Instant Takeaways From Iowa Men’s Basketball’s Win Over Lipscomb

Ben McCollum’s postgame presser.

While most Americans stressed out (or celebrated) the results of the midterm elections, Iowa men’s basketball fans settled into the tan-cladded seats of Carver-Hawkeye Arena to cheer on their team for the first time in the 2026-27 campaign

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It was a struggle for a little bit, but the Hawkeyes pulled away for a 76-54 win over the visiting Lipscomb Bisons on Tuesday night.

Here are some instant observations from Iowa’s win.

Andrew McKeever misses opener

One of the players that Iowa fans were looking forward to watching the most on this night was Andrew McKeever, and they had a good reason for doing so. The Hawkeyes lacked a paint presence during their Elite Eight run last year, but the highly-prized acquisition of the 7-foot-3 center from Saint Mary’s certainly seemed to be a good start to fixing that.

McKeever recorded 14 minutes in the exhibition game last week, but McCollum said after the game that the center had been sidelined from practice for a few days before the game, and it appears whatever injury was bothering him enough for him to miss Tuesday’s season opener. McKeever was going through pregame warmups before being scratched. That probably means Iowa is just taking proper precautions early in the non-conference.

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Not great offensive flow

McCollum was worried about Iowa finding a go-to scorer in the final five minutes of the game, but through one half, it looked like finding the alpha scorer at all is going to take some time for this Hawkeye team. Whether it was trying to feed Trevin Jirak in the paint or a look to the wing, there just wasn’t any offensive flow in the first half. Peyton McCollum and Cooper Koch were the only Iowa players to connect from beyond the arc, and Iowa shot just 43% from the floor.

The Hawkeyes appeared to put game on cruise control midway through the period, but the lack of any offensive rhythm in the half allowed Lipscomb to storm back and take the lead on a 12-2 scoring run, a run that…

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Publish date : 2026-11-04 03:07:00

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