By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A two-game road trip to the Pacific Northwest is always a challenge for any Big Ten team from the Midwest just from the traveling itself.

From Iowa City to Eugene, Oregon where the Iowa men’s basketball team plays Oregon on Sunday, is 1,917 miles and slightly more than the 1,857 miles that separates Iowa City from Seattle where Iowa will face Washington next Wednesday.

But as UCLA head coach Mick Cronin so often likes to point out, the Big Ten’s four teams on the West Coast travel halfway across the country, and sometimes from coast to coast, to play games on a regular basis.

So nobody should feel sorry for Iowa, and nobody from this Iowa team is asking for sympathy.

Energized by a three-game winning streak, Iowa heads to the Pacific Northwest with records of 15-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play under first-year head coach Ben McCollum. Iowa’s current record would seem to put it on track to make the NCAA Tournament, but it’s still early and a lot can change in a hurry in conference play.

The Hawkeyes hung on to defeat USC 73-72 this past Wednesday in Iowa City.

Iowa now faces an Oregon team that has been decimated by injuries under veteran head coach Dana Altman.

The Ducks have lost seven straight games, dating back to Jan. 5, dropping their record to 8-13 overall and 1-9 in Big Ten play.

Oregon’s lone Big Ten victory came at Maryland on Jan. 2, winning 64-54. The Ducks are 7-5 at home overall, but 0-5 in Big Ten play in Eugene.

The Ducks are without their two leading scorers in Nate Bittle (16.3) and Jackson Shelstad (15.6). Bittle is out with a foot injury, while Shelstad is out for the season with a hand injury.

McCollum was asked Friday on a zoom about scouting and preparing for the Ducks without arguably their two best players.

“You can scout their defense over time, so you can scout everything with their defense,” McCollum said. “And then offensively, yeah, you’d scout when they didn’t have those players.

“You can kind of move back a little bit and see what bothers them. But those two players are pretty good. So that’s part of it.”

One of the sidebars to Sunday’s game is that Iowa senior forward Tavion Banks has made 30 straight free throws and needs four more to tie the program record that is currently held by Jordan Bohannon and Chris Street, who was killed in an automobile accident midway through his junior season on Jan. 19, 1993.

Following Sunday’s game, Iowa will face Washington on Wednesday at 10 p.m. in Seattle; that’s right 10 p.m., so plan to be up late.

Washington was 11-10 overall and 3-7 in the Big Ten heading into the weekend.

So in others words; beatable, as are, of course, the injury-riddled Ducks.

This road trip under the current circumstances isn’t nearly as daunting as it could be, at least on paper.

Rarely is a team coached by Dana Altman in this kind of a situation, vulnerable and short on talent.

So teams like Iowa had better take advantage of it while they can.

McCollum was asked about the challenge of traveling to the Pacific Northwest to play two conference games, but he sort of downplayed it,  saying: “nothing you can do differently, it’s just making sure that you’re ready to go, a typical Big Ten road game. It’s always difficult. They’re obviously well coached and a pretty talented team. So just kind of do what we do and get ready to go.”

Iowa won two games against Ole Miss and Grand Canyon in November in Palm Springs, California and McCollum hopes that his players handle this current road trip as well as they did that one.

“Obviously, we played in California, which may end up helping us,” McCollum said. “We adjusted to the time there fine.”

This marks just the second time in program history that Iowa will face the Ducks in Eugene. Iowa leads the series, 6-3.

Iowa’s 15-5 start through 20 games is the best since the 2019-20 season.

Banks and senior point guard Bennett Stirtz have each gone for 20-plus points twice in the last three games. The duo combined for 53 points in the road win at Indiana and 40 points in the home win over USC.

Stirtz, who has three straight 20-point games, is 14 points shy of 2,000 points for his collegiate career

He made two free throws with four seconds remaining in the 73-72 win over USC.

Iowa probable starters

G 14 Bennett Stirtz 6-4 190 Sr.-TR Liberty, Mo. 18.4 2.6 4.9 .476 .373 .837 36.0

Acrisure Classic MVP… 116 consecutive starts… 6+ assists in 7 games… 20+ pts. in 10 games… Sporting News Midseason All-American… Drake & NW Mo. St. transfer… MVC Player of the Year.

G 11 Kael Combs 6-4 205 Jr.-TR Nixa, Mo. 6.3 2.5 2.8 .500 .393 .862 27.0
Started Iowa’s last 15 games… career-high 16 points, 4 3-ptrs. at Purdue… 56 assists, 28 TOs… averages 2nd-most minutes on team… Drake & Wyoming transfer.

F 3 Cam Manyawu 6-9 250 Jr.-TR Kansas City, Mo. 7.1 4.4 0.9 .636 .000 .698 17.6
54 consecutive starts…double figures in 6 games… 13 pts., 3 steals at Purdue… Drake & Wyoming transfer… has nine career double-doubles.

F 6 Tavion Banks 6-7 215 Sr.-TR Kansas City, Mo. 11.1 4.5 1.3 .551 .542 .808 21.5
20 pts./7 reb vs. USC… DI career-high 26 points, 8 rebounds at Indiana… 30 straight FT makes… double figures in 10 games, 2 20-pt. games… Drake & NW Fla. St. College transfer… MVC Sixth Man of the Year.

F 8 Cooper Koch 6-8 220 RS Fr.-1L Peoria, Ill. 6.7 3.3 1.0 .465 .385 .789 25.2 First career double-double vs. Ole Miss (14 pts./10-reb.)…double figures in 5 games… 2+ 3-pointers in 8 contests… lone returning scholarship player.

KEY RESERVES HT. WT. YR.-EXP. HOMETOWN PPG RPG ASST FG% 3FG% FT% MPG

F 7 Alvaro Folgueiras 6-10 230 Jr-TR Malaga, Spain 8.2 3.7 1.9 .514 .393 .694 19.7

G 10 Jacob Koch 6-2 185 So.-1L Iowa City, Iowa 0.5 0.0 0.3 .333 .000 .000 2.2

G 15 Brendan Hausen 6-4 220 Sr.-TR Amarillo, Texas 4.2 0.8 0.3 .353 .356 1.000 9.8

G 23 Isaia Howard 6-5 215 So.-TR Plattsburg, Mo. 6.7 3.1 1.2 .500 .289 .750 19.5

G 24 Tate Sage 6-7 210 Fr.-HS Weatherford, Okla. 6.8 2.2 1.1 .500 .395 .682 18.3

C 27 Trevin Jirak 6-11 250 Fr.-HS West Des Moines, Iowa 4.0 1.1 1.2 .531 .143 .632 9.4

F 44 Joey Matteoni 6-9 215 RS Fr.-TR Overland Park, Kan. 1.9 0.7 0.3 .533 .000 .500 4.1

Iowa (15-5, 5-4) vs. Oregon (8-13, 1-9)

When: Sunday, 7 p.m.

Where: Eugene, Oregon

TV: FS1

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network’

Series history:  Sunday’s game is the 10th meeting in the all-time series between Iowa and Oregon. The Hawkeyes lead, 6-3.

Iowa is 0-1 all-time in Eugene, falling 108-98 in the second round of the 2012 National Invitation Tournament.

Oregon has won three of the last four in the series. Iowa’s last win came in the 2K Classic in 2018 at Madison Square Garden when the Hawkeyes upset the 13th-ranked Ducks, 77-69.

The Ducks knocked out second-seeded Iowa, 95-80, in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis
and won 80-78 last season in Iowa City in their first meeting as Big Ten foes