Hawkeyes start Big Ten men’s basketball tournament play Thursday vs. Ohio State or Wisconsin

Northwestern won its way into top 4 with victory at Rutgers Sunday night, dropping Iowa to No. 5 seed

Mar. 5, 2023 8:46 pm

Iowa’s Payton Sandfort is defended by Nebraska’s Sam Hoiberg and Jamarques Lawrence during the Hawkeyes’ 81-77 men’s basketball loss to the Huskers Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Iowa will begin Big Ten men’s basketball tournament play Thursday at approximately 1:30 p.m. against either No. 12-seed Wisconsin or No. 13 Ohio State.

The Hawkeyes fell out of a double-bye directly to Friday’s quarterfinals after they lost 81-77 to Nebraska Sunday afternoon and Northwestern beat Rutgers 65-53 Sunday night.

That left Iowa in a four-way tie for fifth-place in the Big Ten standings at 11-9 with Illinois, Maryland and Michigan. The Hawkeyes were 1-0 against all three of those teams to win the tiebreaker for the highest seed.

Iowa (19-12 overall) will play the winner of Wednesday’s 5:30 p.m. game between No. 12-seed Wisconsin (9-11 Big Ten, 17-13 overall) and No. 13 Ohio State (5-15, 13-18). The winner of the Hawkeyes’ Thursday game will face No. 4 Michigan State Friday around 1:30 p.m.

The Hawkeyes lost both their games against Wisconsin this season and were 1-1 against Ohio State.

The league’s top four seeds are, in order, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana and Michigan State.

The other seeds are No. 6 Maryland, No. 7 Illinois, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Rutgers, No. 10 Penn State, No. 11 Nebraska and No. 14 Minnesota.