Iowa (6-1) opens Big Ten play on Tuesday with a date against Northwestern (6-2) from inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Ahead of its date against the Wildcats, Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery provided injury updates on multiple Hawkeyes.
McCaffery said that Iowa sophomore forward Seydou Traore is expected to be a “game-time decision” and that Iowa will be without freshman forward Cooper Koch.
Traore exited Iowa’s 110-77 win over USC Upstate last Tuesday after just a pair of minutes with what coach McCaffery said was a bad ankle sprain.
“Yeah, it’s just a bad sprain, so you just hope it’s a week or a few extra days rather than two, two and a half weeks, three weeks. You don’t know,” McCaffery told the Hawkeye Radio Network afterwards.
Traore, a transfer from Manhattan, is averaging 6.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game on 41.9% field goal shooting.
According to Tyler Tachman of the Des Moines Register, McCaffery didn’t specify on the nature of Koch’s absence. Koch missed Iowa’s matchup versus USC Upstate.
The 6-foot-8, 215 pound freshman forward has appeared in six games this season and is shooting 50.0% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range. Koch is averaging 4.0 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
McCaffery also said that senior forward Even Brauns will “be fine.” The reserve big also missed Iowa’s date against USC Upstate.
In a positive update, senior forward Payton Sandfort said he is feeling 100% again. Sandfort had been dealing with a wrist injury since Iowa’s 76-66 win over Washington State on Nov. 15.
“I feel comfortable now. I kinda have all my tools back. So I’m good to go,” Sandfort told reporters on Monday.
Iowa tips off against Northwestern at 6 p.m. CT with the game set to stream on Peacock.
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions.
Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF
