No. 21 Wisconsin (15-7, 9-6) vs. No.11 Iowa (15-6, 9-5)

Game: Thursday, Feb. 18 inside the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

Time: 6 PM

Watch: ESPN (Bob Wichusen and Dick Vitale)

Listen: 1310 WIBA AM and 101.5 FM (Matt Lepay and Mike Lucas on the call); stream online on iHeartRadio

Line: Wisconsin -2 (Draftkings)

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Following a tough loss to No. 3 Michigan, Wisconsin is set to welcome No. 11 Iowa to the Kohl Center on Thursday evening. The Hawkeyes are coming off a pair of conference wins after previously dropping four of five contests.

Iowa brings a high-powered offense and, of course, Luka Garza, the frontrunner for national player of the year. The senior big man leads the country in scoring with 24.5 points per contest. This season, Garza is shooting 56 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range.

"The main thing is to not let him catch the ball deep, which is really hard to do," Nate Reuvers said. "He’s really good at using his body and if you're using your hands, he’s good at making it look like you're fouling him, so it’s a lot of work. You have to be digging and making him catch that ball off so we can get some help, but it’s going to be a tough battle just to do that.”

Part of what makes Garza so hard to guard is the group of shooters surrounding him. CJ Fredrick, Joe Wieskamp and Jordan Bohannon each shoot over 38 percent from deep to spread the floor.

Wieskamp, a great offensive weapon in his own right, is the reigning Big Ten player of the week after averaging 23.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in Iowa's last two wins. The junior wing is shooting a scorching 49 percent from three and has made at least three attempts from deep in seven of the last nine games.

Wieskamp's backcourt partners, Bohannon and Connor McCaffery, are two of the best at distributing the basketball. Bohannon sits just 14 assists away from Iowa's all-time leader in that department, while McCaffery's 4.2 assist-to-turnover ratio is best in the Big Ten.

In the front court, Keegan Murray and Jack Nunge are a handful in the paint. Murray has scored in double figures in two of the last three games and grabbed four offensive rebounds in three of the past five contests. Nunge is coming off a career day in which he tallied a career high in rebounds (11) and assists (6), along with tying his career-high with 18 points. The group makes up the third best offense in the country, averaging 87.4 points per game.

For as well as they've played offensively, however, the Hawkeyes have matched those highs with lows on the defensively. Iowa posts the conference's worst defense, allowing 73.5 points a game. In the Hawkeye's six losses, opposing teams have posted an average of 86.3 points.

“They go into a zone a lot defensively, so the biggest thing we need to do is attack space. That’s how you attack a zone is you attack space and find driving and passing lanes," Micah Potter said. "That’s the biggest thing when you’re going up and against a team like Iowa. You just have to stay aggressive and keep the ball moving, body moving with cuts and screening and being assertive with your cuts and your screens. Then having the mental chemistry with your teammates, understanding where they’re going to be, how they’re going to cut and all those things.”

Wisconsin has struggled all season to put a complete game together offensively. It won't be able to get away with those struggles against Iowa.

"I think defensively we’ve taken steps forward," head coach Greg Gard said. "We can’t go backwards but that’s been a challenging component - trying to become more consistent, more in rhythm, more in sync offensively.”

Thursday night marks the 168th meeting between the two programs. UW currently has a slight 85-82 edge in the series. Wisconsin owns a 59-23 record against Iowa in Madison, including victories in 13 of the last 15 matchups at the Kohl Center.