By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa sophomore point guard Jordan Bohannon learned something from the media on Wednesday.

Bohannon wasn’t sure who Iowa’s next opponent was on Thursday until being told by reporters that it was Grambling State from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

“Grambling State, yeah, that’s tomorrow,” Bohannon said after being reminded.

Thursday’s game, which will tip-off at 7 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, will be Iowa’s third in a row against a decisive underdog and its second straight against a SWAC school.

Iowa is 2-0 after defeating Chicago State and Alabama State by scores of 95-62 and 92-58, respectively, in the first two games.

Iowa is also 12-0 all-time against current members of the SWAC.

Iowa’s nonconference schedule leaves much to be desired from a competitive standpoint, but that should change when the Hawkeyes compete in the Cayman Islands Classic next week.

Iowa will play three games in three days, beginning with a matchup against Louisiana next Monday. Iowa will play either Wyoming or South Dakota State in the second game before facing an opponent that still is to be determined in the third game.

The Hawkeyes will return from the Cayman Islands to face Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Nov. 28 in Blacksburg, Va.

“Going forward, we have games like Virginia Tech and a lot of Big Ten games, obviously,” Bohannon said. “So that’ll help us prepare, and hopefully, we get some close games then.”

Iowa will play 18 conference games with the first two games against Penn State and Indiana taking place much earlier than usual. Iowa will face the Nittany Lions on Dec. 2 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena before playing at Indiana two days later.

The Big Ten had to schedule some conference games for early December because the Big Ten Tournament will be played a week earlier than usual at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Madison Square Garden is booked for the normal conference tournament weekend as the host of the Big East Tournament.

The Big Ten Conference is trying to spread its brand to the east coast and was willing to end the regular season a week early in order to play at Madison Square Garden.

The Iowa players are eager to start facing better competition to see where they stand. It’s hard to get an true measure in games in which the outcome is pretty much a forgone conclusion. That was the case in the first two games and is expected to be the case again on Thursday.

“I would like to,” Bohannon said of playing in closer games. “A lot of us in the locker room were telling each other that we kind of wish we had more competitive games going forward. And I know we, obviously, will have that.”

A Nasty Dude: Iowa coach Fran McCaffery called sophomore forward Ryan Kriener a “nasty dude” on Wednesday and it was meant as praise.

“He's not afraid to shoot the ball. He's not afraid of physical contact, and he's not afraid of a skirmish, at all,” McCaffery said of the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Kriener. “And that's one of the reasons we recruited him. He's a nasty dude.”

Kriener smiled when told what McCaffery said about him.

“I think it just means that I’m willing to get down and dirty and go do the dirty things and just go after the loose balls and stuff like that,” Kriener said. “And do kind of the less-glamorous stuff, set a hard screen to get someone open. I feel like I do a lot of things that don’t really show up on the stat sheet.”

Kriener takes pride in being tough and physical. He isn’t a dirty player, but he refuses to back down from anybody on the court.

“I’m not afraid to get in a fight on the floor or anything,” Kriener said.

The Spirit Lake native told a story on Wednesday about when he asked an opposing player who had been talking trash in a 17-and-under AAU game in Myrtle Beach, S.C., to hit him.

“He just kept talking trash and I said, hit me, and he punched me in the face,” Kriener said. “I’ve never really been afraid of that stuff.”

Sophomore forward Cordell Pemsl is the same way in that he also refuses to back down from a physical confrontation or to be intimidated.

He and Kriener both bring a level of toughness off the bench.

“Ryan and I, when we go in together, we definitely have that vibe together where we’re just clicking on all cylinders,” Pemsl said. “I consider myself a guy like Ryan where if I see somebody lined up against me at no point am I scared or intimidated by them. I’m just going to give them everything I have.

“And I feel Ryan does that as well.”

Connor McCaffery’s debut: Freshman guard Connor McCaffery is expected to make his official debut for the Hawkeyes on Thursday.

The son of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery played in the two exhibition games but then missed the first two games in the regular season because of an ankle injury.

“I don’t think I’ll be nervous,” Connor McCaffery said Wednesday. “The exhibition games kind of got that out of the way for me a little bit.”

Connor McCaffery, at 6-5, can play both guard positions, but he said Wednesday that he has worked almost exclusively at point guard.

He was expected to practice on Wednesday for the first time since injuring his ankle two days before last Friday's season opener against Chicago State.

Connor also has been slowed by an undisclosed illness.

“It was, obviously, real frustrating,” Connor said of his injury. “I go the entire summer and the entire offseason, no injuries, no sickness, nothing at all, and then two days before the first game I just rolled it.”

Connor McCaffery had originally planned to redshirt in basketball in order to focus on his freshman season with the Iowa baseball team. However, his plan changed after junior point guard Christian Williams announced on Oct. 26 that he would transfer after the first semester.