Jerrod Calhoun’s ties to the Midwest appear to be paying off for Utah State.
According to college basketball bracketologist and analyst Rocco Miller, the Aggies and the Iowa Hawkeyes are close to finalizing an early-season nonconference game for next season, at a neutral site.
Slated for Nov. 22, sources told Miller, the game will be played in Kansas City at the T-Mobile Center.
It will mark the first time the Aggies have played a Big Ten opponent — also Iowa — during the regular season since the 2021-22 season, when Utah State was dismantled by the Hawkeyes inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Utah State’s most recent bout with a Big Ten program came against No. 1 seed Purdue in the 2023-24 NCAA Tournament.
Utah State and Iowa have met only four times ever, twice since 2000, and the Hawkeyes represent a good opportunity for résumé building for the Aggies.
Iowa finished last season with a 19-15 record, falling to the University of Utah in the second round of the NIT. The Hawkeyes are optimistic about an improved 2024-25 campaign, after senior Payton Sandfort announced his withdrawal from the NBA draft and return to Iowa.
Writes Tyler Tachman of the Des Moines Register: “Sandfort, who averaged a team-high 16.4 points as a junior, should enter next season among the best players in the Big Ten Conference. He gives Iowa a proven high-volume scorer and lethal 3-point threat. Sandfort scored in double-figures in 13 of Iowa’s last 15 games as a junior. During an up-and-down 2023-24 season, he also emerged as an outstanding leader.”
Add in last season’s Big Ten co-Freshman of the Year in Owen Freeman, in addition to Josh Dix, who had something of a breakout season as a sophomore, and the Hawkeyes are strongly positioned to move up the Big Ten standings next year.
For Utah State, a resurgent Iowa team offers the chance for a significant résumé-boosting win early in the season, which could be key to the Aggies getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year and fourth time in the last five years.
