IOWA CITY – Coach Fran McCaffery and his Iowa Hawkeyes are preparing for a New Year’s Eve showdown with the 5th ranked Indiana Hoosiers.
The game will be played in Iowa City and is the conference opener for both teams. Carver Hawkeye Arena is sold out for the game.
“We recognize who we are playing and we recognize that we are going to have to play better than we’ve played up until now,” McCaffery said about the match-up.
McCaffery said one of hte biggest challenges of the game will be facing center Cody Zeller.
“It’s a great challenge, McCaffery said of facing Zeller. “Obviously, Cody Zeller’s playing at a very high level. Did so last year. He’s one of the best running big men I’ve seen in a long time, tremendous speed. Their running game is really on all cylinders right now, and that’s obviously an issue for us at both ends of the floor and have to have the ability to get back.”
Iowa faces a tough stretch to open the Big Ten Conference season. Aftter playing highly-ranked Indiana, the Hawkeyes then play Michigan and Michigan State.
Watch entire press conference with Coach McCaffery and other Iowa players:
httpv://youtu.be/LWfzS7p57AU