Number 3 Iowa at Number 8 Maryland

One of the biggest games of the Big Ten season occurs in College Park between the Iowa Hawkeyes 16-3 (7-0) and the Maryland Terrapins 17-3 (6-2).  This is the only meeting between the two contenders.  The Hawkeyes are coming in extremely hot, winning six of seven games in the Big Ten slate, as well as sweeping Purdue and Michigan State.  Maryland looks to get closer to Iowa and Indiana in the Big Ten.
This is a big game for these teams for tournament seeding.  According to Jerry Palm's Bracketology, Iowa is a one seed in the West while Maryland is a five seed in the South.  This is a win Maryland needs to have, as they have no wins against the top 50 in RPI.  Their best RPI win is Princeton, but their best overall win is against UCONN on a neutral floor, with their best Big Ten win being at number 69 Wisconsin.  They're really only a five seed because of their top 5 preseason ranking.
Iowa's resume is one of the best if not the best in the nation.  They have four top 25 wins, and seven total top fifty wins.  They have no bad losses either, as all three losses have come inside the top 34.  They even let the Iowa State game get away on the road, a win that could have had the Hawks at one or two in the AP right now, perhaps even the top overall seed.
The players to watch for Maryland is Melo Trimble and Diamond Stone.  Trimble averages 14.5 points per game, and Stone gets 13.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.  Trimble runs the show at the point, and Stone owns the paint.  If one doesn't show up, the other picks him up.  If neither show up, they have so many other weapons, such as Robert Carter, the second leading scorer, and Rasheed Sulamion, who came over from Duke.  The Hawkeyes need to contain them.
The Hawkeyes star is Jarrod Uthoff.  Uthoff has 18.9 points, 2.9 blocks and 1.3 assists.  He is a Wooden Player of the Year Award candidate.  The other is Peter Jok.  He averages 14.7 points per game, and is a sharpshooter that has developed a little bit of a post game.  Others to watch is Mike Gesell, the senior point guard, and freshman walk-in Nicholas Baer.  A lot of firepower should make this a great game.