It’s the first day of basketball season.<\/p>\n
December 17 will be the sixth time that Iowa State, Iowa, UNI, and Drake will play in Des Moines as part of the Scheduling in men’s basketball is a different animal than football because there are more games. There are fewer non-conference slots available than there used to be, but still plenty. There are many examples of power-conference teams doing home-and-home series with local teams; Nebraska and Creighton will play for the 41st straight season<\/a> next month. On the other hand, some do hold out, and the most notable exception is Kansas refusing to schedule Wichita State<\/a>. (The Shockers, BTW, are a preseason top-10 team.)<\/p>\n But what, exactly, was the problem<\/em> with going to UNI and Drake? The games are very short bus rides, the opposing team’s arena is half-full of\u00a0your<\/em> fans, and it counts as a true road game for RPI purposes. Just because Fran McCaffery can’t control his temper<\/a> isn’t a reason to take your ball and go home.<\/p>\n The best possible explanation \u2014 not playing UNI and<\/em> Drake each season frees up a slot for higher-caliber opponents \u2014 doesn’t hold up on the merits. Iowa State will be playing two directional Illinois teams and two HBCUs<\/a>. Iowa will play three<\/em> HBCUs<\/a> (two officially as part of the Cayman Islands Classic, but in Iowa City). ISU and Iowa both open with a power-conference opponent and play one more in a conference challenge \u2014 and each other. There’s no reason that Iowa and ISU should both play Northern Illinois <\/em>and not Northern Iowa<\/em> \u2014 other than, of course, As for that opening power-conference opponent, suddenly that Missouri Tigers team is looking more ferocious<\/a> for Iowa State. This is the second time in three years ISU will play a Big Eight\/Big 12 turncoat, and my feelings about that have already been made known.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the first day of basketball season. December 17 will be the sixth time that Iowa State, Iowa, UNI, and Drake will play in Des Moines as part of the Big Four Hy-Vee Classic. (Nope, can’t have anything not corporate … Continue reading Big Four<\/del> Hy-Vee Classic. (Nope, can’t have anything not corporate in the name<\/a>, no siree.) Each of the first two teams plays one of the last two on a rotating basis. The event exists because Iowa State and Iowa didn’t want to keep doing home-and-homes with two teams from the Missouri Valley conference. (That conference just happens to be the most powerful of the non-power conferences, but I digress.)<\/p>\nlosing out on\u00a0home-court lucre<\/del> THEY SKEERED<\/a>.<\/p>\n