Iowa Men’s Basketball Notebook | The Hawkeyes open Big Ten play against Northwestern

After a commanding 110-77 victory over USC Upstate on November 26th, the Iowa men’s basketball team returns from its holiday break on December 3rd for its Big Ten season opener against the Northwestern Wildcats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to compete.

The Hawkeyes hope to reverse the ugly trend of losing Big Ten games in December. Since the league began playing 20 conference games, two Big Ten games have been played in the middle of non-conference games.

Iowa has gone winless in those games over the last three seasons, although it reached the NCAA Tournament in two of those years. Fourth-year forward Payton Sandfort is looking to change that trend this season.

“It’s not something we need, but it would definitely feel better going into the January part if we got off to a better start,” Sandfort told Mike Hlas The newspaper at a press conference on Monday.

Tuesday’s contest marks the 187th meeting ever between the two programs. The Hawkeyes lead the overall series 125-61 and have won 10 of the last 11 games against the Wildcats, including an 87-70 decision last season in Evanston, Illinois.

Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The competition will be broadcast live on Peacock, a subscription service owned by NBC. Click this link Or download the Peacock app on your SmartTV to watch.

Exploring the Northwest

Northwestern enters the competition with a record of 6-2. Although the Wildcats did not beat any teams expected to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, their two losses to Dayton and Butler totaled seven points.

Chris Collins is entering his 12th season as head coach and he has done an incredible job bringing credibility to one of the worst Power 4 college basketball programs of all time. All three of Northwestern’s NCAA Tournament appearances in its history have come under Collins, including consecutive berths in 2023 and 2024.

The Wildcats lost the services of standout Boo Buie to graduation in the offseason, but forward Nick Martinelli and guard Brooks Barnhizer have followed in Buie’s footsteps.

Martinelli leads all Northwestern scorers with 20.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. His highest performance of the season came on November 9 against Dayton, where he had 32 points and 14 rebounds. Northwestern narrowly lost, but Martinelli’s performance drew widespread attention from the rest of the league. Aside from that game, Martinelli has scored 20 or more points four times and is a player Iowa has likely highlighted in the film room.

Barnhizer has only appeared in four games this year after being sidelined with a foot injury, but the senior has posted a double-double in each of those contests. Barnhizer has averaged 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists per game this season.

As a team, the Wildcats have scored 72.6 points per game, a number that ranks 17th in the Big Ten. Defensively, Northwestern was strong, holding opponents to 62.5 points per game.

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery was able to personally watch the Wildcats last week in their matchup against Butler, where McCaffery’s son Patrick is playing his final season of college basketball after leaving Iowa in the offseason.

“I was just focused on Patrick and what they were doing,” McCaffery told Tyler Tachman The Des Moines Register. “I watched a bunch of tapes at Northwestern, so I knew what they were going to do. You just have to stop it. You know what we’re going to do.”

Injury updates

The Hawkeyes have battled the injury problem all season and may be without a key backup player tomorrow night.

First-year forward Cooper Koch is out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury, while second-year forward Seydou Traore is a “game-time decision,” according to McCaffery. Traore suffered a sprained ankle during Iowa’s lopsided win over USC Upstate last week.

Traore’s injury looked serious on TV, but his prognosis is a good sign for the Hawkeyes. The Manhattan transfer has been one of Iowa’s best defenders this season, posting 6.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.

Sandfort has also been dealing with a wrist injury in recent weeks, but the senior assured the media on Monday that he is “fine.” In fact, Sandfrot says Iowa’s injury problems have improved team chemistry.

“It’s brought our team closer together,” Sandfort told Hawkeye Beacon’s Eliot Clough. “Many other leaders have come out of this. This means we are more together. Once everyone gets back out there, we’ll have a lot of weapons that have been in action this year that can help win games in the Big Ten.”