By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Game two in year No. 2 under head coach Ben McCollum will have the Iowa men’s basketball team hosting Eastern Illinois on Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Iowa men face Eastern Illinois one day after the Iowa women’s basketball team will have hosted the Eastern Illinois women’s basketball team on Thursday.

The Iowa men’s basketball team is 31-1 all-time against current members of the Ohio Valley Conference, but the one loss came against Eastern Illinois by the score of 92-83 on Dec. 21, 2022 in Iowa City.

Ben McCollum was in his next to last season as the head coach at Division II Northwest Missouri State at the time. But his life as a head coach has changed dramatically since then with McCollum also having made a one-year stop at Drake, where he finished 31-4 in 2024-25, before coming to Iowa.

McCollum’s current Iowa team defeated Lipscomb 76-54 in the season opener on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was Iowa’s 15th straight season-opening win.

It took a while for Iowa’s offense to start clicking against Lipscomb, mostly because of so many missed threes and missed free throws.

Iowa only made 6-of-25 shots from 3-point range, and was just 14-of-28 from the free throw line.

“We got good looks from good shooters, we just didn’t knock them down,” Ben McCollum said afterwards. “We’re not going to miss shots like that. We’re still figuring ourselves out.”

First-year forward Jaidyn Coon paced Iowa with 12 points (with three dunks) and had six rebounds in the victory. The Hawkeye reserves scored 42 points in the win.

Illinois State transfer Ty’Reek Coleman, a 6-foot-2 guard, finished with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists in his first game as a Hawkeye. He and the 6-6 Coon were the only Iowa players to score in double figures.

And while Coleman missed all three of his 3-point shots against Lipscomb, and was just 4-of-9 in free throws, he doesn’t seem too worried about it.

“I think it was just misses,” he said. “They’ll start falling. I don’t think nobody is worried about that. So credit it to just first-game jitters, fatigue, I don’t know. So I think they’ll start falling. I don’t think we’re too concerned about that.

“And for myself, just knock them in and take your time.”

Iowa forced 17 turnovers against Lipscomb and had a 33-5 advantage in points off turnovers.

Iowa’s defense held Lipscomb to 54 points, a .362 field goal percentage and a .167 mark from 3-point range. The 54 points are the fewest Iowa has allowed in an opener since 2013-14.

Iowa played without 7-3 center Andrew McKeever in the season opener due to what has been described as a minor back injury. The Saint Mary’s probably could’ve played against Lipscomb, according to McCollum, but was withheld mostly as a precaution.

McKeever is expected to play against Eastern Illinois on Friday, assuming there are no setbacks with his recovery.

Iowa is adjusting to playing without former star point guard Bennett Stirtz, who led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Elite Eight last season for the first time since 1987, and in his only season as a Hawkeye.

Stirtz is now in his rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder after being selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, while his former team is trying to build off what it accomplished last season with Stirtz leading the way.

Eastern Illinois, meanwhile, opened the season with a 91-57 road loss at Indiana. EIU committed 22 turnovers and went 3-of-14 from 3-point range in the 34-point defeat. Eastern Illinois was picked to finish eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Markus Blackwell and Jaden Miller were named preseason players to watch in the OVC. Miller was a first-team all-great American Conference selection a season ago at East Central, where he averaged 10.7 points and 8.3 assists. He led NCAA Division II in assists and had eight double-doubles.

Senior forward Andrew Austin is from Rock Rapids, Iowa. He prepped at Central Lyon High School and played at Des Moines Area CC. Austin was a high school teammate of Iowa football players Zach Lutmer and Reece Vander Zee, helping the Lions to their first ever state title.

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Iowa projected starters

G 11 Kael Combs 6-3 204 4th Year Nixa, Mo. 7.0 3.0 5.0 .400 .000 .750 20.4 34 consecutive starts… career-high 18 points, 5 reb., 7-14 FG at Nebraska in ‘26… 15 pts., 5-7 FG vs. Clemson in NCAAT… Drake & Wyoming transfer.

G 23 Isaia Howard 6-5 216 3rd Year Plattsburg, Mo. 2.0 3.0 0.0 .333 .000 .000 13.2 “Howie”… elite competitiveness… appeared in all 37 games with 5 starts in 2025-26.

G 24 Tate Sage 6-7 210 2nd Year Weatherford, Okla. 9.0 2.0 0.0 .375 .000 .600 26.0 First career start vs. Lipscomb… double figures in 8 contests as first-year… scored 19 points with four 3-pointers in Sweet 16 win over Nebraska.

F 3 Cam Manyawu 6-9 255 4th Year Kansas City, Mo. 7.0 3.0 0.0 .750 .000 .500 11.2 73 consecutive starts… double figures in 10 games in ‘25-26… Drake & Wyoming transfer.

F 8 Cooper Koch 6-8 228 3rd Year Peoria, Ill. 9.0 4.0 2.0 .750 .750 .000 30.5 37 consecutive starts… 3-of-4 from 3-pt. range in opener… made 66 3-pointers last season — second-most on the team.

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Eastern Illinois (0-1) vs. Iowa (1-0)

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Friday’s game is the seventh meeting in the all-time series against Eastern Illinois with Iowa leading, 5-1. The Panthers won the most recent meeting, claiming a 92- 83 victory on Dec. 21, 2022, in Iowa City.

Iowa is 31-1 all-time against current members of the Ohio valley Conference.

Editor’s note: hawkeyesports.com contributed to this report.