Iowa Hawkeyes learn their NCAA Tournament seed and first-round opponent

The Iowa Hawkeyes are back in the Big Dance after a short hiatus, and it has never felt better. In just the first season under new head coach Ben McCollum, he has Iowa heading into the NCAA Tournament as a nine-seed in the South Region.

The Hawkeyes will face the eight-seed Clemson, a team that made a convincing run in the ACC Tournament. Iowa and Clemson are both teams that could be very dangerous in the South Region. where there are many teams they could upset.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are set to face the Clemson Tigers in first round of the NCAA Tournament

Ben McCollum took over a rough Iowa men's basketball program that just could not do enough by the end of the regular season to get in the Big Dance. In just one season, McCollum has turned around the culture of the Hawkeyes program and gotten them safely into the tournament.

There are some matchups fans could be excited to see if they were to beat the Tigers in the first round. While Clemson will be a tough opponent, if the Hawkeyes move on, they have the potential of facing the one-seed Florida, a team that won 14 straight before losing to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament semifinals.

Iowa has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2021, when it beat Grand Canyon in the first round, but then fell to Oregon in the second round. The Hawkeyes will hope to make it back to the second round as well for the first time since 1999, when they made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

McCollum has his work cut out for him to make history with the Hawkeyes, but with the way he has led this team as of late, anything feels possible right now in Iowa.