Iowa men’s basketball prepares for a late-night matchup against Washington

IOWA CITY — Brew a pot of coffee in the afternoon or during dinner. It’ll be a late night of Iowa men’s basketball Wednesday night — of course, on a school night, too.

Iowa’s final game in a pair of West Coast matchups includes the first game against the Washington Huskies since playing in back-to-back days in 1966. The 10 p.m. CT tipoff is the latest of the season — the closest being two 8 p.m. games at home in the next two weeks and the two 8:30 p.m. contests during the Acrisure Classic in November.

The Hawkeyes are just 1-2 against the Huskies in Seattle, but Iowa’s won the most recent battle between the two programs — an 85-79 win in Iowa City.

But a late-night basketball game won’t let Iowa stumble into another loss if head coach Ben McCollum has anything to say about it.

“They're talented,” McCollum said. “They're big, they're physical. I think (Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle) does a great job of putting them in position to put pressure on the rim. They play hard off the offensive rebound. They do a lot of different things and to be honest, I think they’ve had maybe if it's not the toughest schedule, in the Big Ten, it’s pretty close.”

There is, however, some changes that go into a late-night game. The Hawkeyes will have to make some adjustments to accommodate the change. Though in some cases, that’s more of a coaching staff adjustment, rather than the college students adjusting.

“Your guys have to pace themselves and make sure that they're awake during shootaround, but guys nowadays go to bed so late,” McCollum said. “That's just when they start livening up. I go to bed at 9:30, 10 o’clock.”

The Hawkeyes will have to keep up youth anyways, with Washington’s top scorer playing freshman forward Hannes Steinbach. The 6-foot-11 forward is scoring 17.6 points and collecting 11.4 rebounds per game, starting in all 18 games for the Huskies.

Steinbach is one of four players averaging double figures, but Washington’s Claude Desmond — who averages 13.3 points per game — won’t be available Wednesday night with an injury.

“He's as good as there is in the country for big guys,“ McCollum said of Steinbach. ”He's versatile, he can finish, he's extremely long. He's an excellent offensive rebounder. He's smart, he can pass, he can do literally everything, and the offense is built around what he does. So he's a major challenge.”

McCollum mentioned that Iowa’s Tavion Banks is anticipated to play against Washington, after playing just 11 minutes against Oregon. Banks left the game with an undisclosed injury, McCollum said, but the head coach reported it to be some soreness Tuesday morning.

Iowa’s won its last four games since dropping three straight in mid-January, and faces another quick turnaround from its 10 p.m. game before welcoming in Northwestern on Sunday afternoon.

The good news for Iowa is that McCollum’s used to off-hinged travel times, it’s already happened once before.

But that’s two games away. Right now, enjoy the evening coffee and see what the men’s team will do against the Huskies in Seattle for the first time since the turn of the century.

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