We have the first opponent for next year's non-conference announced.
2024-25 Men's Non-conference schedule
- Thread starter HawkHoops80
- Start date
We have the first opponent for next year's non-conference announced.
Just hope it is not played at the same time as Hawks first playoff game.
Iowa needs to schedule more and better noncon games at Carver - only good one next year will be ISU.
For some reason I couldn't post an emoji. Do hope it happens though.
With Iowa hosting an MTE this year, that means they will not be playing in a Thanksgiving weekend tournament unfortunately.
That will be the “white out” game…at least on the court. Brutal. It will look like a YMCA church league game in the segregated ‘40’s. Unwatchable. And, to no one’s surprise, I won’t be watching.
Yes, actually beat Duke 81-71 in 1994 when coach K had a leave of absence from the team that year, Iowa won all 3 games in the classic.
Been a while. Feel like we should be due. Usually the fields are set 2 or 3 years in advance. Always 1 Big Ten team represented.
Iowa won the Maui Invitational 1987 over Rollie Massimino's Villanova team...Bill Rafferty looking fresh-faced on the color commentary.
We last played in the Maui Invitational in 2004, so going on 20+ years we will have not played in that prestigious tournament...
ISU just started played their first time in Maui a few years ago and are already going back. Should tell us something about the trajectory of both programs.
Iowa actually played in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu in 1994, not Maui. And they lost the title game to Arkansas (at their peak under Nolan Richardson).
Not liking all the home games, South Dakoda, Iowa St, and Utah are the only teams so far with a pulse, only Utah at a neutral site.
Iowa needs a little more competition to get the team ready for the Big Ten, I was hoping Iowa would not go back to the Tom Davis era of scheduling.
but it appears that is now a possibility.
Iowa needs a little more competition to get the team ready for the Big Ten, I was hoping Iowa would not go back to the Tom Davis era of scheduling.
but it appears that is now a possibility.South Dakota is not good, South Dakota State is NCAA tourney bound almost every year it seems. Next year it might be Iowa State and Utah and that might be it. New Hampshire is on the schedule now as well.Tough to get fans interested when you play the crappy Non- Conf like next year will be im afraid!Not liking all the home games, South Dakoda, Iowa St, and Utah are the only teams so far with a pulse, only Utah at a neutral site.
Iowa needs a little more competition to get the team ready for the Big Ten, I was hoping Iowa would not go back to the Tom Davis era of scheduling.
Fran has always had a tendency to schedule teams based on what he thinks he has. Softer if he thinks he has a team that needs time to gel, tougher if he has a veteran squad, etc.
What is frustrating about that is when he goes softer, he schedules teams in the 300+ NET rankings. Hopefully goetz works with him and they find a happy medium.
Hate to say it, but the Big 12 last year (amongst others) was a perfect blueprint on how to game the new NET system. Fran has always scheduled 250+ NET cupcakes for their home games but with how successful that worked out last year for many teams to inflate their NET rankings it also makes sense to do more of that, unfortunately.
It has to be even more difficult than ever to project strength of smaller conf. foes for next season with those teams getting poached right up to the school year.
I guess you just schedule the best coaches and assume they will find a way.
I guess you just schedule the best coaches and assume they will find a way.
The schedule has never been a reason Iowa has been left out of the tournament, so I don’t believe it’s been an issue that needs addressed with the AD.
I agree with you on your assessment of how Fran builds the schedule, but in most years there’s not a lot of wiggle room in construction. Between the non-exempt tournaments (usually 4 or 5 games - 2 cupcakes- 2 challenges), the Gavitt Games, ACC/B1G, and Iowa St, that leaves about four or five free games to schedule the rest of the non conf. Chances are you’re already playing five decently tough games. If you add anymore P5 schools, you’re likely looking at a home/home series. Fran’s philosophy is that the B1G schedule is tough enough to get them into the tournament. So far, he hasn’t been wrong when the team has been a contender.
BIG10/ACC no longer exist and Gavitt games were the final year last year. It seems that all these conferences want to get away from that type of games. BIG12/ Big East challenge and ACC/ SEC are the only ones left.
I didn’t say it had - tho I’d argue it doesn’t need to be as Charmin soft as Fran has had it some years.
I’d argue also that the lackluster scheduling has contributed to declining attendance numbers.
I agree on both points. Last season was an anomaly with zero marquee non conference games. I’m guessing going forward, we’ll probably see one, maybe two big non conference home games when ISU comes to town.
Who cares about the non conference when you have a brutal conference schedule. According to ESPN, 4 of the top 5 teams in the country are Big 12 teams, Houston, ISU, Kansas, and Baylor. Would not surprise me if 10 of the top 25 teams are from the BIg 12 next year.
