BIRMINGHAM, Al  — The Iowa men’s basketball team will face off against the Auburn Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama. The Hawkeyes and Tigers are the No. 8 and 9 seeds in the Midwest Region respectively.  

Auburn finished the regular season 20-11 overall, 10-8 in SEC play, and lost its first conference tournament game, 76-73, to Tennessee on March 9. 

The only common opponent between the Hawkeyes and Tigers this season was the Northwestern Wildcats. 

Auburn beat Northwestern, 43-42, in late November to win the Cancun Challenge Championship. Iowa split the season series with the ‘Cats, defeating Northwestern, 86-70, in Iowa City on Jan. 31, and falling in Evanston, 80-60, on Feb. 19.

On the sidelines, there are multiple connections between Iowa and Auburn. 

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was an assistant coach at Iowa from 1986-92, and Iowa assistant coach Matt Gatens worked under Pearl at Auburn from 2017-19. 

The winner of the Iowa-Auburn game will face the winner of No. 1 seed Houston vs. No. 16 seed Northern Kentucky on Saturday.

Matchup: Iowa (19-13, 11-9) vs.  Auburn (20-12, 10-8)

Scheduled game time: 5:50 p.m. 

Location: Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama

TV: TNT

Announcers: Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, and Tracy Wolfson

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network, Sirius XM, Sirius XM App