I'm guessing this is just kind of the way the schedule came together. I would like to think it was planned this way to give the team more time to gel, but I'm guessing it is not that easy to manipulate a schedule that way.
I think it just seems a lot different this year because last year the team played in the Las Vegas thing right around Thanksgiving, but this year doesn't play in anything like that until around Christmas.
There was a big break last year though too. Between the last game before Christmas on December 19th, and the first conference game with Kansas on January 9th, ISU only played one game....against Yale on the 1st.
It does seem like it has been a long time between games though. Plus, ISU has only played 5, and other teams have played 7, 8 or more. ISU has played the fewest games of any ranked team. It will all even out in the end though.