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Iowa Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Hawkeyes

By Benjamin Zacher

CHAMPAIGN, IL - MARCH 08: Luka Garza #55 of the Iowa Hawkeyes shoots a free throw during the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center on March 8, 2020 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, IL - MARCH 08: Luka Garza #55 of the Iowa Hawkeyes shoots a free throw during the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center on March 8, 2020 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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Iowa Basketball Connor McCaffery (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Schedule

The Big Ten is one of the few conferences to not yet have released a schedule – which means, subsequently, there is almost nearly nothing known about Iowa’s schedule.  The two games that we do know, however, will both serve as quality tests for the Hawkeyes – and their legitimacy as contenders.

The Hawkeyes will host the North Carolina Tar Heels on Dec. 8 as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.  After a disappointing 14-19 record last year, the Tar Heels are back in the top-25 at no. 16 and were picked to finish fourth in the ACC.  Led by Preseason ACC Player of the Year Garrison Brooks, this game should be exceptionally entertaining and provide one of the best big-man battles of the season between Brooks and Garza.

Dec. 19 will provide one of the biggest games of the season, however, when the Hawkeyes meet no. 1 Gonzaga in a neutral setting for what should be, by that time, still a top-ten duel.  Being held at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the matchup will be the first time the two programs have met since the Zags knocked off Iowa in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

Time will tell what the Big Ten decides to do with its conference schedule, but Iowa will have their hands full no matter what.  This is will be, arguably, the best conference in college hoops this season.  That could not be made any more evident than by the whopping seven teams ranked in the preseason AP Poll.

While Iowa leads the crop, they are closely trailed by Wisconsin (7), Illinois (8), Michigan State (13), Ohio State (23), Rutgers (24), and Michigan (25).  Additionally, Indiana is receiving votes – but the conference is even deeper than that.

The preseason KenPom ratings indicate that there are four more Big Ten teams in the range of earning a postseason bid in Purdue (25), Minnesota (35), Maryland (51), and Penn State (64).  Just Northwestern (70) and Nebraska (118) are outside of those postseason projections.

None of this is to say that all of these teams will qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but it does speak volumes to the depth of the Big Ten.  Given that they are returning an overwhelming majority of their minutes from last year, Iowa should still be in a position to knock off most of these teams – even despite the concerns.

Most teams in this conference have the luxury of, most likely, making the NCAA Tournament if they win 11 – or even 10 – games.  Iowa is obviously included in this, but they will need to win more if they hope to be taken seriously as a legitimate national contender.

The most wins Iowa has enjoyed in Big Ten play under McCaffery is 12, on two different occasions (2014-15 and 2015-16) – and those teams went as far as the Round of 32.  McCaffery himself has yet to make it further at any of his stops, having been in the second round twice with Siena.

The first step in breaking the stigma of continuously overachieving – followed by underachieving – can be taken by the Hawkeyes asserting themselves as the premier team in the Big Ten this season.  That begins by winning more than 12 conference games – which itself begins by remedying the bench and defensive woes.

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