MBB Preview – Southern

The University of Iowa men’s basketball team hosts Southern in the second game of the Kenny Arnold Classic on Thursday at 7 p.m. (CT) on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game will be streamed live on B1G+.
• Tickets are $15-25 for adults and $5-10 for youth through the Iowa Athletics Ticket Office.

FOLLOW LIVE

Radio: Thursday’s game will be broadcast on the Hawkeye Radio Network with Jon Swisher (play-by-play) and Bobby Hansen (color) on the call. The network includes more than 40 stations that blanket the state of Iowa and include portions of Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. The Hawkeye Radio Network includes a 60-minute pregame show.
Stream: Thursday’s game will be streamed live on B1G+ — a paid subscription service. Hayden Hoxmeier (play-by-play) and Jess Settles (color) will be on the call.

OPENING TIP

• The Hawkeyes opened the regular season with an 89-67 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce on Monday night inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was the team’s 14th straight season-opening win.
• Iowa has won 90 of its last 96 nonconference home games, dating back to 2012.
• The Hawkeyes’ first three games against Texas A&M Commerce, Southern and South Dakota are part of the Kenny Arnold Classic.
• Senior Payton Sandfort flirted with his second career triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists against TAMU-Commerce. It was Sandfort’s 19th career 20-point game and sixth career double-double.
• Sophomore Pryce Sandfort tied career highs in points (13), 3-point field goals (3), rebounds (3), blocks (2) and steals (1) in the season opener in 18.9 minutes.
• PS X 2… Payton (4) and Pryce (3) Sandfort combined to make seven of Iowa’s 10 3-point field goals in the game.
• Sophomore Owen Freeman finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals in the opener.
• The Hawkeyes had 23 assists on their 32 field goals in the game — assisting on 71.9 percent of their field goals. Iowa had 12 assists on 14 first-half field goals.
• Iowa had eight different players tally a steal (13 total) and forced 24 TAMU-Commerce turnovers.
• The 2024-25 squad returns three starters and 10 letterwinners from a team that went 19-15 overall and advanced to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.
• Josh Dix (honorable mention), Owen Freeman (honorable mention, Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year) and Payton Sandfort (third team) all earned All-Big Ten honors last season. Sandfort is a preseason first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2024-25.
• Sandfort is also one of 20 players named to the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Preseason List. It is the second straight year he has been included on the watch list.

SCOUTING TEXAS A&M-COMMERCE

• The Jaguars opened the season with a 93-79 road loss at South Dakota on Nov. 4 in the Kenny Arnold Classic. Southern’s Tidjiane Dioumassi led all scorers with 30 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including a 12-of-12 performance from the charity stripe.
• Dioumassi was named a preseason All-SWAC team selection, while Southern was picked to finish third in the preseason poll.
• Southern’s Kevin Johnson is in his second season as the Jag’s head coach.

SERIES HISTORY

• Iowa is 2-0 all-time against Southern and 20-0 all-time against schools from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
• The Hawkeyes beat Jaguars, 90-60, in 2017 and 103-76 in 2020. Both games were played in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

 

LAST GAME: IOWA 89, TEXAS A&M-COMMERCE 67

The Hawkeyes cruised to an 89-67 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce on Nov. 4 inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was Iowa’s 14th straight season-opening victory. Five players landed in double figures with Payton Sandfort leading the way with 20 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore Owen Freeman had 15 points and nine rebounds.

SANDFORT: PRESEASON FIRST-TEAM ALL-BIG TEN

Senior Payton Sandfort was one of 10 players named to the preseason All-Big Ten team. It is the fifth time in the last six seasons a Hawkeye has been named to the list. Sandfort is also a preseason all-league selection by Blue Ribbon and he is tabbed as one of the top sharp shooters and seniors in college basketball by Andy Katz at NCAA.com.
• Sandfort put up career-best numbers across the board during the 2023-24 season, averaging 16.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists, while shooting 44.6 percent from the floor, 37.9 percent from distance and 91.1 percent from the free throw stripe. His 94 3-pointers led the Big Ten.

3-HEADED MONSTER

• The Hawkeyes return three starters in Payton Sandfort, Owen Freeman and Josh Dix. All three players earned All-Big Ten recognition a season ago. Sandfort was a third-team All-Big Ten selection, while Freeman and Dix both were honorable mention all-league selections. Freeman was also the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year.
• Sandfort averaged a team-best 16.4 points and 6.6 rebounds, reaching double figures in 27 games with 11 20-point contests.
• Freeman averaged 10.6 points and 6.6 rebounds, while shooting 61.4 percent from the floor. He had five double-doubles and had an Iowa freshman record 61 blocks.
• Dix averaged 8.9 points and 2.2 rebounds, while ranking third on the team with 59 assists. He was one of the most efficient players in the Big Ten, shooting 55.2 percent from the floor, 42.1 percent from 3-point range and 86 percent from the free throw stripe.

JULIUS ERVING SMALL FORWARD OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST

Senior Payton Sandfort is one of 20 players named to the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Preseason Watch List for a second straight year. The award recognizes the best small forwards in men’s college basketball.
• He is one of four Big Ten players on the list along with Indiana’s Mackenzie Mgbako, Michigan State’s Frankie Fidler and Rutgers’ Ace Bailey.

WINNINGEST PLAYER IN MOREHEAD HISTORY

Graduate transfer Drew Thelwell won 94 games during his four-year career at Morehead State, making him the winningest player in program history. Thelwell helped the Eagles to two OVC regular season and two OVC tournament titles and to three postseason appearances (two NCAA, one NIT).
• The Florida native averaged 10 points and 6.2 assists as a senior. He led the OVC in assists (15th nationally) and assist-to-turnover ration (2.71).

FRESHMAN-TO-SOPHOMORE

Iowa’s current sophomore class combined to play in 132 games during their freshman season in 2023-24. Owen Freeman and Brock Harding played in all 34 contests, while Ladji Dembele and Pryce Sandfort saw action in 32 games apiece.
• Seydou Traore started 27-of-28 games at Manhattan College.