Iowa’s next stop comes Tuesday night in Sioux City, where the Hawkeyes will meet Virginia Tech in a neutral-site game at the Tyson Center at 6 p.m. CT. The matchup will air on FS1, giving Iowa a second straight chance to show how far its early-season start can carry.
The timing matters because Iowa is moving into a difficult stretch away from Iowa City after opening with wins over two mid-majors. Friday’s 91-47 rout of Eastern Illinois showed the scoring balance Ben McCollum is trying to build, with Peyton McCollum leading the way on 14 points, 5-of-9 shooting and four 3-pointers, while four Iowa players finished in double figures and the team made 14 3-pointers. That total matched the most in a game during McCollum’s Iowa tenure, and it came with Iowa shooting 63.5 percent from the floor and 46.7 percent from 3-point range.
Fans will have several ways to follow it. Kevin Kugler and Greg McDermott will handle the FS1 broadcast, while the Hawkeye Radio Network will carry the game with Gary Dolphin and Bobby Hansen on the call. The radio coverage includes a 60-minute pregame show and reaches more than 40 stations across Iowa, along with parts of Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.
Iowa has also shown an edge on defense in its first two games, holding opponents to 50.5 points per game, 34.3 percent shooting and 12 percent from 3-point range. The Hawkeyes held Lipscomb to 54 points in the opener, then limited Eastern Illinois to 47 points, the third-fewest allowed under McCollum at Iowa. Ty’Reek Coleman has scored in double figures in both games, and Trevin Jirak added eight points, eight assists and seven rebounds against Eastern Illinois. Andrew McKeever has missed the first two games because of injury.
Virginia Tech brings a 2-0 record into Sioux City, although the opponent line attached to that mark trails off after Coppin Stat. That leaves Tuesday’s game as the first clean checkpoint in a schedule that already includes three straight Power 5 opponents away from Iowa City and only two road trips before mid-January, at Xavier and Purdue. If Iowa is going to keep this start moving, this is where the margin for error begins to shrink.
