Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:42 pm EST
Ha! Just kidding. Of course you've got Texas.
No, the interesting thing here is not which team will win -- Texas will, easily -- but the margin of victory therein. In past years, Iowa keeps this competitive. At the best times in the Steve Alford era, they might even have beaten some of Rick Barnes' Texas teams.
These are not the best times for Iowa. After three of Todd Lickliter's best players (the term best being used relatively here, because Iowa was bad in 2008-09, too), things are looking very down for Iowa. The Hawkeyes are 1-2 on the young season. The season debut was a loss to Texas-San Antonio by 12 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The next game was also at CHA, when Iowa lost 52-50 to Duquesne. The Hawkeyes managed to bounce back and handily beat Bowling Green on Friday night, but those two early losses don't bode well. And any observer can look at the 2009-10 Hawkeyes and see a team made up of sophomore Matt Gatens and absolutely nothing else.
Meanwhile, Texas is ranked No. 3 in the country. They're loaded with returning and transferred talent, and have one of the best recruiting classes in the country. In other words, they're Texas.
Which means there's an awfully good chance Iowa gets absolutely crushed. The current Vegas odds -- not that anyone would gamble on collegiate sports, of course -- have Iowa at +15.5, which seems drastically low. Texas could win by 40. The disparity in talent is just that great.
So, go ahead, math whizzes. Predict the final outcome in the comments, and get a respectful nod from yours truly after the fact if you manage to call the final score correctly. Either way, this could get ugly.
The Dagger is a college basketball blog edited by Jeff Eisenberg. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

Posted Jan 28 2010
Posted Jan 28 2010
Posted Jan 28 2010
Edited by MJD
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