The full 2024-25 schedule for Iowa men's basketball was released on Thursday, filling in the gaps on the non-conference schedule and revealing how the Big Ten schedule will be altered with the addition of four new West Coast teams (USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington).
Let's take a look at how the schedule breaks down:
A few thoughts...
* Iowa opens the season with six of eight games at home, and no true road games until a trip to Ann Arbor, MI to face Michigan on December 7.
* For the first time in a while, Iowa will not be participating in a neutral-site tournament around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Instead, Iowa will be playing in three neutral-site games around the midwest: Washington State in Moline, IL on November 15, Utah State in Kansas City, MO on November 22, and Utah in Sioux Falls, SD on December 21.
* The addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington has led to the creation of more back-to-back road games in order to reduce the travel burdens -- for them and for the Big Ten teams traveling out west to play them. Iowa has three sets of back-to-back road games: at USC and UCLA on January 14 and January 17, at Rutgers and Maryland on February 12 and February 16 and at Illinois and Northwestern on February 25 and February 28.
* Iowa will play six Friday night games (not counting the exhibition against Minnesota-Duluth on Friday, October 25), though only one of those games will be in Iowa City (January 24 against Penn State).
* Iowa has just four home games on Saturday or Sunday: December 15 versus New Orleans, January 11 against Indiana, February 8 against Wisconsin, and February 22 versus Washington.
No tipoff times or TV details have been announced for games yet.