Tim Lester plans an aggressive approach to fixing Iowa’s worst in the nation offense. The former head coach at Western Michigan was introduced as the Hawkeyes’ new offensive coordinator. He spent the past season as an analyst with the Green Bay Packers.

Lester’s offenses have featured a lot of run-pass-option which would be a new look for the Hawkeyes. His main goal is to develop an offense to fit the quarterback.

As Lester installs his offense, he will be waiting on starting quarterback Cade McNamara. He is recovering from an ACL injury suffered in a week five win over Michigan State and won’t be available for spring drills.

Lester knows all about Iowa’s history of developing outstanding tight ends and says his offense over the years has featured a lot of the two tight end sets that the Hawkeyes employ.

Lester plans to coach from the press box and will also serve as quarterbacks coach. He looks forward to working with McNamara.

The UNI men’s basketball team will be out to snap a three game losing skid on Wednesday night at home against Missouri State. The Panthers will be looking to bounce back from Saturday’s 28-point home loss to Murray State.

That’s UNI coach Ben Jacobson who says defense and rebounding have suffered the past three games.

Missouri State enters the game having won four straight.

Both teams are 6-6 in the Valley.

Hawkeye Ten Conference:
Clarinda 50, Creston 37
Red Oak 49, Southwest Valley 47 (NC)
#6 Harlan 62, Glenwood 38

Western Iowa Conference:
MVAOCOU 72, IKM-Manning 16 (NC)

Rolling Valley Conference:
#9 CAM 88, Ar-We-Va 30
#13 Coon Rapids-Bayard 48, Glidden-Ralston 17
#14 Woodbine 65, Paton-Churdan 23

Corner Conference: 
Essex 52, Diagonal 42 (NC)
Stanton 65, Griswold 36

West Central Conference:
West Central Valley 45, Madrid 29
#3 Des Moines Christian 60, Pleasantville 26
Roland-Story 54, Van Meter 44 (NC)

Hawkeye Ten Conference:
Tri-Center 60, Shenandoah 52 (NC)
Creston 53, Clarinda 42
Red Oak 55, Southwest Valley 51

Rolling Valley Conference:
Boyer Valley 67, West Harrison 60
Coon Rapids-Bayard 57, Glidden-Ralston 51

Pride of Iowa Conference:
Wayne 55, East Union 42

West Central Conference:
Roland-Story 54, Van Meter 51 (NC)
#2 Madrid 72, West Central Valley 38

Iowa State coach Matt Campbell will be at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday when former Cyclone quarterback Brock Purdy leads the San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 58. Purdy became the ISU starter as a freshman and led the Cyclones to four bowl games, a trip to the Big 12 Championship game and a Fiesta Bowl victory. Campbell is not sure he will get a chance to see the former Cyclone.

Campbell says several of Purdy’s former ISU teammates will be at the game.

Campbell is not surprised by the success Purdy has enjoyed in the NFL.

Campbell says two weeks into fall camp Purdy’s freshman he knew he had someone special.

Campbell says Purdy has succeeded at all levels of football because he wins.

Drake basketball coach Darian DeVries says his team is focused on what is ahead and not what could have been. The Bulldog’s Missouri Valley regular season title hopes took a hit on Saturday with a loss at league leader Indiana State and they begin the week with a 9-3 record in conference play and 18-5 overall.

The Bulldogs host Southern Illinois on Wednesday night.

The CAM Cougars basketball team fought their way to a 68-54 victory against the Ar-We-Va Rockets on Monday night. The Cougars went back and forth throughout the first quarter, managing to scrape up three points at the end of the first to be up 20-13. In the second quarter Ar-We-Va came out fired up and erased a seven-point deficit thanks to a passionate speech from Head Coach Matt Wilken. Midway through the second, the Rockets had their first lead of the night at 26-25. Both teams went back and forth throughout the rest of the quarter swapping the lead until CAM managed to sink a few triples to be up 25-30 at half time.

In the third quarter the Rockets seemed to slow down as CAM sped up going on an 8-0 run to start the quarter. Ar-We-Va never got close to touching the Cougar lead throughout the rest of the game.

Collin Bower had another impressive night for CAM scoring 26 points. Chase Jahde was second in scoring with 15 points and Ryan Bower chipped in 11.  CAM head coach Ian Hunt commented on his players physical mindset heading into this game.

Coach Hunt wants to see his team’s physical defense carry over for the rest of the year.

Ar-We-Va was led by 15 from Harley Molina and 14 from Wade Ragaller. The Rockets fall to 12-8 on the season. CAM bumps up to 10-9 and stay at home to take on Nodaway Valley Tuesday night.

The CAM Cougars Girls basketball team looked as strong as ever with an intimidating home win over the Ar-We-Va Rockets on Monday night 88-30. The Cougars used a 13-3 run to start the first quarter and ended the first on a 13-0 run to blow the game open. CAM led 28-6 at the end of the first and grew the lead to 21 by half at 39-18. The Cougars led by as many as 55 down the stretch.

The Cougars were led by 25 points from Meredith Rich. Three other players finished in double figures with Eva Steffensen dropping down 19, Kiera Nichols added 16, and Courtney Follmann chipped in 11 points.

Ar-We-Va got 9 points from Amber Ragaller in the loss. CAM Head Coach Joe Wollum liked the quick start and execution from his team.

CAM improves to 19-2 on the season and will wait to face the winner of Orient-Macksburg versus Murray next Tuesday at home. With the playoffs starting next week for the Cougars, Coach Wollum noted that his team is tough to beat when they focus on getting into transition.

The Rockets fall to 4-17 and will head to West Bend-Mallard on Thursday.

Per the updated 2024 postseason manual, the Class 2A and Class 1A brackets will be released Monday, Feb. 5, and the Class 4A and Class 3A brackets will be released Monday, Feb. 12.

Preliminary round games in Class 1A are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 9. First round district games in Class 2A and Class 1A begin on Monday, Feb. 12. Opening round substate games for Class 4A and Class 3A tipoff on Monday, Feb. 19.

Brackets are displayed in district and substate formats through the links below.

With the addition of IHSAA basketball rankings, bracket assignments and seedings are now managed by the IHSAA.

Eight teams from each class advance to the 2024 IHSAA State Basketball Tournament presented by Iowa Farm Bureau, set for March 4-8 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. For more information on the postseason process, please view the Basketball Postseason Manual.