{"id":418118,"date":"2026-01-17T01:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418118\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:53:07","slug":"indiana-mens-basketball-takes-on-iowa-looks-to-snap-losing-skid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418118\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana men\u2019s basketball takes on Iowa, looks to snap losing skid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana men\u2019s basketball has lost consecutive games for the second time this season.\u00a0After\u00a0suffering\u00a0its first\u00a0defeat\u00a0of the season to\u00a0Minnesota<\/a>\u00a0on Dec. 3, the Hoosiers\u00a0lost again\u00a0three days later to\u00a0the\u00a0then-No. 6\u00a0University of\u00a0Louisville<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cream and Crimson\u2019s third loss of the season came a week later in the first matchup of their renewed rivalry with the\u00a0University of Kentucky<\/a>.\u00a0But in its next four games, none of the Hoosiers\u2019 opponents kept the deficit within single digits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Indiana\u2019s\u00a0three-game Big Ten winning streak was upended\u00a0as\u00a0then-No. 10 Nebraska<\/a>\u00a0stormed back from a 16-point second-half deficit to defeat the Hoosiers and remain undefeated.\u00a0Three days later, the Cream and Crimson lost again as\u00a0No. 12 Michigan State<\/a>\u00a0went on a 28-2 run in the second half to complete\u00a0its\u00a0dominant\u00a0victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against Michigan State, fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson \u2014 who leads the Big Ten in\u00a03-pointers per game\u00a0\u2014 led\u00a0Indiana\u00a0with 19 points, ending a streak of five straight games with 20 or more.\u00a0Wilkerson was the only\u00a0Hoosier in double digits, as redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries scored only nine points while shooting 3-for-10 from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeVries\u2019 performance against the Spartans was\u00a0emblematic of his struggles in Big Ten play.\u00a0In four of Indiana\u2019s six conference games, DeVries has been held to single\u00a0digit scoring, marking over a month since he reached 20 points in a game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sixth-year senior guard Tayton\u00a0Conerway\u00a0has also taken a step back in the Hoosiers\u2019 last two games.\u00a0In each of Indiana\u2019s first four conference matchups,\u00a0Conerway\u00a0posted 17 or more points. But against Nebraska and Michigan State, he scored three and\u00a0five\u00a0points, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid the slump, the Cream and Crimson are set to take on Iowa, the No. 23 ranked team in the\u00a0coaches\u00a0poll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ben\u00a0McCollum\u00a0and Darian DeVries\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hawkeye\u2019s are led by head coach Ben\u00a0McCollum, who \u2014 like Indiana head coach Darian DeVries \u2014 is in his first season at the helm.\u00a0McCollum\u00a0is a four-time NCAA Division II national championship winning coach at Northwest Missouri State University, where he played from 2001-2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCollum and DeVries also share a\u00a0history at Drake University. DeVries coached the Bulldogs from 2018-2024 before leaving for West Virginia University. Upon his departure, McCollum was hired to replace\u00a0him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his lone season at Drake,\u00a0McCollum\u00a0guided the Bulldogs to a school-record 31 victories. After being eliminated in the NCAA Tournament round of 32,\u00a0McCollum\u00a0departed\u00a0for Iowa, joining DeVries \u2014 and fellow former Drake head coach Niko Medved \u2014 in\u00a0accepting Big Ten head coaching jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iowa (12-5, 2-4 Big Ten) has had\u00a0an\u00a0up-and-down season. Like Indiana, the Hawkeyes\u2019\u00a0eighth game of the season marked their first loss\u00a0\u2014 a 19-point defeat to Michigan State.\u00a0Both\u00a0the Hoosiers and the Hawkeyes\u00a0have lost to every ranked opponent\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0played. Iowa\u00a0has losses\u00a0to No. 12 Michigan State, No. 2 Iowa State University, No. 13\u00a0Illinois\u00a0and No. 5 Purdue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the Hawkeyes have been within seven points of each ranked opponent since being blown out by the Spartans.\u00a0Senior guard Bennett\u00a0Stirtz\u00a0\u2014 a transfer from Drake who followed McCollum \u2014 is the lone Hawkeye in double figures, averaging 17.7 points per game.\u00a0Stirtz\u2019s\u00a039 3-point\u00a0makes on\u00a0the season rank ninth in the Big Ten,\u00a0as\u00a0he knocks down 37.9% of\u00a0his shots from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Junior forward Cam\u00a0Manyawu\u00a0leads Iowa with 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 63% from the field.\u00a0Behind\u00a0Stirtz, senior guard\/forward Tavion Banks averages 9.6 points per game, and junior forward Alvaro\u00a0Folgueiras\u00a0scores 8.7 points per contest off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iowa began the season\u00a012-2, but\u00a0enters\u00a0the matchup with Indiana on a three-game losing streak. Both teams will look to halt their slides\u00a0down the conference standings\u00a0as the Hoosiers host the Hawkeyes at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Simon\u00a0Skjodt\u00a0Assembly Hall in Bloomington.\u00a0Coverage will be available on FOX.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana men\u2019s basketball has lost consecutive games for the second time this season.\u00a0After\u00a0suffering\u00a0its first\u00a0defeat\u00a0of the season to\u00a0Minnesota\u00a0on Dec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-418118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}