Three questions before the exhibition opening in Iowa

The Iowa men's basketball team will play an exhibition game with Division II on Friday night Minnesota-Duluth The 2024-25 season begins at 7:00 p.m. CT at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game can only be watched/streamed via BTN+.

The Hawkeyes, who have a host of new faces on their roster as well as young players expected to step up, will look much different this year. With tip-off less than 12 hours away, here's a list of three things we'll be watching for tonight.

Fran McCaffery is expected to begin his 15th year in charge of the Hawkeyes. At Iowa media day, he stated that “this is probably the deepest team” he's ever had.

With 13 scholarship players, he would be confident playing every single one.

“I legitimately have 13 players that I feel comfortable with and I play several of them in different positions and rely on them to be productive in those different positions,” he said. They’re smart and they already exist.”

The question is how deep his bench is Strictly speaking ready to go?

While a friendly game against a Division II opponent isn't exactly the best litmus test for determining how much the backup will play this season, the first 30 minutes or so should give Iowa fans a good indication of who one will be Minutes at the start of the season will play an important role. A solid rotation probably won't be determined for another few months, but we'll get a better idea of ​​who will play the most.

Several names are easily identified as starters who will play the most minutes this season – Payton Sandfort, Owen Freeman and Josh Dix. Otherwise it's a big question mark.

Of course, players like Brock Harding, Ladji Demebele, Pryce Sandfort, Cooper Koch, Seydou Traore and Drew Thelwell will also be there. But how often they see the floor compared to Iowa's big three will be the question. Add in other fringe figures like Chris Tadjo, Even Brauns and Riley Mulvey and the water gets a little muddy – and then there's the easy-going former scholarship player Carter Kingsbury.

It will be interesting to see how McCaffery and his staff balance the lineup, who sees time where and in what situations, and how the roster's versatility affects rotations and time on the court.

As mentioned, Payton Sandfort, Freeman and Dix are the mainstays in Iowa's starting lineup early in the season. Between Harding and Thelwell, the Hawkeyes will also do well at point guard.

This allows the power to move forward.

McCaffery discussed the conundrum of who will start at the position and play a solid contingent of minutes at Iowa Media Day:

“All the guys fighting for playing time there are all really good and all different,” McCaffery said. “Ladji, Seydou and Cooper. But again, all three are not four men. … Ladji maybe more four, five. Coop and Seydou maybe three or four. The same goes for Coop. Someone will start there, but there will be many different people there.

Although we've gotten information from Iowa's Secret Battle about who started at this spot, it remains questionable who will be the consistent starter all season long.

As McCaffery said, each of the options brings their respective capabilities. Iowa may be best served by having a true foursome at this point in Demebele, but Traore brings an added athleticism to the starting lineup that they would otherwise lack, and Koch is a young man who is certainly in contention for the title. Big Ten Freshman of the Year could be by the end of the season.

It's possible that Tadjo can improve his game to consistent minutes in fourth place by the end of the season.

“We love (Chris) and we respect his work ethic, his intensity. That's a talent. This is an underrated talent. Hard work, physicality, intensity on every possession, not everyone does that, and he does it.”

Regardless of who starts at power forward, it will be very interesting to watch the rotation at the position.

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Throughout the summer we have heard from the players and coaching staff about the need to place more emphasis on defense this season. In McCaffery's decade and a half in Iowa City so far, there has been nothing but insult, insult and more insult. Adding a stronger defensive element would be a change – and a welcome one for the fan base.

“We've made some changes in terms of how we're going to guard things,” McCaffery said in July. “We also feel like the people we have hired are capable of doing this.”

McCaffery believes the squad now has personnel that will allow them to do different things in that regard.

“Sports-wise, sometimes when you don’t have a lot of depth, the defense can struggle a little bit,” he said. “Two years ago we played 1,000 minutes against three guys each. We just didn't have a lot of depth there – now we have it. Hopefully the intensity can be increased now that we have some fresh legs and fresh bodies out there.

Whether everything will come into play on defense or not is still an open question.

To reiterate the previous point, the Minnesota-Duluth game probably won't be the best time to determine whether or not the defense will be up to par this season. Howeverwe can still get a feel for the effort, intensity and schemes of the Iowa defense in his game.

How the defense – or lack thereof – performs is something to keep an eye on against the Bulldogs.