Iowa Hawkeyes projected to go dancing, draw dreaded 8-9 matchup in latest Bracketology
The good news: Iowa is featured in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update. Unfortunately though, they draw the slot that no team wants.
ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi released his latest version of Bracketology, and has the Iowa Hawkeyes playing against the Memphis Tigers. Both sides dominated their early matchups, as described by 247 Sports’ Isaac Trotter.
Iowa might not have Keegan Murray, but the Hawkeyes have a ton of dudes. Kris Murray, Payton Sandfort, Patrick McCaffery and Tony Perkins can all go for 20. Memphis notched one of the most impressive first-week wins during a blah college basketball slate. The Tigers absolutely dominated Vanderbilt thanks to strong performances from DeAndre Williams and Kendric Davis. – Trotter, 247Sports.
Typically, being slated to make the NCAA Tournament is a good thing. It is still a good thing. However, Lunardi has Iowa sitting in the eighth seed of the South Region, and if you know anything about March Madness, the eighth seed is usually a prime candidate for havoc.
If you ever struggled to figure out the 8-9 seed matchups in your bracket, sometimes resorting to see what the coin version of George Washington has to say, there is a reason. The game is a literal toss up. Only one eight seed won their matchup last year, and that was a North Carolina team that literally made it to the national championship.
Ninth seeds have actually won a little over half of the matchups since the field expanded in 1985, and most games are extremely close. It makes sense, statistically the two teams are bound to be some of the closest in terms of quality in the tournament.
The Tigers won their first matchup of the season, beating SEC opponent Vanderbilt, 76-67. Iowa also handily won their first matchup of the season, albeit against a slightly less impressive opponent in Bethune-Cookman.
Obviously, the Hawkeyes would be thrilled with any sort of NCAA Tournament bid but would love to continue enhancing that seeding as the 2022-23 men’s basketball season progresses.
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