Iowa gets its first home tune-up of the season Friday night, with Eastern Illinois coming to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
The Hawkeyes are 1-0 after opening the regular season Tuesday with a 76-54 win over Lipscomb, while the Panthers arrive at 0-1 following a 91-57 loss at Indiana. Big Ten Network will carry the game, with Zach Mackey and Shon Morris on the call.
Iowa’s opener offered a little bit of everything, even if the shot-making wasn’t always clean. The Hawkeyes got a balanced scoring night, led by freshman wing Jaidyn Coon with 12 points and transfer guard Ty’Reek Coleman with 10. They also leaned on defense, forcing 17 turnovers and turning that into a 33-5 edge in points off those mistakes.
Ben McCollum’s first Iowa lineup featured Kael Combs, Tate Sage, Isaia Howard, Cam Manyawu and Cooper Koch, and all 13 available players saw the floor. The Hawkeyes didn’t exactly light it up from deep or at the stripe, finishing 6 for 25 from three-point range and 14 of 28 on free throws, but McCollum liked the way the offense was trying to move.
“I don’t know, they’re just fun,” Iowa Coach Ben McCollum said of his team. “They’re happy.
They can really shoot it. There were a couple of possessions where you just saw it flow: pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
That’s what we can get to. We couldn’t find it tonight, but we did get great shots … We got good looks from good shooters.”
One possible boost for Iowa is the return of fourth-year center Drew McKeever. The 7-foot-3 Saint Mary’s (Calif.) transfer sat out the opener with an injury, though he did warm up and could be available Friday.
If he plays, he could join 6-11 sophomore Trevin Jirak to give the Hawkeyes a massive front line. Jirak posted six points, seven rebounds and four assists against Lipscomb.
“I have never played along someone that size who is that skilled” Jirak said. “We play (together) with each other very well.
We are team-first guys who want to make the right plays and the right reads. We are not thinking about ourselves … We both know we don’t need to score, we need to make the right plays, and we both want to win.”
Tuesday’s victory also marked the 1,800th win in Iowa program history.
Eastern Illinois has some roster rebuilding to do. The Panthers have only four returning players from last season and brought in four high school players, two junior college players and five transfers from NAIA and NCAA Division II programs for the 2026-27 roster. Demar Burton led EIU with 10 points against Indiana.
Marty Simmons is in his sixth season leading the Panthers. Before that, he coached at Evansville, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Wartburg.
Iowa leads the all-time series 5-1, though Eastern Illinois took the most recent matchup, 92-83, on Dec. 21, 2022, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tickets are available at the Iowa ticket office.
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