Hawkeyes To Face Auburn in NCAA Tournament First Round

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa received an at-large berth to the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, its 29th appearance in the tournament, including its seventh under head coach Fran McCaffery.

Iowa (19-13) received a No. 8 seed (seeded No. 32 overall) and will play ninth-seeded Auburn (20-12) on Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama, in the Midwest Region. Game time and television information will be released tonight. Thursday will be the first meeting all-time between the Hawkeyes and Tigers.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl served as an assistant coach at Iowa from 1986-92 and Iowa assistant coach Matt Gatens served on Pearl’s staff at Auburn from 2017-19.

The other two teams in Iowa’s first-weekend bracket are top-seeded Houston (31-3) and No. 16 seed Northern Kentucky (22-12).

Information on pre-tournament news conferences and open practice times will be released on Monday.

TICKET INFORMATION
The Iowa Athletics Ticket Office receives a limited number of tickets and will not have any general public ticket sales through our office. Fans are encouraged to visit ncaatickets.com for ticket availability.

IOWA INFORMATION
• Iowa has qualified for seven of the last nine NCAA tournaments (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023); the 2021 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Hawkeyes are one of 10 teams nationally to make the last four NCAA Tournaments, and one of three Big Ten teams (Purdue, Michigan State).

• This year marks the third time Iowa will be a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament; the other previous times were 1985 and 1997.

• Thursday will be Iowa’s first visit to the state of Alabama in program history.

• Iowa won eight games over NCAA Tournament teams this season: Indiana (twice), Illinois, Iowa State, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern and Southeast Missouri State.

• The Hawkeyes have finished fifth place or better in the Big Ten regular season standings seven of the last nine years.