Michigan vs. Iowa Preview, Lineup Breakdown, Prediction & More

No. 3 Michigan Wolverines basketball (16-1, 11-1 Big Ten) is set to host No. 9 Iowa (17-6, 11-5 Big Ten) Thursday night in Ann Arbor.

The Maize and Blue are winners of their last five games, including road triumphs at No. 21 Wisconsin and No. 4 Ohio State, with Rutgers sandwiched in between. On the flip side of the coin, Iowa has won its last four after losing four of its previous five.

The Hawkeyes have the nation's No.1 offense, according to Kenpom, and the No. 75 defense (ninth in the Big Ten). While many focus on the Hawkeyes' ability to score (86.4 points per game), they've been buckling down on the defensive end during this win streak.

The Hawkeyes use zone defense on 45 percent of half-court possessions, per Synergy, and like to keep offenses guessing, but they've gone to more man-to-man over recent games.

Over the last four contests (against Rutgers, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State), the Hawkeyes are giving up just 63.5 points per game, which is down almost 10 points from its season average of 72.8. Additionally, over that stretch Iowa is has been the second-most efficient defensive team in the league, according to T-Rank.

With that said, none of its last four opponents have been Michigan, which leads the Big Ten in offensive field goal percentage (50.2) and field goal percentage allowed (38.5), and is the most efficient defensive team in the conference, per Kenpom's ratings.

Like Michigan, Iowa's balance on offense is what hurts opposing defenses. Senior big man Luka Garza is the favorite to win national player of the year honors, and he can shoot it from the outside and bang on the block, leading the nation in scoring with 24.7 points per game. He has shooters around him, with sophomore guard CJ Fredrick hitting 50.8 percent of his shots from three (seventh nationally) and junior guard Joe Wieskamp connecting on 49.6 percent of his long range looks (12th). The Hawkeyes are nailing a Big Ten best 42 percent of their shots from deep during league play.

Michigan ranks fifth in the nation in offensive efficiency, and has proven it can score with other elite offenses, with its 92-point output in a win over the Buckeyes Sunday being the most recent, and best, example. Michigan freshman center Hunter Dickinson is leading the Maize and Blue in scoring, and his matchup with his friend Garza is certainly one to watch.

Below is everything you need to know ahead of this afternoon's game, including notes on every significant player, key statistics, a Q&A with Tom Kakert of Hawkeye Report and more.

RELATED: Hunter Dickinson vs. Luka Garza: The Matchup Is Finally Here

RELATED: Juwan Howard's Plan Is To Be Last Team Standing — Beilein Thinks U-M Might

Date: Thursday, Feb. 25

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Crisler Center (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Channel: ESPN

On The Call: Dan Shulman (play-by-play) & Dick Vitale (analyst)

Radio: Detroit: WWJ-Radio (950 AM) | Ann Arbor: WWWW (102.9 FM)

On The Call: Brian Boesch (play-by-play) & Terry Mills (analyst)

Line: Michigan -5.5

Over/Under: 156.5

KenPom Prediction: Michigan 80, Iowa 78

Clayton Sayfie Prediction: Michigan 83, Iowa 76 (over 156.5)

#12 - Fifth-year senior guard Mike Smith (5-11, 185) — The Columbia grad transfer is averaging 8.6 points and a Big Ten-best 5.4 assists per game, while shooting 45.9 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from deep (22nd in the country).

#55 - Senior guard Eli Brooks (6-1, 185) — Posting nine points, 3.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds per contest ... Shoots 41.5 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from long range ... Is considered Michigan's best on-ball defender.

#21 - Sophomore guard Franz Wagner (6-9, 220) — Averaging 12.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and three assists per game, while shooting 51 percent from the floor ... Shooting the three at 36.4 percent for the season.

#2 - Senior forward Isaiah Livers (6-7, 230) — Second on the team in scoring with 14.4 points per game ... Also adds 5.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per contest, while shooting 47.7 percent overall and 42.9 percent from three.

#1 - Freshman center Hunter Dickinson (7-1, 255) — Leads the team in scoring with 15 points per game, and adds 7.8 rebounds (leads the squad) per night, while shooting 63.9 percent from the field.

Key Bench Players

#15 - Senior guard Chaundee Brown (6-5, 215) — Averaging 8.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game off the bench in 20 minutes ... Is connecting on 48.2 percent of his overall looks and 41 percent of his attempts from deep.

#23 - Junior forward Brandon Johns Jr. (6-8, 240) — Plays the four and five spot off the bench ... Averages 4.2 points and 2.1 rebounds per contest and is shooting 60 percent from the field.

55 - Fifth-year senior forward Austin Davis (6-10, 250) — Averaging six points and 2.8 rebounds per game in 11.9 minutes of work ... Shooting 71.1 percent from the field.

#3 - Fifth-year senior point guard Jordan Bohannon (6-1, 175) — Averaging 9.6 points and 4.6 assists per game, while shooting 38 percent from the field and the three-point line.

#5 - Redshirt sophomore guard CJ Fredrick (6-3, 195) — Posting 8.5 points, 2.4 assists and 1.1 rebound per outing ... Shooting 49 percent from the field and 51 percent from long range (seventh in the nation).

#10 - Junior guard Joe Weiskamp (6-6, 212) — Second on the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game, while adding 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per night ... His 49.6 percent three-point shooting percentage ranks 12th in the country.

