UMD men's basketball to take on Iowa in Division I exhibition

DULUTH Minnesota Duluth head coach Justin Wieck will see his coaching career come full-circle when he leads the Bulldogs onto the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday, Oct.

25, for an exhibition game against his alma mater, the University of Iowa.

Wieck, a native of North Liberty, Iowa, spent two seasons with the Hawkeyes program as a player before transitioning to coaching in 2006 as a graduate assistant.

Wieck went on to serve as the teams video coordinator from 2008-2010.

ADVERTISEMENT So many family and friends are gonna be there, so Im gonna get a chance to reconnect with a lot of different people who still work there, said Wieck on returning home.

Ill be coaching from the other bench than what Im probably used to, but its gonna be a great time for sure.

The Division I exhibition is UMDs fourth over Wiecks seven-year tenure as head coach.

The Bulldogs previously faced the University of Minnesota in his first year at the helm in 2019, along with contests against Nevada (2021) and Drake (2022).

Looking ahead to Friday, redshirt junior Mattie Thompson plans to soak in the experience of playing inside the 15,500-seat arena while also giving maximum effort on the court.

Itll be fun to kind of find the happy medium there of seeing how we do match up against a team like this, but also knowing that ...a game like this doesnt come very often for us so enjoying the moment while were in it, said redshirt junior Mattie Thompson on his approach.

Just going out there having as much fun as we can and trying to compete our tails off at the same time.

Fridays exhibition against the Hawkeyes is the first of two for the Bulldogs on the trip.

The team will open the trip with a 60-minute exhibition against Division II Upper Iowa on Thursday.

Both contests will offer Wieck a chance to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of his team ahead of its Nov.

8 season opener against Southeastern Oklahoma State.

I think I know a lot about our team, but you never really know until you get out there and play somebody else, said Wieck.

We gotta figure out what were good at.

We gotta figure out some of the things that we really need to work on in these next two weeks.

The Bulldogs welcomed four freshmen into the mix this season in Jackson Fowlkes, Kole Hanson, Jaden Morgan, and Daniel Molhoek, along with fifth-year transfer guard Jayden Johnson, who previously competed for the University of Illinois-Springfield, and junior Manny Montgomery of Dakota County Technical College (DCTC).

ADVERTISEMENT The newcomers, along with the teams veterans and underclassmen, are eager to take the court against a brand-new opponent after battling it out in practices the past two months.

Weve spent two months now going at it in practice, and its been respectfully really competitive, said Wieck.

They all get along; they all love each other, but its super competitive, and to finally be on the same team and play 60 minutes on Thursday and then 40 minutes on Fridayits a great two-week stretch for us to kind of see where were at..

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