UMBC-Iowa men’s basketball glance: Time/TV/livestream (Dec. 20, 2023)

What: UMBC (5-8) at Iowa (6-5), men’s basketball

When/where: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: BTN (Jason Ross Jr., Jess Settles)

Livestream: FoxSports.com or Fox Sports app

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series: Iowa leads, 2-0

What to know:

Iowa plays a second-consecutive mid-major after routing Florida A&M 88-52 in Des Moines last Saturday.

Freshman center Owen Freeman had a team-high 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in that game, and on Monday became Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season. His double-double was the first for an Iowa freshman since Joe Wieskamp in 2018.

Freshmen Brock Harding and Ladji Dembele had their best scoring games as Hawkeyes Saturday with 10 and 9 points, respectively. Dembele had three steals.

The America East Conference’s UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) earned lasting college basketball fame by becoming the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament when it beat Virginia 74-54 in 2018.

This season’s Retrievers have double-digit losses to William & Mary, Coppin State, Morgan State and Towson. They lost at Maryland, 92-68. Through Monday, UMBC was 328th nationally in the KenPom rankings. Iowa was 50th.

Former Hawkeye Keegan Murray of Cedar Rapids has scored 72 points over the Sacramento Kings’ last two games, making 16 of 22 three-pointers.

“I started watching that kid in fourth-grade,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Monday. “He was always confident in his ability to shoot. You saw that in his second year here. He was an elite shooter.

“I’m just thrilled for him. He was as good a person as I’ve ever coached. … I think that performance (Saturday’s 47 points against Utah) typifies what he can become, which is an absolute superstar in that league.”

Second-year pro Murray is averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds for the 16-9 Kings.

Former Hawkeye Luka Garza is the NBA G League's Player of the Week. He played two games for the Iowa Wolves, averaging 36.5 points, 12 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. He is on a two-way contract with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

Peter Jok, who scored 1,508 points at Iowa from 2013-2017, has signed with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G League. He played in France the last three years.

Jok scored 15 points the last time Iowa played UMBC, a 77-47 Hawkeyes win in 2014.