Iowa Basketball: Get To Know Delaware State Hornets

Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

A look at Iowa’s opponent on Thursday, the Delaware State Hornets

Iowa basketball is on a four game winning streak and sits at 7-5 with one game left before Big Ten play. Forgetting about the Fran McCaffery drama, Iowa will have their eyes set on trying to take down the Delaware State Hornets on Thursday night.

Delaware State is 3-10 but has been battle-tested this year. So far, they’ve played St. John’s, SMU and most recently Indiana. The Hornets lost 103-56 to the Hoosiers, but they’ve played in hostile environments before and won’t be intimidated playing in Iowa City.

Plus, the Hornets beat St. John’s 79-72 earlier in the year. St. John’s is not a good team, but it’s easily their best win of the season, as their other two wins came against D-III competition. Outside of their win over St. John’s, Delaware State is 0-10 against Division I competition this year.

In fact, losing 83-82 to Louisiana Lafayette is their only loss by less than 10 points this season. Teams have simply steam-rolled over the Hornets, whether Delaware State is home or away.

This will be Iowa’s second MEAC opponent of the year. Iowa beat Savannah State 116-84 in their second game of the season. Just like Delaware State, Savannah State is under .500. North Carolina Central is the only team in the conference with more than three wins, as they’re 7-5.

Iowa and Delaware State will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and air on Big Ten Network.

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Keith Walker

Keith Walker took over from Greg Jackson halfway through the 2013-14 season. The Hornets were just 4-15 at the time, but Walker coached them to a 5-6 finish and is now in his third full season as Delaware State’s head coach.

This is his first career head coaching job. So far Walker is 33-59, however the Hornets did finish .500 during their first full season under Walker. That said, the Hornets only went 7-25 last year and are looking not much better in 2016-17.

Even though Delaware State hasn’t had a lot of success in their history, they did finish above .500 six times under Greg Jackson and went to the NCAA Tournament in 2004-05 when they lost to top-seeded Duke 57-46.

While Walker hasn’t reached those heights yet, he almost led them to the Tournament in 2014-15 — his first full season. Delaware State finished fifth in the MEAC and defeated North Carolina Central, who went 25-8 and 16-0 in conference play that year, in the conference tournament semifinal. The Hornets lost 82-61 to Hampton in the championship game, though.

Delaware State lost in the first round last season to Savannah State, but they’re building a culture of playing Power Five teams every year.

Last season, they played Michigan, Nebraska, TCU and a ranked Utah team — losing by an average of 34.3 points. This season, Delaware State took down St. John’s and also played Indiana. Sure, Indiana beat them 103-56, but it gives their program exposure and their team valuable experience.

Keith Walker inherited a mess, but he’s slowly rebuilding it. He almost made the NCAA Tournament in his first season, but the Hornets are back near the bottom of the MEAC.

Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Players To Watch

Devin Morgan: 12.9 PPG, 3.4 APG, 1.1 SPG, 37.0 FG%

Even if it’s not saying much, Devin Morgan is arguably Delaware State’s best player. He leads them in scoring and assists per game, while also finishing second in steals per game. Morgan is extremely inconsistent, though.

He has six games of 15-plus points, but also six games where he failed to reach double-digits. Therefore, Morgan will either give the Hornets a fighting chance or ruin any hopes of upsetting Iowa.

Last game, against Indiana, Morgan only had two points and a rebounds on 1-of-11 shooting in 24 minutes. Although, three of the past five times he’s failed to score at least 10 points, he’s scored 20-plus points the next game and also had a 16 point against Keystone another time, where he recorded a double-double.

Morgan isn’t a great shooter and he’s only 5-10, but he’s Delaware State’s best scorer. The Hornets won’t be able to stop Iowa’s offense, which means stopping Morgan could be the key to taking down Delaware State.

DeVaughn Mallory: 10.0 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 54.0 FG%

DeVaughn Mallory plays similar to how North Dakota’s bigs played on Tuesday night. He does almost all of his scoring in the paint and won’t have a huge offensive game, but has a chance to have an impact on the glass.

Mallory ranks fourth in scoring on the Hornets and easily leads the team in rebounding. He’s the only player who averages more than four rebounds per game. The Hawkeyes only out-rebounded North Dakota 41-37 but have a chance to control the glass even more on Thursday night.

Iowa doesn’t have great rebounding bigs, especially with Tyler Cook expected to sit out again. They do rebound well when acting as a team, though. It will take a team to slow down Mallory, who has at least nine rebounds in each of the past three games and a double-double against Keystone.

Mallory is on a hot streak with three straight games of at least 14 points and nine rebounds. He only has seven games with double-digit points, but he has 10 games with at least five rebounds. If Iowa controls him on the glass, Delaware State will struggle trying to get second chance points.