Iowa basketball comments on March Madness win over Clemson

For the first time since 2021, Iowa (22-12, 10-10 Big Ten) has advanced in the NCAA Tournament. The ninth-seeded Hawkeyes built its largest lead of 14 points and then hung on down the stretch to oust No. 8 seed Clemson (24-11, 12-6 ACC), 67-61.

Senior point guard Bennett Stirtz scored a game-high 16 points, but he needed help on Friday night as Stirtz connected on just 4-of-17 shots. That help came from a number of Hawkeyes, including junior guard Kael Combs, who scored 15 points for Iowa and helped set the tone. Combs and Iowa won the 50-50 balls, outrebounding Clemson , 40-27, and collecting a season-high 15 offensive boards.

"Yeah, I just try to do whatever the teams needs me to do to win, and if that's going to get 50-50 balls and playing defense, running the offense, getting people open, that's what I'm going to do," Combs said. Stirtz said its Big Ten slate prepared the Hawkeyes to go fight for those 50-50 balls in the NCAA Tournament. "Yeah, we were used to being undersized in the Big Ten this year and we were used to the physicality so we knew we had to bring it and especially just out-rebounding them and playing harder on the glass and play tougher than them.

I think if we did that, we had a good shot of winning the game, and I think we did that," Stirtz said. Here's the rest of what Combs, Stirtz and Iowa head coach Ben McCollum had to say after the Hawkeyes topped Clemson for McCollum's first NCAA Tournament win at Iowa: Ben McCollum's opening statement "First off, congrats to Clemson. They had a phenomenal year.