That's been Fran's argument for years as to why he schedules light as well.
As to next year's B12, Torvik isn't as high as ESPN on some of those--but it's still early and I'm not sure how fast he updates rosters as transfers comes in. His site is very bullish on the Big Ten next year at this point in the offseason--6 teams in the top 20 and 13 of the 18 in the Top 50. Compared to the B12 which has 4 teams in the top 20 and 8 of the 16 in the top 50.
Still a ways to go, but that to me throws a bit of cold water on your claim that 10 B12 teams will be ranked in the top 25 if there aren't even 10 ranked in the top 50 on one of the main computer analytics sites.
Big 12 tourney record was better than only 2 of 10 leagues..mountain west and American.
They had a bunch of high seeds but crapped out.
Overrated.
They racked up their NET rankings in the non conference so the resumes for mid level programs in the conference looked better than they were.
B12 was probably the best conference in country, I’m just quibbling they were head and shoulders above everyone else.
I think that there were at least 10 from the 16 that were ranked at some time last year, ISU, UH, KU, UA, BYU, CU, UU, TCU, TT, KSU, UC. I expect something similar this next year.
Sure wish Iowa would go back to Hawaii. Wife wants to go Hawaii and we aren't getting any younger. Told her we would go next time Hawks are in Hawaii.
So, we're getting $100,000 to play Rider??? Sounds about right. Two mid-majors squaring off.
2013 and 2017 are both years where there is a good argument that Fran non-conference schedules kept Iowa out of the Big Dance.
In 2013, Illinois and Minnesota both made the tourney, going 8-10 in conference, with Ken Pom non-conference schedule ratings of 185 and 103, respectively. Iowa went 9-9 in conference, but was jumped over by Illinois and Minnesota and left out with a non-conference scheduling rating of 338.
In 2017, 4 Big Ten teams went 10-8 in conference, including Iowa. Iowa (non-con schedule ranked 263) had the lowest non-conference schedule rating of the 4, only a little bit lower than Northwestern (249), which got in, and much lower than Michigan (170) and Michigan State (51), which both got in. Iowa was the only 10-8 team left out.
Even in 2024, a robust non-conference might have helped Iowa sneak into the tourney. Michigan State, Iowa and Indiana all went 10-10 in conference. Sparty got in with a non-conference schedule rank of 74. Iowa and Indiana were left out with non-conference schedule ranks of 231 and 223.
Whatever non-conference schedule rankings you are utilizing, you probably want to update it to the ones that the NCAA selection committee actually utilizes which is the NET SOS. Last year's NC SOS was 99th. It was actually one of the reasons Iowa got bubbly kind of late was because their NC SOS was pretty decent compared to other bubble teams. Ended up not mattering due to how many bid thiefs there were anyways, but NC SOS had nothing to do with Big Ten teams getting in or getting left off.
FWIW, Indiana's NC SOS was 122--the reason they weren't even that close to the bubble was because they were ranked 93rd on KenPom and 100 on BPI and only had 2 wins against tournament teams.
I'd have to go back and look at it closer, but I'm assuming you are correct. However, that's largely irrelevant in the new era of NCAA selection criteria. The RPI system heavily bakes in SOS into it's algorithm--it's one of the biggest reasons the NCAA basketball committee decided to stop using it because it felt like SOS was taken into account almost to the extreme--don't know if you follow college baseball at all, but it definitely effects things to a wild degree in baseball currently where 9 teams from SEC can get in while the Big Ten struggles to get any at-large teams into the field. That's largely due to how the RPI bakes in SOS in what I and many others consider extreme.
Now that's not to say SOS doesn't matter at all but it's been heavily reduced with the way the introduction of the NET. The key pieces to the selection process is going to always now be stacking up as many Q1 & 2 wins and avoiding Q3&4 Ls. Efficiency metrics also matter more than ever, so beating these Q4 teams by 20+ actually has an impact on these NET rankings (and other metrics such as KenPom which are on the NCAA selection Team Sheets). That was one thing that probably hurt Indiana the most last year to use one of your examples--they had single digit wins against a bunch of bad teams last year which killed their efficiency metrics and it was a hole too deep to dig out of by conference season.
I'll also add that I'm in the camp of wanting some tougher opponents too on the NC schedule for entertainment factors. The have a for sure Q1 home game against ISU and what will likely be a Q1 or Q2 neutral court game against Utah. If they can get another Q1 or Q2 game lined up on the schedule, that will likely be good enough to where the NET SOS won't be in the 300s.
Similar threads
