Decision Coming Soon On Iowa Big 4 Basketball's Future

[cigaretteman]

Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said Sunday the future of the in-state men’s basketball series soon will take shape, now that each program’s season has ended.
“One of the things that we had to do was wait until everybody was done playing,” Barta said after Iowa’s 108-97 loss to Oregon in the National Invitation Tournament. “We needed to get the season behind us. We’re pretty close to having that all figured out. So I would imagine in the next 30 days we’ll have it all worked out and ready to announce.”
The state’s four Division I men’s basketball programs — Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Drake — have played one another annually on home-and-home contracts nearly every season for more than 20 years. Iowa State and UNI have played every season but two since 1980. Iowa State and Drake have played every season since 1908. Iowa and Drake have played every season but one since 1965. Iowa and Northern Iowa have played every season since 1988.
In early December, Barta and Iowa State Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said they would withhold renewing their basketball contracts with Drake and UNI to concentrate on developing a neutral-site event — likely held at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena — involving the four schools.
Nothing would change between Iowa and Iowa State, which would continue to play one another on campus, as they have every season since 1970. Drake and UNI compete twice each year in Missouri Valley Conference play. It’s unclear whether Iowa and Iowa State would compete against both Drake and UNI over a two-day period or just play one in a single day. It’s unlikely Iowa will schedule a road game at either UNI’s McLeod Center or Drake’s Knapp Center in the near future.

Iowa AD: Decision on in-state basketball series coming soon | TheGazette

[CLONECONES]

always loved the battle of the birds at wells

[mj4cy]

Sounds fun to me. Hope it works out...and by work out I mean as long as ISU gets wins, I don't care where they are played.

[isufan]

Yeah, this should be good for ISU. Bad for UNI and Drake.

[State43]

I don't see how we don't sweep these guys next year. Then again, i said that this year...

[Go2Guy]

What I would like to see is all major conferences drop their dumb end-of-season Tourneys and that would allow more room for scheduling better home-home, non-conf games.

The Tourney games are hurting collegiate basketball and diminishes the regular conference performance.

[CycloneWarning]

Iowa AD: Decision on in-state basketball series coming soon | TheGazette

Holy thread derail, Batman (apologies in advance).

I guess I never noticed (or cared) about Iowa's loss to Oregon 108-97 in NIT. When I saw it here, I thought, wow, must have been triple OT.

But that was the regular game? wth? Did anyone watch it? How do crappy B1G and Pac-12 schools go off for 200 points?

Did the laws of physics not apply in that gym?

[cigaretteman]

Holy thread derail, Batman (apologies in advance).

I guess I never noticed (or cared) about Iowa's loss to Oregon 108-97 in NIT. When I saw it here, I thought, wow, must have been triple OT.

But that was the regular game? wth? Did anyone watch it? How do crappy B1G and Pac-12 schools go off for 200 points?

Did the laws of physics not apply in that gym?

I think it was caused by the trees on the floor

Seriously, it was a fast paced game, and both teams were shooting lights out. Here

[bringmagicback]

anyone have an idea of how this works.....Would it be for example

ISU vs UNI
Iowa Vs Drake

and then 2nd day

ISU Drake
Iowa UNI

and then ISU plays IA in IC and Ames rotating?

[heitclone]

Yeah, this should be good for ISU. Bad for UNI and Drake.

I love the netural site thing as long as we still play all 3 instate teams. I don't think it hurts UNI and Drake that bad, sure they lose a home game but also don't have to play a true road game. And actually as far as UNI goes, they haven't had any trouble beating us lately, regardless of where the game was.

[alarson]

What I would like to see is all major conferences drop their dumb end-of-season Tourneys and that would allow more room for scheduling better home-home, non-conf games.

The Tourney games are hurting collegiate basketball and diminishes the regular conference performance.

Completely disagree. Love the big 12 tourney. I would drop drake and uni from the schedule completely before dropping the tourney.

[DistrictCyclone]

anyone have an idea of how this works.....Would it be for example

ISU vs UNI
Iowa Vs Drake

and then 2nd day

ISU Drake
Iowa UNI

and then ISU plays IA in IC and Ames rotating?

My guess is that it's probably this, or it could be a tournament:

Day One:
ISU v UNI (Game 1)
Iowa v Drake (Game 2)

Day Two:
Game 1 loser v Game 2 loser
Game 1 winner v Game 2 winner

In the following year, it'd be ISU v Drake and Iowa v UNI on the first day.

Other than these 2 choices, I'm not sure what other options there are. If I had to bet, my money is on it being the scenario you laid out, though...especially since I don't recall the AD's having ever broached the subject of a tournament, instead using terms like "series" and "event".

[SNEDDS3]

Completely disagree. Love the big 12 tourney. I would drop drake and uni from the schedule completely before dropping the tourney.

I'm with you on this. I love the big 12 tourney. Drop those schools and put in some tougher major conference games.

[The_Architect]

Holy thread derail, Batman (apologies in advance).

I guess I never noticed (or cared) about Iowa's loss to Oregon 108-97 in NIT. When I saw it here, I thought, wow, must have been triple OT.

But that was the regular game? wth? Did anyone watch it? How do crappy B1G and Pac-12 schools go off for 200 points?

Did the laws of physics not apply in that gym?

I watched about half of it. Oregon could not get back in transition defense at all. It seemed like Iowa scored on them immediately after an Oregon score in transition. Also, Oregon was hitting shots like crazy - they couldn't miss and Marble had a career day at the 3 point line.

[cigaretteman]

As the article states, Iowa and Iowa State will continue to play each other home and home. The question is whether both Iowa and Iowa State will play both UNI and Drake every year, or if each of them would just play one of either Drake or UNI one year, and vice versa the next year.