Tip Time Iowa Basketball Preview

The Iowa basketball team will be back in action on Thursday night when the Hawkeyes host the Indiana Hoosiers. We have your full preview of the battle on the 40th anniversary of Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

INDIANA (10-3, 1-1) at IOWA (8-6, 0-3)

TIME: 8:00 p.m.

TV: FS1 – Jason Benetti and Bill Raftery on the call.

SERIES: Indiana holds a 106-80 advantage in the series, dating back to 1909. The two teams have split
the last eight overall meetings, dating back to 2018. The Hawkeyes swept the Hoosiers last season, winning in Iowa City (83-74) on Jan. 13, and at Indianapolis in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals (80-77) on March 12.
Iowa leads, 47-43, in games played at Iowa City, holding a 22-13 advantage in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa has won 10 of the last 15 meetings in Iowa City.

THE LINE: Indiana is a 1 point favorite.   

THE NUMBERS

OFFENSE: INDIANA – 79.6 PPG, 50.0% FG, 36.0% 3 PT FG. IOWA – 81.1 PPG, 44.6% FG, 31.7% 3 PT FG.

DEFENSE: INDIANA – 65.6 PPG, 39.7% FG, 30.9% 3 PT FG. IOWA – 71.4 PPG, 44.4% FG, 31.8% 3 PT FG.

INDIANA

Trayce Jackson-Davis – 16.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

Race Thompson – 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

Miller Koop – 9.5 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

Trey Galloway – 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

Jalen Hood-Schifino – 9.0 points and 4.1 assists per game.

IOWA

6-3 guard Ahron Ulis – 5.5 points and 2.6 assists per game.

6-4 guard Tony Perkins – 11.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.

6-8 forward Kris Murray – 20.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

6-5 guard Connor McCaffery – 7.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

6-9 forward Filip Rebraca – 14.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

PLAYER TO WATCH – Tony Perkins – The Indiana native will have a little bit of extra energy in this game. He played his best game in a while against Penn State, scoring 17 points in the loss. He seemed to be playing more aggressive and his bounce was back. Expect that to continue to Thursday night.

KEY MATCH-UP – Kris Murray vs. Trayce Jackson-Davis – Two of the top forwards in the Big Ten and all of college basketball will be going head to head (hopefully). Both are back from injury, we hope. Murray looked like he was back to form against Penn State, posting a career best 32 point total. Jackson-Davis missed the Hoosiers last game due to a lower back issue, but practiced for the first time on Monday.

STATS AND NOTES

Thursday is the 40^th anniversary of the first basketball game played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That game was against Michigan State in 1983. Iowa has posted a 507-152 record in games played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa is looking to avoid losing four straight games for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

Forward Patrick McCaffery announced on Tuesday that he would be taking a mental health pause from basketball due to anxiety issues. There is no timeline for his return to action.

Kris Murray and Patrick McCaffery were voted to the Emerald Coast Classic All-Tournament
Team. Murray averaged a double-double (10.5 points, 11 rebounds), while McCaffery led
the team with a career-high 21 points in Iowa’s three-point victory over Clemson.

Fran McCaffery enters his 27^th season as a head coach. He achieved his 500^th career victory as a head coach. This is his 13^th season leading the Iowa program. He has had a record of 250-168 as Iowa’s head coach. He has led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Tournament in six of the last seven seasons, including the last two years.

Fran McCaffery has a couple changes to his staff following last season. Assistant Coach Kirk Speraw retired and Assistant Coach Billy Taylor left for a head coaching position at Elon. Replacing Speraw and Taylor are Courtney Eldridge and Matt Gatens. Eldridge was on staff the previous six seasons, most recently as director of player development and recruiting director. Gatens is a former Hawkeye and most recently was an assistant coach at Drake. Tristan Spurlock, who played basketball at UCF, is the new Director of Player Development. Al Seibert’s title changed to Chief of Staff, while Kyle Denning is now Director of Basketball Operations.

Graduate student Connor McCaffery and redshirt Junior Patrick McCaffery are one of 22 father/coach and son/player duos in Division I in 2022-23. Of the 22 schools, the McCaffery’s are the only program with a father/coach and two sons on the roster.

Junior Ahron Ulis, who wore No. 4 the last two years, will wear No. 1 in 2022-23.

Iowa won four games in four days to capture the 2022 Big Ten Tournament Championship, its third tournament title in program history and first since 2006.

Six Hawkeyes are Iowa natives, two hail from Illinois, two are international (Serbia and England), and one each from New York, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Indiana. Iowa’s average height is 6-foot-5.

Junior Kris Murray was named to the 2023 Big Ten Preseason All-Big Ten Team and one of 20
candidates for the 2023 Karl Malone Award, which recognizes the top power forward in college basketball. He was also named to the Wooden Award Watch List this week.

Kris Murray is the only Division I player over the last 25 years to have scored 95+ points, grabbed 30+ rebounds, had five or fewer turnovers, shot 60 percent from the field, and 100 percent from the foul line over any four-game span during a season. In Iowa’s last game, Murray posted 31 points and 20 rebounds. He is the first Iowa player to accomplish that since Bruce King in 1977.

Iowa welcomes a pair of freshman to the team this year. One is in-state wing Josh Dix and the other is point guard Desonte Bowen. They also added a pair of walk-on’s to the program in Dante Eldridge, who is the son of Iowa assistant coach Courtney Eldridge and Amarion Nimmers. Fran McCaffery announced that Nimmers would be redshirting this season.

Iowa is 1-1 this season in games played on Thursday. The Hawkeyes are 38-40 during the McCaffery era in games played on a Thursday. The Hawkeyes are 2-0 this season in games played on FS1. Iowa is 21-13 on FS1 during the McCaffery era.

KenPom.com has Iowa ranked as the 50^th best team in the country and Indiana is at 21^st in the country. KenPom.com predicts Indiana to win by the score of 76-75.

THE PICK

Iowa will be looking to avoid losing four straight and five of six games on Thursday evening when they host Indiana.

To borrow from Fran McCaffery, since the second half of the Eastern Illinois game, Iowa basketball has been sideways. In the last three games, Iowa has shot 36% from the field (75-208) and just 24% from three point range (21-86). The last time Iowa made more than eight three’s in a game was the Iowa State victory, when they hit 12 against the Cyclones.

If there is a bit of a bright spot it might be the fact that the Hawkeyes looked better in the second half of the Penn State game. They shot 56% in the second half on Sunday and made six three pointers in the final twenty minutes.

But, Iowa will be without Patrick McCaffery for the time being. That means the Hawkeyes depth will be impacted in this game, as will their length on defense. Connor McCaffery will move into the starting lineup once again and he gives the Hawkeyes another experienced player who gets Iowa into their offense.

Players like Ahron Ulis and Payton Sandfort are going to play more minutes and they will have to pick up their offense. Sandfort in particularly has been struggling from the floor and is 0-19 shooting in Big Ten games. Ulis has been struggling since missing the Wisconsin game due to a leg injury. He is 5-24 from the floor and just 1-15 from three in the last four games.

From the Indiana side of things, they were the preseason favorite in the Big Ten, but they really have not lived up to that hype. Part of that has been due to injury and Jackson-Davis is nursing a sore back. Xavier Johnson is a key loss after breaking his foot against Kansas.

While Hawkeye fans are down on this Iowa team right now it feels like a circle the wagons type game. Kris Murray can come up big in this game and Filip Rebraca will hit the glass hard. I also believe Tony Perkins goes for 20 points and Iowa secures their first conference victory. IOWA 73 INDIANA 70