#30 - Redshirt junior forward Connor McCaffrey (6-5, 205) — Notching 3.7 points, three rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest, while shooting 39 percent overall and 33 percent from long range.

#55 - Senior center Luka Garza (6-11, 265) — Leads the nation in scoring with 24.7 points per game, while adding 8.5 rebounds per contest ... Shoots 56 percent overall and 44 percent from beyond the arc ... Scored 44 and 33 points in the two meetings against Michigan last season, and was fouled a total of 23 times.

Key Bench Players

#2 - Redshirt sophomore forward Jack Nunge (6-11, 245) — Plays alongside Garza at the four at times and spells him at the five ... Scores 7.5 points and grabs 5.6 rebounds per game ... Connects on 45 percent of his overall shots and 30 percent of his looks from deep.

#15 - Freshman forward Keegan Murray (6-8, 215) — Has been the team's primary power forward over the last four games despite coming off the bench ... Averaging 6.9 points and five rebounds per game ... Shooting 53 percent from the field and 38 percent from three.

#1 - Sophomore guard Joe Toussaint (6-0, 190) — Averaging 3.9 points and 2.2 assists per game, while shooting 41 percent from the field ... Has only shot nine attempts from deep this year, making two.

The Wolverine: The matchup is here. What are your expectations for Hunter Dickinson vs. Luka Garza?

Kakert: Honestly, I have been looking forward to this head to head battle all season. Once I saw that Dickinson was going to someone who plays beyond his years, I felt this was going to be a great head to head battle when they met on the court.

What adds even more interest to this battle is the fact that Garza and Dickinson are from the same area of the country and played for the same AAU program.

Then you throw in how Michigan guarded Garza last year and the fact he scored a career best 44 points adds even more interest to the head to head battle. That was Garza’s breakout performance that served as a springboard to Garza becoming a consensus All American last year.

I’m really interested to see if Michigan decides to let Dickinson guard Garza one on one again and what happens there. And Garza really hasn’t faced many centers with the skill set of Dickinson, so he’s going to be pushed on the defensive end of the floor. I joked this week that it’s Garza present vs. Garza future and that might not be too far off.

The Wolverine: Iowa's offense has played at an extremely high level, but Michigan's defense ranks at the top of the Big Ten in adjusted efficiency. How have the Hawkeyes fared against other top defensive teams?

Kakert: The best three teams that Iowa has faced from a defensive perspective this year using adjusted defensive efficiency as the marker are Gonzaga, Wisconsin, and Illinois. They are all in the top ten according to KenPom.com and Iowa’s issues in those games was not scoring points. Iowa scored 88 in the neutral site loss to the Zag. They scored 75 in the road loss to Illinois and posted 77 points at Wisconsin last week.

Iowa is the No. 2 offense in the country, per KenPom and they have been #1 or #2 basically all season. Based on what we have seen this year, Fran McCaffery’s team can score points against basically any defense they have faced. But, Michigan tried something pretty unique last year and I’m curious to see what approach they use this time around.

The Wolverine: What is the No. 1 strength of this Iowa team?

Kakert: It has to be their offense, led by Luka Garza. He’s leading the country in scoring at just over 24 points per game and on Sunday be became the all-time leading scorer in Iowa basketball history.

The Iowa offense is more than just Garza. Joe Wieskamp was Big Ten Player of the Week recently and he’s on a tear shooting the ball from the outside and is averaging 17 points per game in the last six contests. Hawkeye guard C.J. Fredrick played in back to back games for the first in a month. He’s been battling a foot injury, but that seems to be getting better and he scored 18 points in the win over Penn State. Then there’s Jordan Bohannon, who is one of the best three point shooters in conference history. He’s made the second most three pointers in Big Ten history and is also three assists away from becoming Iowa’s all-time assist leader.

The Wolverine: Finish this sentence: Iowa wins if __________.

Kakert: They continue to play defense.

It’s really that simple for the Hawkeyes. One of the more surprising developments this season has been the improvement we have seen form Iowa’s defense in the last two weeks.

After losing four of five Big Ten games, including several poor defensive performances, in the last four games, the Hawkeyes have focused on playing more man to man defense and giving a better effort and the results have been allowing 66, 58, 62, and 68 points. Given how effective Iowa’s offense is, keeping opponents under 70 points is almost always a trip to the winners circle.

However, it’s fair to say that Iowa is stepping up in class from an offensive perspective on Thursday night when they travel to Michigan and then on Sunday when they go to Columbus to face an Ohio State game that scored 89 points on Iowa in Iowa City on February 4th.

The Wolverine: How do you see the game playing out?

Kakert: Let’s hope we get a game that has the offense of the contest last year, right?

That was an all-timer with Michigan averaging 1.39 points per possession and Iowa was at 1.23. Crazy numbers that resulted in a 103-91 final score. As mentioned earlier, Luka Garza had 44 points and Michigan held Iowa to just 3-15 from three point land. Basically, Michigan let Garza score, but took away everything else and it worked.

I’m really curious to see what Michigan does defensively. Will it be the same game plan?And for Iowa, this is a huge test. They have made strides on defense in the last two weeks, but this is a step up in class for sure and can they slow down a Michigan team that just scored 92 points against Ohio State?

I think we will see some pretty good runs from both teams in this game, but Michigan has proven to be a really good second half team and I think they pull away late for the victory.

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