Wednesday afternoon doubleheader for Iowa women’s, men’s basketball

For those near Iowa City who have the afternoon off and like college basketball, Wednesday is a Christmas miracle.

Well, it’s more like a schedule-crunch because of the winter storm projected to head this way, but it’s a 2-for-1 no matter how you look at it.

If you buy a ticket for the Dartmouth-Iowa women’s game at noon (rescheduled Tuesday from 2 p.m.), at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, you can stay for the Eastern Illinois-Iowa men’s game at 2:30. That was moved up from its scheduled 7 p.m. start.

If you have a ticket for the men’s game, you can arrive early and see the women’s game at no extra charge.

Neither game was scheduled to be televised. Both will be streamed by Big Ten Network Plus, which is by subscription.

Neither contest is expected to be, well, a contest. The Dartmouth women bring a 2-10 record against the No. 13 Hawkeyes (9-3). Eastern Illinois’ men are 3-9. The Iowa men are 8-3.

This will almost certainly be the fourth-straight game the Iowa men are without forward Kris Murray and his 19.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Murray has been sidelined with a foot issue. He was walking without crutches or a walking boot last Saturday at Iowa’s 106-75 win over Southeast Missouri State.

“Day by day, little by little, he’s doing more and more,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Tuesday. “So it’s going well.

“I don’t think he’ll play tomorrow. Hopefully, play in the next one after that (Dec. 29, at Nebraska). But again, we’ll make that assessment as we get closer.”

In the meantime, the Hawkeyes will keep leaning on Filip Rebraca, who has averaged 20.3 points in Murray’s absence and was named the Big Ten’s Player of the Week Monday after his 30-point, 9-rebound, 6-assist game Saturday.

“What it means to me is some of my work is paying off,” Rebraca said.

“He’s just making plays,” McCaffery said, “and I think that’s what has been a big difference in our team.”

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