Since the Iowa Hawkeyes (17-9, 9-6) took down the Northwestern Wildcats (19-7, 10-5) on January’s last day, the teams are a collective 7-2 with the winner of tonight’s game having second place of the conference. At present, Northwestern is just one game back of the Boilermakers in the loss column.
The teams find themselves in this position by very different routes. In Iowa’s last 12 games, just four have been played within single digits. Iowa’s won 9 of them in a total rewrite from where they were halfway through the Indiana game. They’re on track to have the highest scoring offense in the conference for a fifth straight season.