Iowa vs. Northwestern men’s basketball glance: Time/TV/game info (Feb. 8, 2026)

What: Iowa (17-5, 7-4 Big Ten Conference) vs. Northwestern (10-13, 2-10 Big Ten Conference), men’s basketball

When/where: Sunday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: FS1 (Noah Reed, Steve Prohm)

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates

Series: Iowa leads the all-time series between the schools, 126-62. That includes a 72-19 edge in Iowa City. Northwestern did win the most recent previous matchup, 68-57, at Evanston, Ill.

Iowa’s next game: Wednesday, Feb. 11 at Maryland, 5 p.m.

What to know: These teams are going in completely opposite directions.

Iowa has won five games in a row, including just finishing up a successful trip to the West Coast, where it won at Oregon (84-66) and Washington (84-74). It is the first time the Hawkeyes have won five consecutive Big Ten games since the 2021-22 season.

The win at Washington came despite Iowa trailing at halftime by seven points. Bennett Stirtz scored 22 points, hitting four 3-pointers. He has scored 20-plus points in each of the games in Iowa’s win streak.

Alvaro Folgueiras added 16 points, Cooper Koch and Tavion Banks 11 each.

“I think he was able to drive a little bit more,” Iowa Coach Ben McCollum said of Folgueiras. “Cut a little bit more. The screening angles are getting better. He is getting more in tune on the offensive side of the ball. He is allowing things to come to him. Just everything that we’ve kind of preached, sometimes it takes time to click. And he’s just making winning plays defensively in particular. A lot of that leads to his good offense.

“I think you’ll be surprised at how much better he continues to get. Sometimes it just takes longer than others to get himself to that level.”

Meanwhile, Northwestern has lost two games in a row and eight of its last 10. It was pounded at Illinois in its previous game, 84-44.

The Wildcats are led by senior forward Nick Martinelli, who leads the Big Ten Conference in scoring at 22.8 points per game. He has taken 134 more shots than guard Jayden Reid, who has the second-most attempts on the team.

“Just like everybody in the Big Ten, I think records kind of go out the window a little bit,” McCollum said. “I don’t know Coach (Chris) Collins, but I have watched his teams for years, and he is an excellent coach. His teams play extremely hard. This team does (too). They’ve got one of the best players in the league on their team, and they continue to compete, continue to fight.

“It’ll be an extremely difficult matchup against a team that plays extremely hard.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com