Iowa is back at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday night, looking to follow up its season-opening win over Lipscomb with another early nonconference victory. Eastern Illinois comes to Iowa City at 0-1, and the Hawkeyes have a chance to move to 2-0 in front of their home crowd.
Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT, and the game will air on the Big Ten Network. Fans can also stream it on the Big Ten Network App, while the Hawkeye Radio Network will carry the call with Gary Dolphin on play-by-play and Bobby Hansen as color analyst.
The matchup comes with a little history attached, too. Iowa and Eastern Illinois have met six times before, with the Hawkeyes holding a 5-1 edge in the series. Eastern Illinois is trying to bounce back after dropping its opener to Indiana.
There’s already a clear early storyline for Iowa: Jaidyn Coon looked ready to make noise right away. In just 19 minutes against Lipscomb, he put up 12 points and six rebounds while shooting 5-for-8 from the field. The bigger question now is simple - does his role grow tonight?
On the wings, Tate Sage and Cooper Koch appear set to handle the shooting duties. The more unsettled part of the rotation is in the backcourt.
Ty’Reek Coleman and Kael Combs played similar minutes in the opener, but Coleman made the stronger impression. He finished with 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, while turning it over twice.
Combs had 7 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 turnovers. That battle looks like it could keep playing out through the nonconference slate before anyone locks down the job.
Down low, the other big question is whether Andrew McKeever is available after missing the opener. Iowa had to go a little smaller without him, with Trevin Jirak logging 21 minutes and Cam Manyawu seeing just 11. How Ben McCollum handles that frontcourt rotation will be worth watching again on Friday night.
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