Iowa to play three home games in tournament
Posted on 11. May, 2011 by admin in Iowa Basketball
By Brendan Stiles
HawkeyeDrive.com
The Iowa men’s basketball team will play three home games during the 2011-12 season as part of an exempt tournament that also includes a contest against Creighton at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena.
Dates for the five-team round-robin have not yet been determined, but official sources from the following schools — Campbell, Chicago State, and North Carolina A&T — all confirmed to HawkeyeDrive.com their teams are slated to play the Hawkeyes in Iowa City. One source provided HawkeyeDrive.com with its team’s tentative schedule for this tournament, which includes games at both Iowa and Creighton, and confirms a report from the White & Blue Review that the Bluejays would also play these three schools at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.
UI officials contacted by HawkeyeDrive.com for this story said all specifics pertaining to Iowa’s 2011-12 non-conference schedule will be announced next month following approval from the school’s Presidential Committee on Athletics. The committee’s next meeting is set for June 2.
Last season, North Carolina A&T finished with a 15-17 record, while Campbell went 12-19 and Chicago State finished with a 6-26 mark. Creighton finished 23-16 after losing 2-1 in the best-of-three championship round of the College Basketball Invitational to Oregon. Iowa went 11-20 in Fran McCaffery’s first season as head coach.
As of 2006, all Division-I basketball programs, under NCAA guidelines, are allowed to schedule either 29 or 27 regular season games. Those that opt for the 27 games are then allowed to participate in an exempt tournament. Since this legislation on exempt tournaments was passed, Iowa has participated in the Paradise Jam twice (including last year), the South Padre Island Invitational, the Las Vegas Invitational, and the CBE Classic.
In addition, an announcement on Iowa’s match-up in the 2011 Big Ten/ACC Challenge is expected to be made next week. The Hawkeyes will play this contest at home after playing at Wake Forest last season.
The Big Ten also confirmed in a men’s basketball release sent out May 11 that Nebraska’s addition to the conference will not affect the number of Big Ten games scheduled. Iowa will continue to play 18 league games as it has since the 2007-08 season, playing seven teams twice and the remaining four teams only once. The conference schedule is expected to be released at a later date.
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