Will Rogers

At 9:00pm ET, my Big 10 Game Of The Week is on Iowa. Last season's games were both won by the home team. The Nittany Lions won by 10 at Penn State and the Hawkeyes won by 9, at Iowa. This season, both teams have been much better on their home floor. The Nittany Lions are 10-2 at home, 1-3 on the road. Also 10-2 at home, the Hawkeyes are winless (0-4) on the road. This is the only meeting of the season. Off 3 straight losses, the Hawkeyes badly need to bounce back with a win. They got off to a slow start last game but Iowa coach Fran McCaffery will have the Hawkeyes ready to go from the opening tip tonight. Averaging 91 points per game at home, the Hawkeyes are going to be tough to keep up against. Lay the points and look for them to deliver us a win and cover.

At 7:00pm ET, my Big East Total Of the Month is on Villanova vs Marquette Under the total. The most recent meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Wildcats was in the Big East Tournament, last March. The game went to Overtime and still stayed below the total. This will be another defensive battle. The Golden Eagles have held each of their last 2 opponents to less than 60 points. Their last home game was a 59-57 loss to Xavier. Villanova is off a 64-63 home loss to Georgetown. The Wildcats last road game was a 69-63 loss. That's 4 of 5 games where the Wildcats have failed to reach the 70 mark. They won't get their tonight against the tough Marquette defense. "I think our guys set a really good tone defensively in the first half," Marquette coach Shaka Smart said after the Golden Eagles' last game. "That was a huge emphasis for us coming out of the last game. We kind of felt like last time out, we allowed what happened on the offensive end to impact our defensive energy, and that's just not who we want to be." Play on the under.