Iowa City Today

Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team will host Xavier on Friday, Nov. 14 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Central Time and will be broadcast on FS1, with radio coverage available through the Hawkeye Radio Network.

The Hawkeyes enter the matchup with a 2-0 record, following wins over Robert Morris and Western Illinois. Senior guard Bennett Stirtz led the team in its recent victory against Western Illinois, scoring 24 points along with seven assists and two steals without committing a turnover. Stirtz is currently averaging 21.5 points, 6.5 assists, and three steals per game this season.

Head coach Ben McCollum made his debut for Iowa by leading the team to a 101-point performance against Robert Morris, becoming only the third coach in program history to reach triple digits in his first game as head coach at Iowa. "Head coach Ben McCollum became the third Iowa head coach to have his team reach the century mark in his Hawkeye debut, joining Ralph Miller (1965) and Lute Olson (1975).Iowa scored 101 points against RMU," according to information released by the program.

Stirtz stands out among active players nationwide as he ranks in the top ten for both career points (1,661) and assists (445), making him one of six players with more than 1,500 points and 350 assists.

The current roster includes twelve newcomers out of fourteen players under first-year head coach McCollum. Six of these athletes previously played for McCollum at Drake University during a season when they won both Missouri Valley Conference titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Round of 32.

Iowa’s transfer portal class was ranked eighth nationally by 247Sports.

In national rankings this week, Iowa is receiving votes in both major polls—ranked 39th by Associated Press voters and 40th in coaches’ rankings.

On Friday, Xavier brings a 2-1 record into its first road contest of the season after home wins over Marist and Le Moyne but most recently losing to Santa Clara by nineteen points. The Musketeers are led offensively by Roddie Anderson III who averages seventeen points per game; Tre Carroll adds an average of fourteen point three while Malik Messina-Moore scores eleven per contest.

Xavier’s roster features no returning scholarship players this year under new head coach Richard Pitino, who joined after coaching stints at New Mexico, Minnesota, and Florida International.

Friday marks only the fourth meeting between Iowa and Xavier all-time; Iowa leads the series two games to one. The teams last faced each other during tournament play outside of their home arenas—with Xavier winning in 2010’s Paradise Jam while Iowa took an overtime win at Battle for Atlantis in 2013.

Director of basketball operations Kyle Denning remains as the lone staff holdover from previous seasons; assistant coach Luke Barnwell joins after coaching Texas Tech through an Elite Eight run last year.

Senior Bennett Stirtz has started every collegiate game of his career—a streak now reaching one hundred five starts—and has logged forty or more minutes on forty-two occasions.

Junior Alvaro Folgueiras has also contributed significantly off the bench for Iowa so far this season—averaging twelve points alongside five rebounds per game while shooting seventy-five percent from the field.