NCAA Tournament Preview: No. 2 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 Iowa

The Gonzaga Bulldogs just sent North Dakota State home in their second round matchup, which was undoubtedly expected by the masses. However, now that we are heading into the third round, things are going to get a lot more interesting as Gonzaga gets the Iowa Hawkeyes, fresh of their utter clobbering of Davidson 83-52.

What To Watch For:

Gonzaga forward Kyle Wiltjer was huge in the Bulldogs’ win over North Dakota State and projects to do more of the same against Iowa, as they simply have zero answers against his skill-set. One main concern that is jumping out of the screen currently to me, is that the Bulldogs struggled mightily against Bison G Lawrence Alexander. If the Bulldogs want to pass by Iowa and continue to dance through the madness, they have absolutely no choice but to search far and wide for an answer to solidify their backcourt defense — and in a hurry.

All that could be heard all week were the voices of Davidson supporters claiming that there was absolutely nothing Iowa could do to avoid losing as a No. 7 to No. 10 Davidson. However, those declarations were absolutely outrageous and painfully uninformed at best. Let’s be honest — Davidson is still receiving hype from the run they made in the tourney a few years back, but make no mistake, there were no Steph Curry‘s on this 2015 team, and the Hawkeyes made that painfully evident.

Forward Aaron White exploded for 26 points against Davidson and if Gonzaga isn’t careful, he could easily do something very similar in this one. It’ll be up to Coach Mark Few to do anything and everything to ensure that his defense builds an impregnable wall around his part of the hardwood, and lets the rest of the Hawkeyes attempt to beat them instead.

Prediction:

Gonzaga teams are always hard to gauge due to the conference they play in, so no matter how much higher of a seed they are over Iowa, I’m finding it absolutely impossible to forecast that they’ll win with ease. However, in the end, Mark Few will have pulled enough strings to push his team past Fran McCaffery through to the next round.

Gonzaga 68, Iowa 62

Timothy Downs is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. You can ‘like him’ on Facebook add him on Google or follow him on Twitter @Tidow1212.