The Hawkeyes have a tough contest tonight in Milwaukee.
By Ian Murphy
The Hawkeye men’s basketball faces its first true test of the season Thursday against Marquette.
And after a shaky exhibition season and a pair of cupcake games to start the year, the Golden Eagles are the toughest team the Hawkeyes have faced so far this season.
Although the Eagles lost to Belmont, an NCAA Tournament team from the Ohio Valley Conference last season, head coach Fran McCaffery said the Hawkeyes understand the challenge of Marquette.
“You’re playing a challenge game your third game of the season, it’s going to be on the television, you know that’s kind of the idea behind it,” McCaffery said. “You’re going to play a meaningful game like this early in the season, play someone from another conference, another style of play.”
The Eagles will be good preparation for the Advocare Invitational, in which the Hawkeyes will play Dayton in the first round, and likely Notre Dame in the second.
However, Iowa needs to get through Marquette first. The Eagles bring in 6-11 center Luke Fischer, a transfer from Indiana, and fellow giant, 6-11 forward Henry Ellenson, as part of their recruiting class.
This could create a matchup nightmare, because the Hawkeye centers drop from 7-1 Adam Woodbury to 6-9 Dom Uhl.
McCaffery said in the preseason Woodbury will have to average 30¬plus minutes per game, but so far, he hasn’t come close to that mark.
Marquette will be a challenge for Woodbury as well as the rest of the team, in part because the Hawkeye youth will be on full display for the first time this season.
Exhibition and tune-up performances aside, the highly touted recruiting class — as well as a pair of redshirt freshman — hasn’t seen meaningful game action yet.
McCaffery played his whole bench Sunday against Coppin State, but Marquette presents a much bigger animal. The Golden Eagles play a mix of defenses and have a hostile environment in the Bradley Center.
McCaffery said the experience of the Hawkeye veterans will be key going into the game.
“I don’t think you’ll see a lot of guys trying to do to much, that’s what sometimes happens on the road, the crowd gets into it and the other team goes on a run, and guys try to do too much,” he said. “I think that’s where the experience comes in.”
The experience will have to come in with the youth movement and the fluidity of the bench. Lineups have been mostly determined by the situation in the game, and that doesn’t seem to be changing.
Senior Mike Gesell said an early test like this would be good for the Hawkeyes.
“It’s why you play college basketball,” Gesell said. “You want to play against the best, and that starts with Marquette.”
For redshirt freshman Brady Ellingson, a Sussex, Wisconsin, native who grew up a Marquette fan, said the game is a homecoming of sorts.
“Everybody’s asking me for tickets,” he said.
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