The brackets are out! It’s now official that Fran McCaffery and the Iowa Hawkeyes are heading back to the NCAA Tournament.
Excluding the 2019-20 season when the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it marks four consecutive seasons that Iowa has found its way into March Madness.
The Hawkeyes’ (19-13, 11-9 Big Ten) reward is a No. 8 seed and a date in the Midwest Region against ninth-seeded Auburn (20-12, 10-8 SEC) in Birmingham, Ala. The contest takes place Thursday night at 5:50 p.m. CT on TNT with Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson on the call.
It’s a matchup of a pair of teams that enter after frustrating closes to the regular season and conference tournaments. Iowa lost its regular season finale versus Nebraska, 81-77, and then its opener in the Big Ten Tournament against Ohio State, 73-69.
Meanwhile, Auburn comes stumbling in having lost nine of its last 13 games. That included an SEC Tournament exit against Arkansas, 76-73.
“The same way I feel about the draw every year. We’re going to play somebody really good,” Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery said of the Hawkeyes’ matchup.
While the draw evokes similar feelings about the type of challenge it will present, it’s also always a reminder of great achievement for a program. That’s no different this year for a Hawkeyes squad that’s one of eight Big Ten teams that earned a trip to the Big Dance.
“It’s such a tremendous accomplishment. It’s so hard to get there, especially in our league. It’s so incredibly balanced and there’s, as you know, so many really good teams across the country in a number of Power Five conferences, a number of great teams in other leagues. So, just to see your name come up is something that I think everybody that plays college basketball hopes that that happens at some point. If it happens more than once, it’s even better. So, it’s time to go to work,” McCaffery said.
Naturally, there was plenty of reaction from Iowa fans and from college basketball fans in general to the assignment for the Hawkeyes.
Some were outraged that Iowa has to play Auburn so close to the Tigers’ home. Others actually like the draw for the Hawkeyes quite a bit. Here’s the best from Twitter on Iowa heading to Birmingham to face Auburn.