Game Day Guide: Iowa Men's Basketball Opens Season Against Lipscomb

Those that consider themselves diehard Iowa Hawkeye fans are in the right place. 

If you thought you were entertained by Iowa football's dominant 30-0 win over rival Wisconsin on Halloween, the fun is just beginning in Hawkeye athletics. 

The Iowa men's and women's basketball teams are back on the hardwood (for real this time), which means every Hawkeye fan has nearly their entire week booked with watching Iowa games for the entire month of November. They do call it crossover season for a reason. 

Jan Jensen and the women's basketball team kicked the party off with a victory over Towson on Monday night, so now the table turns to Ben McCollum and the men's squad. Last season's surprise Elite Eight run has led to an immediate burst of fanfare an excitement around men's basketball, and the Hawkeyes are looking to take an even greater step in 2026-27. 

The path to doing so begins on Tuesday evening with the season opener against Lipscomb at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Here's everything you need to know about the matchup. 

Matchup: Lipscomb Bisons @ Iowa Hawkeyes 

Location: Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa 

Scheduled game time: Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. 

TV: Big Ten Network 

Announcers: Chris Vosters (play-by-play) and Jess Settles (analyst) 

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Bobby Hansen) 

Student Radio: KRUI (Logan Melia, Henry Rees) 

Betting Information: Iowa -20.5 | O/U: 150.5 

Location: Nashville, Tennessee 

Student Enrollment: 3,061 undergraduates and 5,000 total (a new school record per the university) 

While this game is technically considered a buy game for Iowa (where the Hawkeyes pay a lower-tier mid-major opponent to come play them at Carver-Hawkeye Arena), McCollum was quick to declare Lipscomb anything but a free win. The Bisons have been a very good mid-major team in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) in recent years, qualifying for their second NCAA tournament in 2025.

Head coach Lennie Acuff left the school to become the new coach at Samford after the season. This can normally be a problem at the mid-major level considering the high volume of players that enter the transfer portal, but Lipscomb kept everything together under new head coach Kevin Carroll, going 19-13 overall and 12-6 in ASUN action to finish in fourth place. 

Probably the most impressive part of the Bisons' 2026 campaign was giving Duke all it could handle in the first half of a December 2025 game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Lipscomb built an early 10-point lead in that game before Duke ultimately stormed back and won with a dominant second half. 

Leading scorer Grant Asman and a couple of other key players are gone, but the Bisons will likely be carried by fourth-year guard Mateo Esmeraldo. The Connecticut native averaged 9.9 points and 7.0 assists per game last year and was one of three Lipscomb players (Titas Sarguinas and Takai Simpkins) to earn preseason all-conference honors. 

Speaking of Simpkins, he's another very interesting player to watch in this one. Simpkins transferred in after tallying 12.5 points and 2.9 boards per game at Oregon last year and is good to play after fighting through a court ruling to obtain a fifth year of eligibility.

One more note: this Lipscomb team has already played a game this year. The Bisons opened their season with an 86-79 loss to Southeast Missouri State on Monday evening and then made the five and a half hour drive to Iowa City to play the Hawkeyes. 

Simpkins was as advertised in the loss, tallying a game-high 22 points and four rebounds, while Esmeraldo had 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Lipscomb shot just 42% from the floor and was dominated in just about every statistical category (rebounds, assists, blocks) and lost the turnover battle, 15-13. 

Series history: This is the first all-time meeting between Iowa and Lipscomb. The Hawkeyes are 4-1 all-time against ASUN opponents. 

Iowa returners: The Hawkeyes return 45.4% of their scoring, 61.5% of their rebounding, and 46.7% of their assists from 2025-26, with third-year forward Cooper Koch being the leading returning scorer after posting 7.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last year. 

Iowa unranked in AP Poll: Iowa wasn't ranked in the preseason AP Poll, but did receive 12 votes, which means it enters the season ranked No. 34.