College basketball picks: Northwestern-Iowa prediction, odds, spread for January 31

We have a Big Ten showdown to look forward to tonight as the Northwestern Wildcats hit the road to meet the Iowa Hawkeyes at 9 p.m. ET. The game will take place at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, IA, and will air on the Big Ten Network. This game was originally supposed to take place back on January 18 before a COVID-19 outbreak at Northwestern forced it to be postponed to tonight.

Let's take a look at the odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook and make some picks.

Northwestern vs. Iowa odds

Spread: Iowa -7
Over/Under: 151
Moneyline: Iowa -295, Northwestern +245

Northwestern (15-5, 6-3 Big Ten) has ripped off three straight victories to jump to second in the Big Ten standings, last crushing Minnesota 81-61 on Saturday. The Wildcats got to cooking midway through the first half and never looked back as they picked up the easy win over the last-place Golden Gophers. Chase Audige led the way with 24 points in the victory.

Iowa (13-8, 5-5 Big Ten) ended a two-game losing streak by outpacing Rutgers in a 93-82 victory on Sunday. Things were tight early on before the Hawkeyes grabbed control in the back end of the first half, outscoring the Scarlet Knights 28-18 during the final 10 minutes of the period. That gave them enough leeway to keep the visitors at bay for the rest of the action. Kris Murray dropped 24 points and six rebounds in the win.

The Pick: Iowa -7

Iowa plays its basketball at home and that's reflected by the fact that it is 10-2 against the spread inside its home confines of Carver-Hawkeye Arena this year. The Wildcats will try to muck some things up defensively to stay in the contest but I trust the highly efficient Iowa offense to prevail tonight. Take the Hawkeyes to cover.

  
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