The Iowa Hawkeyes made their official Carver-Hawkeye Arena debut Friday night, with a 102-81 exhibition win over Division-II Minnesota-Duluth, coached by former Hawkeye Justin Wieck.

Payton Sandfort led all scorers with 23 points, one of three Hawkeyes to top a 20-spot in the win. As a team, the Hawkeyes shot 59% from the field, and led by double-digits for the final 19:40 of the ballgame.

"They're physical, and they're very well-coached," said head coach Fran McCaffery of the visiting Bulldogs. "Justin does a terrific job, and we wanted to play a team like that."

"We could have scheduled down and had a false sense of confidence about who we are," continued McCaffery. "But they forced us to guard their picking action. They forced us to play through contact. And we had to adjust as the game went on. So it was a very good game for us in that sense."

1. A Big Three in the making? Sandfort's 23 points paced the Hawkeyes, but he was tailed closely by Josh Dix (22 points, 9-12 FG) and Owen Freeman (21 points, 10-12 FG). Sandfort also added eight rebounds and five assists in the win.

Sandfort came terribly close to declaring for the NBA Draft during the offseason, while Freeman is the reigning co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Dix's ascent to that level of play began at the end of last season, and Friday's performance — a mix of shot-creation, deep shooting and aggressive perimeter defense — looked like another step toward joining Sandfort and Freeman in the highest echelon on the roster.

Sandfort's overall game remains the best on the roster, and it was in full display Friday. His shot release is quicker and quieter (mechanically) than ever, and his passing and rebounding are good enough to force opponents to account for him at all times — on offense, defense and in transition.

Freeman made his first eight shots of the game en route to a 10-12 performance, and while rumors of his expanded perimeter game flourished during the offseason, he spent the majority of his day controlling the paint against the undersized Bulldogs.

Freeman's increased strength work was evident, as he frequently outmuscled the smaller Bulldogs on the block to generate open looks at the rim.

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2. A lot to like... Despite a relatively close game, for a D-II exhibition matchup — Iowa only led by nine points at halftime, and never led by more than 24 — the Hawkeyes looked like a team with better athleticism, depth, and versatility than last season.

Aside from 6'1" Brock Harding and 6'3" Drew Thelwell, no Hawkeye rotation player is shorter than 6'6" (Dix), and McCaffery showed he's comfortable going 10-deep in his rotation, as he did in the very-much-competitive first half. In particular, the second unit offers an interesting mix of defense, driving and long-range shooting :

- 6'3" Drew Thelwell

- 6'7" Pryce Sandfort

- 6'7" Seydou Traore

- 6'8" Cooper Koch

- 6'9" Evan Brauns

Pryce Sandfort's 11 points — easily the most from the bench unit — all came in the second half, including both of his three-pointers. Koch splashed his first three-pointer of the ballgame, but shot just 1-5 overall from the field for four points. Still, Koch looks an upperclassman on the court and will likely soon contend for more than the 14 minutes of game time he earned in Friday's win.

3. ...but far from a finished product. Minnesota-Duluth is no slouch for a D-II team — it won 26 games last year, advanced to the second round of the NCAA D-II Tournament and returns all but one of its main rotation pieces from last season — but even with the Bulldogs punching above their weight class, they stayed closer to the Hawkeyes (and for longer) than they probably should have.

Ladji Dembele started at the 4 and made his only three-pointer of the game, finishing with seven points in 21 minutes of action, but for the strides he's made as a 4 from last season's freshman campaign, he's still got a ways to go as a weakside defender; UMD was able to create open looks at the rim with relative ease drawing front-side attention, and Dembele has not yet converted his vertical athleticism into a viable deterrent at the rim.

Harding and Thelwell combined for six turnovers in 32 minutes of gameplay; that simply cannot continue to be an issue once the competition level ramps up, especially since neither guard showed the sort of productivity that makes high turnover totals easier to swallow. Thelwell in particular only earned nine minutes of action, a surprise from a veteran guard with a history of winning basketball at his previous stop at Morehead State.

Some aspects of the win are probably more noise than signal. Payton Sandfort shot 1-for-6 from downtown; there's little reason to expect that to become a trend. Similarly, Iowa as a whole started 1-for-9 on its three-pointers before finishing a more respectable 7-for-22 (31%). Three-point shooting is inherently volatile, even for the best shooters in the world, and few of Iowa's attempts Friday looked forced or ill-advised.

The Bulldogs gathering seven offensive rebounds in the first half evinced some cause for concern though; they finished with 10 on the day. Meanwhile, the physically imposing Freeman didn't gather an offensive rebound until early in the second half; he finished with three, though.

Freeman also finished with three turnovers and four fouls for the game — after last season's frequent foul trouble, he will need to find more success keeping his stat sheet clean if Iowa can depend on him down the stretch against tougher opponents.

Harding shot just 1-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-3 from deep. His form does look better, as he and McCaffery both indicated before the season began, but good-looking misses are still misses, even in exhibitions. Harding's efficacy as a starting point guard will depend heavily on whether opponents need to respect his long-range shooting when he gets the ball on the perimeter. If they can sag off Iowa's primary ball-handler and force him to drive into traffic to create opportunities, the offense simply won't operate at its highest gear with him on the court.

Exhibitions are just that, though: exhibitions. None of these stats count, and as McCaffery said, the veteran, well-coached Bulldogs forced the still-gelling Hawkeyes to play through concepts they'll see often against high-quality foes this winter.

Moreover, though the "ifs" on this team are numerous, Iowa doesn't need all of them to come to fruition for a quality rotation to emerge. Dix, Sandfort and Freeman are one of the most solid foundations McCaffery has had to start a season in his 15(!) years at Iowa, and Friday's game showed they'll be critical to the development of the rest of the roster around them this season.