Analyzing the Big Ten’s basketball matchups

The Big Ten released their basketball matchups yesterday afternoon and the Hawkeyes were granted the following opponents:

With Nebraska, Minnesota, & Penn State on Iowa’s home-and-home, that grants the Hawkeyes six games against teams who played on Wednesday of the Big Ten tournament this past season. Iowa also seems to be the beneficiary of catching two teams potentially on the upswing (IU and MSU) just once at home.

However, Iowa will face each of Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Purdue twice (Seth Davis has them ranked in the top 11 of his way-too-early rankings). Additionally, facing two teams in Rutgers and Wisconsin on the road could factor in heavily if all three teams are sitting on…