Iowa vs. Oregon College Basketball prediction, preview
Things have gotten really ugly for the Ducks of late, riding a seven-game losing streak into Sunday night’s matchup against the Hawkeyes. Oregon’s last Big Ten win was nearly a month ago in a 64-54 rock fight over Maryland. If you want to tie Iowa into any type of moneyline parlay on Sunday, I feel good about that.
But rather than a side, I’m going to focus on Oregon’s biggest current issue — scoring. Seven of the Ducks’ last eight games have gone under, with the lone over in New Jersey when they went to overtime against Rutgers. Oregon’s struggles began when Jackson Shelstad went down with a potential season-ending injury. Shelstad was the team’s best offensive option on the perimeter. Things got worse when senior big man Nate Bittle also suffered an injury, taking away the best interior scoring option for the Ducks.
Not many offensive options remain for Oregon, and it has showed. Right out of the gates, the Ducks have been struggling to score the ball. Here are their recent first half outputs in Big Ten play — 22 points vs. UCLA, 19 points at Washington, 26 points vs. Michigan State, somehow 41 vs. Michigan, 30 points at Nebraska, and 29 points vs. Ohio State.
Now the Ducks will be tasked with finding ways to score against an Iowa defense that ranks 17th on KenPom. Iowa has recently held its opposition to first half totals of 28 (USC), 24 (Rutgers), 28 (Indiana) and 31 to an elite Purdue offense. Oregon’s offense ranks just 110th on KenPom.
I think we should see the Ducks struggle to score once again on Sunday night. I’ll back them to stay under their first half team total in this one.
CBB Pick: Oregon 1H Team Total UNDER 28.5 (-110)
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