in this spot as long as I’m getting a number in the single digits. I believe that Virginia Tech will come out as a seven- to a nine-point favorite and think that the Hokies will win by double digits in one of the highest scoring games of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
College Basketball Odds: Virginia Tech 91, Iowa 79
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