Iowa men's basketball was set to face USC and UCLA this week. Here's what you need to know about the games with the California wildfires raging.

Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, and John Wooden haven’t played or coached for UCLA inside Pauley Pavilion since the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the Iowa men’s basketball team allowed the 2024-25 rendition of the Bruins to look just like those famous squads on Friday evening in Los Angeles.

Our expert college basketball predictions expect the Hawkeyes to play much better on the second-leg of its West Coast road swing.

Desmond Claude scores 25, Saint Thomas has 24, Wesley Yates III adds 21, and the Trojans shoot 64.9% from the field in a 99-89 victory at the Galen Center.

As Iowa tries to rebound from a pair of losses, Minnesota hopes to build upon its best win of the year. The Golden Gophers knocked off then-No. 20 Michigan 84-81 in overtime last Thursday for their first conference win. Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said his team was coming together after early-season struggles.

Owen Freeman, Brock Harding and Fran McCaffery pointed the finger at defensive failings after dropping back-to-back games against USC and UCLA last week. Iowa faces Minnesota's worst-in-the-conference offense next.

Freeman 11-14 0-1 23, Pa.Sandfort 6-11 4-6 20, Dix 5-10 1-3 13, Harding 3-7 1-1 8, Thelwell 4-10 6-6 16, Pr.Sandfort 2-4 0-0 5, Dembele 0-2 0-0 0, Traore 1-2 2-2 4, Tadjo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-60 14-19 89.

West Virginia announced the signing of Arkansas offensive line transfer Ty'Kieast Crawford on Thursday. Before landing at Arkansas, Crawford made the interesting decision coming out of high school to play for the Charlotte 49ers over offers from Arkansas,

Three-star big man Parker Jefferson is Minnesota's top signee in its 2025 high school recruiting class. He is dominating high school basketball in Inglewood, California, most notably recording a triple-double in one of his team's games earlier this week.

UCLA's rise to No. 1, South Carolina's repeat hopes and a captivating race for player of the year are among the top women's college basketball stories

Southern Illinois plays the Northern Iowa Panthers after Gift Uchenna scored 26 points in Southern Illinois' 85-70 loss to the Evansville Purple Aces.

Iowa is playing a dangerous game, in which the volume of the broader program narrative will only get louder should it continue down this path.