Cyclones have tough schedule
By: Eric Petersen
07/01/2007
Iowa State coach Greg McDermott is putting his young team to the test with a challenging non-conference schedule.
A solid group of returners and a half-dozen newcomers has McDermott believing an improvement on last year's 15-16 record is likely. With that, a beefed up schedule is a good barometer for his players' progress.
"It's very competitive, but I think it's something we have to do," McDermott said. "We have to find out where we are at and test ourselves early. I think that's what our guys want."
The Cyclones host to in-state teams Iowa and Northern Iowa while continuing their home-and-home series with Minnesota, which has a new head coach in Tubby Smith.
Road contests include Missouri Valley foes Drake and Bradley and the inaugural Big 12-Pac-10 Challenge against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore. Add in a Christmas tournament in Las Vegas where potential opponents include Purdue and Alabama, and this is one tough pre-conference schedule.
McDermott could load up on easy opponents and build
ISU's win total heading into Big 12 play. But he doesn't believe in that.
"I'd like it to be against good competition," McDermott said. "Sometimes you need to really put yourself to the test in order to make strides. Some of the games we are playing will do that."
The Capital City Classic games played at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines have been put on hold for the foreseeable future.
ISU played Ohio State and Bradley the past two years, but the arrangement of playing those two teams on their home floors - instead of a neutral court like Wells Fargo Arena - was not in the Cyclones' best interests.
Finding teams to play at Hilton Coliseum is hard enough.
"We found it almost impossible to find an opponent that didn't put us at a competitive disadvantage," McDermott said.
Attendance also was not very strong, especially for last December's game against Bradley, with just 7,811 people.
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