MBB Preview \\ at USC

The University of Iowa men’s basketball team heads West to Los Angeles for to face Southern California on Tuesday at the Galen Center.  The game will begin at 9:40 p.m. (CT) and be televised on FS1. 

FOLLOW LIVE
Radio: Tuesday’s game will be broadcast on the Hawkeye Radio Network with Gary Dolphin (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.
Television: Tuesday’s game will be televised on FS1 with Guy Haberman (play-by-play) and Casey Jacobsen (color) on the call.

OPENING TIP

• Iowa improved to 3-2 in Big Ten play with an 85-60 victory over Indiana on Jan. 11.  The 25-point win was the Hawkeyes’ largest in the series over the Hoosiers since 1996.  
• This is Iowa’s first trip to Los Angeles since beating Florida State and UNLV in the 1988 NCAA Tournament.
• The Hawkeyes have scored 80+ points in 10 consecutive games, the longest stretch since the 1988-89 season (13 straight games). Iowa has scored 80+ in all but two games this season.
• Iowa is leading the Big Ten and is second nationally, averaging 89.6 points per game.  The team’s 50.9 field goal percentage is second-best in the league (sixth in country).
• The Moline Boys -- sophomores Owen Freeman and Brock Harding -- both notched double-doubles in the win over the Hoosiers.  Freeman had 16 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and three steals, while Harding had 10 points and 10 assists.
• Graduate Drew Thelwell had a career-high six steals against the Hoosiers -- the most by a Hawkeye since 2021.  
• In his last two second halves, sophomore Payton Sandfort has scored 51 points (30 vs. Nebraska, 21 vs. Indiana).  He was scoreless in first half against the Huskers and he scored two points against IU. 
• The Hawkeyes rallied from 15 down in the second half to force overtime en route to a 97-87 victory over Nebraska on Jan. 7 in Iowa City.  Iowa has come from behind to win four games this season when trailing in the second half.  
• 30x2... junior Josh Dix (31 points, 7 3s) and Payton Sandfort (30, 6 3s) combined for 61 points and 13 3s as they became the first Hawkeye duo since 2022 (Jordan Bohannon (30), Keegan Murray (30), at Maryland) to both score 30+ in a single game.
 • The Hawkeyes have shot better than 50 percent from the floor in eight victories and better than 60 percent three times, including a season-best 62.7 percent in the win over New Orleans on Dec. 15.  The team is unbeaten when shooting at least 50 percent from the field. 
• Sophomore Owen Freeman is third in the Big Ten and 13th nationally with a 63.1 field goal percentage, averaging 16.6 points per game.  He is the only Hawkeye to score in double figures in every game he has played. 
• In five Big Ten games, Josh Dix is averaging 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 blocks.  He is shooting 58.7 percent from the field, 58.1 percent from 3-point range and is 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
• The Hawkeyes have made at least eight 3-point field goals in 14 games, including 10+ in nine contests. Iowa made 18 in the win over Southern -- the most since 2022 -- and 17 in the win over Nebraska .  Iowa is tops in the Big Ten (13th nationally), averaging 10.8 per game.  
• Iowa is leading the Big Ten in assists (19.8, 3rd in NCAA) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.89, 4th in NCAA). The team has had 20+ assists in seven games.

SCOUTING USC
• The Trojans enter Tuesday’s game with a 10-6 overall and 2-3 mark in Big Ten play.  USC earned a road win over No. 13 Illinois, 82-72, on Saturday in Champaign behind a 31-point outburst from guard Desmond Claude.  He was 12-of-20 from the floor and 7-of-7 from free throw stripe, while finishing with three assists.
• USC is 8-3 at the Galen Center this season with losses to California, Oregon and Michigan.  The Trojans average 4,163 fans per game at home.
•  Claude leads a group of four Trojans in double figures (and six averaging at least 8.7 points). He averages a team-best 15.9 points and 3.9 assists.   Claude has made 79-of-104 free throws (76.7 percent).
• Saint Thomas averages 9.7 points, six rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals.
• Chibuzo Agbo is second on the team with a 12.4 average with a team-best 38 3-pointers, which is fourth-most in the Big Ten.  He is the only Trojan with more than 20 3s.
• USC averages 76.1 points per game, while shooting 47.4 percent from the floor.  The team makes just 6.2 3s per game, while shooting 33.3 percent.
• The Trojans average 16.3 points at the free throw stripe, connecting on 75.4 percent of their attempts as a team.

SERIES HISTORY

• Tuesday’s game will be the eighth meeting all-time between Iowa and USC in a series that began in 1953 in Iowa City.  The Hawkeyes lead the all-time series, 5-2.
• Iowa has won the last two meetings -- winning 66-55 in Iowa City in 1982 and 62-61 in 1983 in Los Angeles.
• The Hawkeyes are 3-1 against the Trojans in LA, 2-0 at home and 0-1 on a neutral court when the game was played in Honolulu in 1975. 
• Iowa played in La Jolla, California, last season, competing in the Rady Children’s Invitational against Oklahoma and Seton Hall.  

LAST GAME: IOWA 85, INDIANA 60

All five starters scored in double figures as Iowa dominated Indiana, 85-60, on Saturday night in Iowa City.  The Hawkeyes shot 54.2 percent from the floor and made 11 3-pointers in the 25-point win -- the team’s largest over the Hoosiers since 1996.
• Senior Payton Sandfort scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half, while Owen Freeman (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Brock Harding (10 points, 10 assists) both recorded double-doubles.  
• The Hawkeyes led for all but 3:36 in the game and built a 30 point lead in the second half. 

PAYTON JOINS 1,000/500 CLUB

Senior Payton Sandfort is the 29th player in program history with 1,000+ career points and 500+ rebounds. He is the first Hawkeye since Joe Wieskamp in 2021 to join the club.

POINTS-ASSISTS DUBS

Sophomore Brock Harding collected his second points-assists double-double of the season (third of his career) in Iowa’s 85-60 win over Indiana on Jan. 11.  He finished the game with 10 points and 10 assists.
•  It was Harding’s third career 10+ assist game, which are tied for the sixth-most in program history.
• Harding’s three career points-assists double-doubles are tied for the fourth most in program history along with Ronnie Lester and Andre Woolridge. He trails Jordan Bohannon (7), B.J. Armstrong (5) and Jeff Horner (5) in the record books.

30 X 2

Junior Josh Dix scored a career-high 31 points with seven 3-pointers and senior Payton Sandfort finished with 30 points, tying a career-high, with six 3s in Iowa’s 97-87 overtime victory over Nebraska on Jan. 7 in Iowa City.
• They are the first Division I teammates each with 30 points and six 3-pointers in the same game in five years and the first high major teammates to do so since Notre Dame’s Ben Hansbrough and Tim Abromaitis in 2011.
• Dix made 10-of-14 field goals, including 7-of-10 3s, and had six rebounds, seven assists, four steals and one block, becoming the first major conference player to finish with at least that stat line since LSU’s Ben Simmons on Dec. 2, 2015.  He is only the 12th Division I player with at least that stat line in the last 20 years.
• Dix was on the court for all but 22 seconds in the 45 minute tilt against the Huskers.
• After a scoreless first half, Sandfort finished with 30 points (27 in the second half alone) on 8-of-15 shooting, making 6-of-10 3s and 8-of-9 free throws.  He also had six rebounds and four assists.  The point total matched his career-high set during last year’s NIT First Round game against Kansas State.

THELWELL APPROACHES 1K
Graduate transfer Drew Thelwell has scored 965 career points in 128 career games at Morehead State and Iowa.  He is 35 points shy of the 1,000 point milestone.