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Game Day Essentials: Game #15 at Iowa

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hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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Nebraska Cornhuskers (12-2) at Iowa (10-4)

 

Date: Tuesday Jan. 7th, 2025

Time: 7:00 pm CST
Arena: Carver Hawkeye

Broadcast:  Peacock

Iowa Info

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Head Coach: Fran McCaffery (15th year)
Location: Iowa City, IA
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Hawks

Coach's Nickname: White Magic

Mascot: Herky the Hawk

Line: Iowa by 4
Typical Rotation Depth: 9+

KenPom rank: 55

Nota bene:  

  • Iowa has not been held under 80 on their own court this season
  • This is the first time one of Fran's sons won't be playing against Nebraska since 2017. Fran McCaffery has taken heat in recent years at Iowa which certainly played into Patrick McCaffery transferring to Butler for his senior season and youngest son Jack McCaffery has committed to play for Butler in 2025-26
  • Fred Hoiberg has as many wins at Iowa City as Nebraska does in school history, which is 4. Fred won 1 as a player, 2 as the coach of Iowa St, and 1 as the coach of Nebraska.  Fred's win at Nebraska came on March 5, 2023.
  • This will mark Ahron Ulis' return to Iowa City as an active player. He travelled with Nebraska last season but was ineligible to play.

 

Player to watch: Owen Freeman

The reigning B1G Freshman of the year is a force in the paint, leading the Hawkeyes in points, rebounds, and blocks. For a team that doesn't get to the line a ton, Freeman is the most likely to appear there but only has made 57.8% of his FTs on the year. Will pop a 3pt shot or 2 but isn't a threat to take more.

 

Player to watch: Payton Sandfort

Sandfort is having an off-year by his standards from the 3pt line, shooting just 32% from 3 on the season. He's the guy who isn't Freeman who is taking the shots though, with over 100 3pt attempts already. Remains a good rebounder as Iowa's stretch 4

 

Iowa Roster

Player # Class Pos Height Weight Summary
Payton Sandfort 20 SR G 6-7 215 15.5 Pts 5.8 Reb 3.3 Ast
Owen Freeman 32 SO F 6-10 230 16.8 Pts 6.2 Reb 1.4 Ast
Josh Dix 4 JR G 6-5 192 13.5 Pts 3.5 Reb 2.7 Ast
Drew Thelwell 3 SR G 6-0 185 10.1 Pts 2.5 Reb 3.2 Ast
Brock Harding 2 SO G 6-6 162 9.9 Pts 1.7 Reb 5.8 Ast
Pryce Sandfort 24 SO F 6-6 205 9.2 Pts 2.3 Reb 0.9 Ast
Ladji Dembele 13 SO F 6-8 250 4.6 Pts 3.6 Reb 0.6 Ast
Seydou Traore 7 SO G 6-7 215 7.3 Pts 3.1 Reb 1.5 Ast
Cooper Koch 8 FR F 6-8 215 4.6 Pts 2.1 Reb 0.8 Ast
Riley Mulvey 44 JR C 6-11 245 3.4 Pts 2.6 Reb 0.1 Ast
Even Brauns 0 SR C 6-9 250 1.5 Pts 0.6 Reb 0.4 Ast
Carter Kingsbury 14 JR G 6-4 225 1.6 Pts 0.9 Reb 0.2 Ast
Chris Tadjo 34 FR F 6-8 240 2.3 Pts 1.5 Reb 0.0 Ast
Jacob Koch 10 FR G 6-2 180 1.8 Pts 0.5 Reb 0.5 Ast

 

Other players

 

Josh Dix and Pryce Sandfort mainly man the 3 for the Hawkeyes. Dix is more likely to shoot from within the arc but both players are hitting over 40% from 3 this season. With Tony Perkins transferring, Brock Harding now man's the position and he's been a solid shooter and a ballhawk.  Morehead St transfer combo guard Drew Thelwell slots in at the 1 and 2 for the Hawks and brings size and ball handing to the position. Yet another Hawkeye hitting over 40% from 3 and another ball-hawk. Manhattan transfer forward Seydou Traore has been battling an ankle injury last month but appears to be healthy now, adding some size and rebounding depth. Ladji Dembele bring some Tyler Cook type juice to the table in terms of size fouls too much to stay on the court. Speaking of old Hawkeyes, freshman 4 Cooper Koch has some Jarrod Uthoff vibes in terms of length and 3 level scoring.

UNL Game Notes

 

Roster/infirmary report

 

 

Possible starters for Nebraska

3    Guard    Brice Williams     6-7    214 lbs    Senior

4    Forward    Juwan Gary     6-6    226 lbs    Senior

24    Guard    Rollie Worster     6-5    210 lbs    Senior

34    Center    Braxton Meah     7-1    264 lbs    Senior

9    Forward    Berke Büyüktuncel     6-10    244 lbs   

 

Bench

0    Guard    Connor Essegian     6-4    190 lbs    Junior

1    Guard    Sam Hoiberg     6-0    185 lbs    Junior

2    Guard    Ahron Ulis     6-3    190 lbs    Senior

23    Forward    Andrew Morgan     6-10    242 lbs    Senior 

31    Guard    Cale Jacobsen     6-4    195 lbs    Sophomore

12    Guard    Gavin Griffiths     6-7    193 lbs    Sophomore

5    Forward    Braden Frager     6-7    220 lbs    Freshman
8    Guard    Jeffrey Grace III     6-3    200 lbs    Junior
20    Forward    Justin Bolis     6-8    225 lbs    Sophomore
25    Guard    Nick Janowski     6-4    208 lbs    Freshman

35    Forward    Henry Burt     6-7    222 lbs    Sophomore

 

Out for year
51    Forward    Rienk Mast     6-10    260 lbs    Senior

 

Hoiberg Presser

 

The Skinny: 

Nebraska gets a big win at home over a ranked UCLA team and hits the road to Iowa City in January which takes you back to last season when the Huskers headed to Iowa after knocking off #1 Purdue. Iowa proceeded to steamroll the Huskers on the way to a 94-76 victory. This Nebraska team will try to flip the script of the sequel.

 

For the most part this is the same type of Fran McCaffery squad you see ever year with one of the conference's best offense and worst defense. One wrinkle is that Iowa's backcourt has been generating turnovers so once against ball-handling may be an issue for Nebraska.  There is opportunity for offensive rebounds against this fast-breaking Iowa team but Hoiberg likely will try and sell out against fast break points at all cost.  Both teams are not likely to shoot many FTs as Iowa tends to play without giving them and the Hawkeyes in general aren't getting to the line.  The FT line itself has been a problem for Iowa as despite Dix and Payton Sandfort being elite FT shooters, the team in general ranks 295th in the nation at 67.2.  In a close game all of Iowa's post players are liabilities at the line.

 

Nebraska's defense has it's work cut out for them as the Hawkeyes have 7 players who currently sport 40% or better shooting averages from 3. Regardless the Huskers are still likely to look to shutdown Freeman who looked unstoppable last year against Nebraska, going off for 22 and 10. Dictating pace will be key to who might win this game. It's hard to imagine Nebraska winning this game if Iowa scores over 80 points.

 

Iowa might have just lost by 31 at Wisconsin but it was just a month ago that Nebraska lost by 37 at Michigan St.  The point is that playing on the road in the B1G is tough.  

 

Prediction: Iowa 81 - Nebraska 76


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