No. 19 Wildcats Head to Iowa City For Ranked Road Test

12/28/2020 4:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball

NORTHWESTERN MEN'S BASKETBALL: GAMEDAY INFORMATION
DATE	Opponent	TIME	LOCATION	Television	Live Stats
Tuesday, December 29	Iowa	8:00 pm CT	Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)	FS1	Live Stats
Radio: WGN 720 Social: Twitter: @NUMensbball \| Instagram: @numensbball VIRTUAL PRESS BOX

IOWA CITY, Iowa – No. 19 Northwestern will head to Iowa City to take on No. 10 Iowa on Tuesday night. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT on FS1.

The Wildcats made their season-debut in the AP Poll this week, slotting in at No. 19. This is their first ranking since 2017 and the highest a Northwestern team has ranked in the poll this late in the season since 1969.

Sitting atop the Big Ten Standings, Northwestern is off to a hot 6-1 start to the 2020-21 season, starting 3-0 in Big Ten play for the first time since the 1967-68 season.

Last time out, the 'Cats took down No. 23 Ohio State by a score of 71-70. Miller Kopp scored 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting to lead Northwestern. Boo Buie contributed 14 points, including the game-winning three-pointer, and five assists to continue his hot start to the season. This was the Wildcats' second ranked win of the season, after upsetting No. 4 Michigan State to open Big Ten play just six days prior.

The Wildcats have won three-straight games against ranked opponents for the first time since 1955, including the win over No. 20 Penn State in the final regular season game of the 2019-20 campaign. A win over Iowa would mark the first four-game win streak over ranked opponents in program history.

This will be the 180th meeting between the two programs, with Northwestern's last win in Iowa City coming in 2012.

Storylines

A win over Iowa would be the Wildcats' second win over a top-10 ranked opponent this season. Northwestern has never recorded two top-10 wins in the same season.
The Wildcats' success on both offense and defense has largely come from the three-point line. Northwestern is shooting .422 percent from three, second best in the Big Ten, and is holding opponents to .275 percent shooting from deep, the best mark in the conference.
Miller Kopp is averaging 15.1 points per game and shooting 55.9% from the field and 57.1% from three-point range. Kopp leads the Big Ten in three-point percentage (min. 25 attempts).
Boo Buie's 5.3 assists per game ranks third in the Big Ten. Buie has 37 assists in the team's first seven games, the second most through seven games for a Northwestern player since 2010, trailing only Bryant McIntosh's 40 assists to begin the 2017-18 season.
Ty Berry leads all first-years in the nation in three-point range at .480 percent (min. 15 attempts). Berry's 12 three-point field goals is the most for a Northwestern player in their first seven-career games since Aaron Falzon also hit 12 threes to begin his rookie season in 2015.

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