Iowa ironically gets the home game despite being the higher ranked team and I think they'll take advantage of it. Dayton's home stadium is being used for the NCAA tournament. Iowa has several advantages including SR Guard Matt Gatens who is a force 85% from the FT line and 42.4% from three. Dayton was just not a very good road team this year shooting 41.5% away from home to go along with 45.9% defense. Iowa will have a sizable advantage in this one. Dayton also -6.3 FTA on the road while Iowa plays with more aggressiveness at home getting on the line 7.6 more times than opponents. They also force 14.9 turnovers/home game and that's been an issue for Dayton on the road giving the ball up 14.6 times. Iowa beat Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin here and while Dayton is a quality team they just aren't the same on the road. It also helps that Iowa said they were thrilled to be playing in the NIT.
This is going to be one of the more interesting match ups on TRU TV. Both teams are ranked in the top 20 in possessions per game. Iona loves to run and when you look at teams that run you look at two things how effective are they how many turnovers and assists. Iona just comes out on both sides being better. They're 79th in turnovers per game and BYU is 127th. They are also 39th to BYU's 43rd in forcing turnovers. BYU's advantages come on the front line with Davies and Hartstock being 6'8 and 6'9 while Iona doesn't have any starters over 6'7, but they start Ridley and Glover who in a match up like this where both teams will be running actually have the advantage in my opinion.
Iona is just a better overall team and have played in many more games like this as far as pace is concerned 7 vs. top 75 pace teams and they went 7-0. Notably beating LIU #2 in the nation in pace and also playing in the NCAA Tournament. BYU played San Francisco and struggled winning 85-84. I give Iona the edge this is a team that nearly upset a healthy Purdue team.
