Indiana vs. Iowa: Full Homersota Preview (For Real This Time)

The place: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

The teams: The "fill in your own insults about the state of Iowa, because none immediately came to my mind"s (aka the Iowa Hawkeyes), and your Indiana Hoosiers!

What's at stake: For Iowa, Big Ten Tourney and NCAA positioning. For Indiana, pride. And maybe a dark, dark horse NCAA bid if this is a momentum building win. So pride.

What does Vegas say: Opened Iowa -4, no movement as of this writing.

What does Herky say:

via cdn2.sbnation.com

('Murica.)

The current mood of IU fans right now, judging solely by the iubb hashtag: Disgruntled

How important is this game on the usual scale: 9.995

How important is this game in one word: VERY

Over/under number of nets Coach Crean would cut down if we won this game: All of the nets in Bloomington, as well as a few in the rest of Monroe County.

My completely biased, barely researched analysis: If the team that showed up in the first half against Wisconsin decides to play 40 minutes tonight, we might have a good chance of winning. Otherwise, we may be in trouble, as Iowa is still a good team this year, and the Hoosiers have a tendency to struggle against just about everyone. Here's hoping the Assembly Hall magic benefitted from getting an extra week of prep time.

Reasonable score prediction: Iowa 75, Indiana 70

FULL HOMERSOTA prediction: Indiana 75, Iowa 71