Iowa Men's Basketball is starting to turn heads with their play to start the season.
The Hawkeyes have begun the season with a 10-2 (1-1 Big Ten) record, with their only two losses coming to top-10 opponents.
Iowa suffered its first loss of the season in its opening game of Big Ten Conference play to No. 7 Michigan State on the road in East Lansing, Michigan.
The schedulers did the Hawkeyes no favors, and the Spartans handled the Hawkeyes 71-52 at home.
Bennett Stirtz and the Hawkeyes bounced back with an 83-64 win against Maryland at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, before blowing a first-half lead in a loss to No. 4 Iowa State in Ames.
Iowa once again responded after a loss, dominating Western Michigan and Bucknell before a brief holiday break.
In Iowa's last two victories, the squad outscored its opponents 185-90, and wrapped up non-conference play with two massive victories.
Iowa's impressive start to the season under first-year Head Coach Ben McCollum is getting people's attention, and one ranking has it finishing much higher than initially projected.
Heading into conference play, here are our Power 5 conference standing projections 🏀 pic.twitter.com/pcUnusx3Hw
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) December 23, 2025
The College Basketball (CBK) Report has the Iowa finishing at No. 5 in the Big Ten Conference, a few spots higher than the squad was initially projected to finish.
In their "way too early" projections for the Big Ten over the summer, CBK Report had the Hawkeyes finishing at No. 6, and they are staying close to that with that prediction in their latest projections.
The Hawkeyes have gotten off to the start all Iowa fans wanted, excluding the loss to Iowa State, and they have been doing it with solid defense.
The Iowa defense is ranked No. 3 overall in scoring defense, allowing only 59.9 points per game and No. 31 in turnovers forced per game (15.7).
Iowa's defensive rating and turnovers per game numbers jumped significantly in their last contest against Bucknell, where the squad racked up 19 steals and held the Bison to 39 points.
While it is still very early in the season, McCollum has his guys ready to play every night and they are going to make some noise in the Big Ten this season.