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Hawkeyes draw Georgia Tech match-up for ACC/Big Ten Men’s Basketball Challenge

Sports

June 24th, 2022 by admin

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa men’s basketball team will host Georgia Tech on Tuesday, Nov. 29, as part of the 2022 ACC/Big Ten Men’s Basketball Challenge.

The Hawkeyes have won seven of their last nine Challenge games, including their last four: Virginia (75-74) in 2021; North Carolina (93-80) in 2020; Syracuse (68-54) in 2019; and Pitt (69-68) in 2018. Iowa has also won its last four Challenge home games inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena: Notre Dame (2013); Florida State (2015); Pitt (018); and North Carolina (2020).

This will be the third overall meeting between the two programs. The Hawkeyes cruised to an 85-67 victory over the Yellow Jackets at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the second year of the Challenge in 2000. Georgia Tech edged Iowa (79-78) in the second round of the postseason NIT in Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes return five of their top seven scorers from last year’s Big Ten Tournament championship team. Iowa won 26 games, second most in a single season in program history, and tied for fourth in the conference standings last season. The Hawkeyes have competed in the last three NCAA Tournaments and have been ranked in the final Associated Press Poll each of the last three years: No. 16 in 2020, No. 8 in 2021 and No. 25 in 2022. Patrick McCaffery (10.5 ppg; 3.6 rpg), Kris Murray (9.7 ppg; 4.3 rpg) and Filip Rebraca (5.8 ppg; 5.6 rpg) are Iowa’s three returning starters.

Georgia Tech is coached by Josh Pastner, who just completed his sixth season in Atlanta. He guided the Yellow Jackets to 12 victories and a 14th-place finish a year ago in the ACC. In 2021, Pastner and Georgia Tech won the ACC Tournament. The Yellow Jackets return two starters from last season’s team: guard Kyle Sturdivant (7.6 ppg; 2.5 rpg) and center Rodney Howard (6.5 ppg; 5.1 rpg).

Game times and television information will be announced at a later date. ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU will combine to televise all 14 games of the three-day event matching top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner’s Cup. The Big Ten won last season’s Challenge, 8-6. 

Iowa’s complete 2022-23 men’s basketball schedule will be announced later this summer.

The 2022 Challenge schedule is listed below:

Monday, Nov. 28
Minnesota at Virginia Tech
Pitt at Northwestern 

Tuesday, Nov. 29

Syracuse at Illinois
Penn State at Clemson
Virginia at Michigan
Georgia Tech at Iowa
Wake Forest at Wisconsin 

Wednesday, Nov. 30
Rutgers at Miami
Boston College at Nebraska
Ohio State at Duke
Purdue at Florida State
North Carolina at Indiana
Michigan State at Notre Dame