Iowa will face No. 24/25 Wisconsin in a men’s basketball game on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Central Time and will be broadcast on FS1, with Jack Kizer providing play-by-play commentary and Nick Bahe as color analyst. Fans can also listen to the Hawkeye Radio Network, which covers Iowa and parts of neighboring states, featuring Gary Dolphin and Bobby Hansen.
This matchup marks Iowa’s third consecutive game against a ranked opponent, something the team has not done since the 2019-20 season. A win would give Iowa back-to-back victories over ranked teams for the first time since 2020-21. On Feb. 17, Iowa defeated No. 9 Nebraska 57-52 at home—its first top-10 home win since 2019 and its first victory over a ranked team since February 2024.
Iowa is currently navigating a challenging stretch, facing five Quad 1 opponents in their final seven regular-season games. The team has recorded 19 wins overall and nine in Big Ten play, aiming for its first 20-win season since 2021-22.
Senior Bennett Stirtz continues to lead Iowa’s offense. He has scored at least 30 points three times this season and reached the 20-point mark in eight of his last nine games. His recent performances include a career-high 36 points against Northwestern—the most by an Iowa player since Luka Garza in 2021—and he is second in Big Ten scoring during league games with an average of 23.4 points per contest.
Stirtz’s contributions have earned him recognition on several national award lists: “Stirtz has been named to the Naismith Trophy College Player of the Year Late-Season Team, the Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20 and the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Top 10 lists.”
The Hawkeyes rank among national leaders in shooting efficiency, holding opponents to just over 64 points per game—the lowest average allowed in the Big Ten and tenth-fewest nationally. They have limited seven teams to under 60 points this season.
Wisconsin enters Tuesday’s game having won nine of its last twelve contests and stands at 18-8 overall (10-5 Big Ten). The Badgers recently lost to Ohio State but are strong at home with a record of 13-2 at Kohl Center this season.
Wisconsin features one of the conference’s top backcourts with Nick Boyd and John Blackwell combining for over 39 points per game. Nolan Winter contributes an average of nearly nine rebounds along with double-digit scoring and leads the team in blocks.
Historically, Wisconsin leads the all-time series against Iowa by three games (90-87) dating back to their first meeting in 1909. The Badgers have won six out of seven recent matchups; however, Iowa claimed an overtime victory when they last met in February 2024.
In their previous outing against Nebraska, senior Bennett Stirtz led all scorers with 25 points while Cooper Koch added ten points off two three-pointers, and Tavion Banks matched his season high with ten rebounds as Iowa secured its largest rebounding margin this Big Ten season.
Stirtz ranks seventh among active college players with more than two thousand career points—a milestone he reached earlier this month—and is currently averaging more than twenty-three points per game during conference play.
Under first-year head coach Ben McCollum, who now holds nineteen wins through twenty-six games, Iowa continues to build momentum as it approaches postseason play.
