College basketball scouting reports

Northwestern (16-7, 5-6) at Iowa (8-16, 2-9)When: 7:30 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye ArenaTV: BTN; Radio: WGN 720-AMSkinny: The Wildcats bused through the snowstorm Tuesday afternoon to get to Iowa City, where a victory would tie the school's regular-season record for wins. While the trip went fine, things for NU always seem to go awry at Iowa. The Wildcats have won there just once (2004) in the last 15 years. Iowa doesn't have a good defense this year, but its weaknesses don't jibe with the Wildcats' strengths. The Hawks limit opponents to 32 percent shooting on 3-pointers (NU leads the league in 3s per game), but they allow foes to shoot 51 percent from 2-point range. This is a game for John Shurna and Drew Crawford to exploit their size and skill advantages closer to the hoop - not to mention a big opportunity for sophomore center Luka Mirkovic.Northern Illinois (8-14, 4-6) at Bowling Green (11-11, 4-6)When: 6 p.m. at Anderson ArenaRadio: WSCR 670-AMSkinny: This marks the Huskies' sixth and final game against MAC East Division opponents - and they won't be disappointed to see those foes go. NIU has gone 0-5 against the East with an average defeat of 15.2 points. It's not hard to see where the Huskies are going wrong. In MAC games, they're tied for last in scoring defense (76.3 ppg), 10th in FG defense (43.7 percent) and ninth in 3-point defense (36.4 percent). NIU also ranks among the bottom half in its own field-goal accuracy and 3-point shooting. The Huskies need to watch out for Dee Brown. He's Bowling Green's best shooter at 47 percent on 3s.