The Iowa men’s basketball team took the lead 13 seconds into its 99-47 exhibition game win over Slippery Rock on Friday night and never relinquished it.

In the first men’s basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena with fans in attendance in 612 days, the Hawkeyes shot 52 percent from the field, while holding the Rock to 22 percent shooting on the night. Iowa went on a 24-0 run midway through the first half to lead 41-18 at the break. Things only got worse for Slippery Rock from there.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Rock by 29 points over the final 20 minutes of play.

Thirteen different Iowa players scored against Slippery Rock. Four of them reached double-figures.

Sophomore forward Patrick McCaffery led the way with 18 points (7-of-9 shooting) and also grabbed eight rebounds on the night. The former Iowa City West prep sprained both ankles and missed six weeks of practice over the summer, but showed no signs of that on Friday night.

“He had one sprained ankle, and then on his first day back he sprained the other one,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “And they were bad ones. They were swollen and black and blue from his kneecap to his big toe … Last week you started to see him coming back. I’m not surprised with how he played tonight.”

Right behind Patrick McCaffery on the stat sheet was his teammate in the frontcourt, Keegan Murray, with 17 points.

The 6-foot-8 sophomore from Cedar Rapids won the opening tip for the Hawkeyes, then quickly proceeded to score a layup for the first point of the game. The preseason All-Big Ten selection shot 7-of-10 from the field and tallied five rebounds and two blocks on the night.

Assessing the rotation

Three starters from last season’s Iowa men’s basketball team departed the program in the offseason. Center Luka Garza (the reigning consensus National Player of the Year and the program’s all-time leading scorer) and guard/forward Joe Wieskamp are both in the NBA, while guard CJ Fredrick is now playing at Kentucky.

Another starter, Connor McCaffery, has transitioned into a sixth-man role this season. So this year’s Hawkeye lineup looks a lot different.

Junior Joe Toussaint got the start at point guard. Sixth-year senior Jordan Bohannon joined him in the backcourt as Iowa’s new starting “two” guard. Keegan Murray and Patrick McCaffery started at the forwards in the frontcourt. North Dakota transfer Filip Rebraca rounded out the rotation as the new starting center, replacing Garza.

That is the starting lineup Iowa has been using throughout the offseason, Rebraca said.

Fran McCaffery went small with his second unit on Friday.

Ahron Ulis, Tony Perkins, Payton Sandfort, Connor McCaffery, and Kris Murray were the next five players on the court when the Hawkeyes took the starters out.

The second unit looked “tight” in the first half, per Fran McCaffery. So, Iowa’s 12th-year coach decided to start that squad in the second half and saw positive results. The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 24-2 run at the start of the second half, largely because, per Fran McCaffery, the second unit was more relaxed on the floor.

“They’re really good players,” Fran McCaffery said of the second unit. “They’ve been playing really well in practice … We were not moving the ball like we were capable of, but we did in the second half. I thought we mixed it with drives, post feeds, and jumpers. We didn’t settle. We created some foul opportunities and were able to get into the bonus.”

Beyond Iowa’s starters and second unit, centers Josh Ogundele and Riley Mulvey could also see minutes in the regular season depending on the opponent, McCaffery said.

Hawkeye debuts

Rebraca (a senior) and Sandfort (a freshman) have varying degrees of experience at the college level. But both players found themselves a little nervous as the game tipped off.

“The nerves got to me, which is kind of weird because I’m a senior,” Rebraca said. “It quickly went away and I started to let the game come to me.”

The Serbian finished with six points (3-of-5 shooting), six rebounds, and a block in his Hawkeye debut. Rebraca noted postgame that the nerves could have been caused by the fact that he “knows who he is replacing” at center in Garza.

Sandfort scored all of his 12 points on the night in the second half. Fran McCaffery said he put his arm around Sandfort at halftime and told him to relax. That seemed to have worked. The freshman hit two 3-pointers within a span of 20 seconds early in the second half, and shot 5-of-7 from the field over the final 20 minutes of the game.

“I was feeling a little bit nervous going into my first college game,” Sandfort said. “… You always got to get the first [shot] out of the way. Then I really honed things in and I was just out there playing basketball again and having fun.

“Connor talked to be before the second half. He told me that he’d be looking for me and that every time I touch the ball to put it up and it would go in.”

The former Waukee prep noted that Iowa’s coaching staff has told him he has the green shot to shoot whenever he wants to.

Where Iowa struggled

Despite the blowout, Fran McCaffery was quick to point out that Iowa allowed 10 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over nine times in the first half, calling that “unacceptable.”

Up next

Iowa’s regular season begins on Nov. 9 against Longwood at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game is scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. on BTN+ as the second half of a Hawkeye women’s-men’s basketball doubleheader.