ISU Announces 2009-10 Men's Hoops Schedule

AMES, Iowa ? The Iowa State men's basketball squad will play a total of 16 teams that qualified for postseason play in 2008-09, including nine schools which participated in last year's NCAA Championship. The Cyclones will also appear on the ESPN family of networks a total of five times, the ISU Athletics Department announced Monday.

“This is the most challenging non-conference schedule that Iowa State has had in over a decade,” ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. “There is no doubt we will be facing some outstanding programs in both the non-conference and conference portions of our schedule. Playing quality teams is great for our fans and our program, and we are looking forward to the challenge.”

ISU will open the regular season at home with two games in three days vs. Idaho State (Nov. 13) and Chicago State (Nov. 15) before traveling to Des Moines to play at instate rival Drake on Nov. 17. Drake qualified for the inaugural College Insider Tournament (CIT) last season.

The Cyclones will then participate in the Chicago Invitational, playing host to Mississippi Valley State (Nov. 22) and Tennessee State (Nov. 24) before traveling to Hoffman Estates, Ill. (Sears Centre) to face St. Louis on Nov. 27. ISU will play either Northwestern or Notre Dame the following day (Nov. 28). Both teams played in the NIT last season.

After the Chicago tournament, the Cyclones will battle 2009 NCAA participant Northern Iowa (Dec. 2) in Hilton Coliseum. ISU will then travel out west for a Dec. 5 matchup at California. The Bears, a 2009 NCAA Tournament team, will be the Cyclones' opponent in the Big 12/Pac 10 Hardwood Series.

The Cyclones return home to face Iowa in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series on Friday, Dec. 11 and will take a week off for finals before playing host to Bradley on Dec. 20. ISU will then play host to Houston, a team that participated in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) last season, on Jan. 3 before a Jan. 6 showdown with perennial power and 2009 NCAA participant Duke on ESPN2 at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. Iowa State closes out the non-conference portion of its schedule with a game vs. North Dakota State on ESPNU (Jan. 9). The Bison qualified for the 2009 NCAA Championships.

The competitive Big 12 slate will get underway on Jan. 13 with a battle at home vs. 2009 NCAA participant Texas. Including Texas, ISU will play host to Big 12 powerhouses Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Missouri in Hilton Coliseum, all teams which qualified for the NCAA Championship in 2009.

“The Big 12 is already considered as possibly the best conference in the nation for 2009-10,” McDermott added. “Every Big 12 game will be tough and we will have home games against Texas and Kansas, a pair of teams that will most likely be ranked in the top-five at the start of the season.”

The Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship will be held in Kansas City, Mo., at the Sprint Center, March 10-13.

The ISU women's basketball schedule will be released at a later date when the television clearances have been finalized.

To view the 2009-10 ISU men's basketball schedule, click on the links section on the left side of the photo above.