At the beginning of the season, many observers probably didn’t expect Iowa and No. 11 Michigan State to each be unbeaten heading into their Big Ten opener at Tuesday night in East Lansing.But that is the case, so already it will be an intriguing matchup when the Hawkeyes and Spartans hook up for their only meeting of the regular season.For Iowa, many weren’t anticipating a 7-0 start given it is coming off a bad season last year and has a new coach in first-year man Ben McCollum, who came over from Drake.Primarily a high-scoring but poor defensive team under former coach Fran McCaffery, McCollum already has instilled a defensive identity at Iowa, which is limiting opponents to 61.1 points a contest this season.”Sometimes it’s going to look ugly and you’ve got to win ugly,” McCollum said. “That’s the best part about this team. Who can’t win when everything is going your way offensively? Like, who can’t win? Can you win when things aren’t going your way offensively? Can you survive with other ways? And our kids can.”Iowa also has been buoyed by the brilliant early play of senior guard Bennett Stirtz, who came over with McCollum from Drake.Stirtz is averaging 18.6 points per game, is shooting 45.7% (16 of 35) from the 3-point range and was named the Most Valuable Player of the recent Acrisure Classic in Palm Desert, averaging 21 points in wins over Ole Miss and Grand Canyon.Stirtz and Iowa hope to keep it going against a Michigan State team that also is surprisingly unbeaten, although that is more a byproduct of its schedule.The Spartans knew they were going through a nonconference gauntlet with three games against ranked opponents Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina in their first seven games.