Iowa Basketball: Hawkeyes Enter the AP Poll

While a lot of attention has been on the remarkable turnaround for the Iowa Hawkeyes on the football field, the Iowa men’s basketball team has gotten off to a red hot start to the 2022 season. Iowa entered the year unranked, but has started the year 3-0.

That run was capped last week by a 83-67 drubbing of Seton Hall on the road in the Gavitt Tipoff Games. The win was impressive not only for Iowa’s ability to fill it up against a solid defensive Pirates team, but the Hawkeyes also brought the defense to Jersey. That’s been a trend this season and it’s been enough to push Iowa up to 57th in adjusted defensive efficiency per KenPom.

That’s an improvement from 80th nationally, where Iowa finished the year a season ago and a big reason why KenPom really likes the Hawkeyes in 2022-2023. Combined with the 3rd rated adjusted offensive efficiency, the Hawkeyes are KenPom’s #15 team and getting a road win at the #35 ranked Seton Hall was a big deal.

On Monday, the national media agreed as the latest AP Poll saw the Hawkeyes ranked for the first time this season. Iowa comes in at #25 nationally.

Here’s a look at the full poll.

1. North Carolina
2. Houston
3. Kansas
4. Texas
5. Virginia
6. Gonzaga
7. Baylor
8. Duke
9. Arkansas
10. Creighton
11. Indiana
12. Michigan State
13. Auburn
14. Arizona
15. Kentucky
16. Illinois
17. San Diego State
18. Alabama
19. UCLA
20. UConn
21. Texas Tech
22. Tennessee
23. Maryland
24. Purdue
25. Iowa

With Iowa jumping into the ranks, the Big Ten now has six teams inside the top-25. The Hawkeyes join, Purdue, Maryland, Illinois, Michigan State and Indiana as ranked teams. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State all received votes this week as well.

The six ranked teams by the Big Ten is the most among any conference. The SEC is second with five teams ranked inside the top-25. The Big 12 is next with four teams ranked, though three of them are inside the top-10. The Pac-12 and ACC each have three teams ranked while the Big East has two.

The Hawkeyes will look to continue their hot start to the season this week with a pair of games. Iowa will play host to unranked Omaha on Monday night before taking on Clemson on a neutral site Friday evening as part of the Emerald Coast Classic.