Sept. 7, 2011
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa women’s basketball team released its complete schedule for the 2011-12 season today. The schedule includes one exhibition game and 29 regular season contests, with 16 of those games to be played on Mediacom Court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Hawkeyes are scheduled to face 14 teams who advanced to postseason play a year ago, including 10 NCAA Tournament teams. Seven of Iowa’s conference matchups will be televised live to national audiences, with six games on BTN and one on ESPN2.
Additional games are likely to be selected for broadcast by BTN, BTN.com, Mediacom, KCRG or other television partners in the near future. Start times for the remainder of the schedule will be released at a later date, along with the additional broadcast schedule.
As announced earlier this summer, the Hawkeyes will face Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin both home and away next season. Iowa will host Illinois, Michigan State and Minnesota and will travel to Indiana, Ohio State and Penn State.
Iowa opens the season with four-straight home games, starting with an exhibition against Winona State (Nov. 6) in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The annual Hawkeye Challenge will be staged Nov. 12 and 13 with Butler, Harvard and UNLV coming to Iowa City. Iowa will face Harvard in the first round, with Butler and UNLV playing the other first round game. Butler finished second in the Horizon League last season and played in the WNIT, while Harvard finished second in the Ivy League. Iowa wraps up the home stand by hosting Albany Nov. 16.
The Hawkeyes will then play three-straight games away from Iowa City. Iowa’s first intrastate rivalry game will be at Northern Iowa Nov. 19. The Panthers are coming off their second straight Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Hawkeyes will spend Thanksgiving in The Bahamas at the Junkanoo Jam, facing a very tough two-game stretch. Iowa opens the tournament Nov. 25 against another NCAA Tournament opponent in St. John’s. The Hawkeyes will then face either Temple, who finished second in the Atlantic 10 and made the NCAA Tournament last year, or the defending NCAA national champion Texas A&M Aggies, on Nov. 26.
Iowa returns home Nov. 30 to take on Virginia Tech in the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge before traveling to Kansas State Dec. 3 for the Big 12/Big Ten Challenge. Iowa defeated both Virginia Tech and Kansas State last season. The Wildcats finished fourth in the Big 12 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes will travel to Ames for a matchup against Iowa State in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series Dec. 7. The Cyclones are another non-conference opponent who participated in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Iowa will play three of its final four non-conference games at home, starting Dec. 9 vs. Western Illinois. The Hawkeyes travel to Bradley Dec. 17, before finishing the non-conference schedule at home Dec. 20 vs. Drake and Dec. 22 vs. Mississippi Valley State.
Big Ten play begins with a home date Dec. 30 vs. Northwestern, followed by a Monday matchup Jan. 2 at Ohio State. The game in Columbus will be televised on BTN.
Iowa hosts two-straight conference matchups against Illinois (Jan. 5) and Nebraska (Jan. 8), with the game against the Cornhuskers televised on BTN. The Hawkeyes then hit the road for another televised game on BTN in West Lafayette vs. Purdue Jan. 15.
The Hawkeyes return home for a game vs. Wisconsin (Jan. 19) before playing four of the next five games on the road. The tough stretch begins with two-straight road games at Penn State (Jan. 22) and at Nebraska (Jan. 26). The game at Penn State can be seen on ESPN2. After a home game vs. Purdue (Jan. 29), Iowa returns to the road at Wisconsin (Feb. 2) and at Indiana (Feb. 5).
Iowa will play three of its final five conference games in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, starting with a Feb. 9 matchup vs. Minnesota. Iowa’s Feb. 12 game vs. Michigan State will be on BTN. The Hawkeyes then travel to Michigan for a BTN game Feb. 16, followed by a trip to Northwestern (Feb. 23).
The Hawkeyes close the regular season by hosting Michigan (Feb. 26).
The Big Ten Tournament will be held in Indianapolis March 1-4. Thursday-Saturday games will be on BTN, while the championship will be on ESPN2.
For the complete 2011-12 schedule, click HERE