ncHere’s how to watch Sunday’s NIT Tournament game between TCU and Iowa online.
Iowa put together a solid season this year. They managed a solid overall record, going 19-14, and also managed to finish the season tied for fourth in the Big Ten, along with a slew of other teams. Their advanced metrics weren’t super friendly, as KenPom pegged them as the 69th (nice) best team in the country. But a year after losing a huge portion of its rotation to graduation, it was a good showing. They earned a 1-seed in the NIT tournament, and easily took care of South Dakota in first round competition.
They were lead there mainly on the strength of Peter Jok’s season. The 6-foot-6 senior was among the best players in the Big 10, and played a huge part in what his team was able to do. He took over 30 percent of his team’s shots while he was on the floor, and still managed to post a 112 offensive rating while doing so. He scored from every level, hitting 37 percent of his 3s, flashing a solid pullup game, and finishing at the rim. He also got to the free throw line a ton, and hit over 90 percent of his shots while he was there.
TCU started the season well – at the beginning of February, they were sitting on a 17-7 record, and had creeped above .500 in Big 12 play. But the bottom fell out from there, as the Horned Frogs lost seven straight games to close out their regular season. Though they made a nice run in the conference tournament, taking down Oklahoma and Kansas to make it to the semi-finals, it was not enough for an NCAA tournament bid.
Which is a shame, because KenPom ranked them as the best team to miss the tournament. While not spectacular on either end, they’re good on both offense and defense, ranking right around the top-50 in the country for each. Their biggest strength on offense is hitting the offensive boards – they picked up 33.6 percent of their misses on the year. The rebounding was truly a tream effort – four players in the rotation picked up 10 percent or more of available offensive rebounds.
Date: Sunday, March 19
Start Time: 5:00 p.m. ET
Location: Iowa City, IA
Venue: Carver-Hawkeye Arena
TV: ESPN2
Live Stream: WatchESPN
TCU will need to shut down Peter Jok to win the game on Sunday. Tune in to see if they can manage it, or if Iowa will be the one to advance to the 3rd round of the NIT tournament – one step closer to the final in MSG.