By Hawkeyesports.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa men’s basketball team will face Southern on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in game two of the Kenny Arnold Classic.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be shown on Big Ten+ (subscription).

• 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.