2011-12 Big Ten Schedule: Iowa

Last year was Fran McCaffery's first as head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. While the overall results were not impressive, the uptempo play of last season was a welcome change from the grind-it-out pace of Todd Lickliter. Beating Purdue in the last game of the season was McCaffery's first signature win, and Iowa fans hope that it is a harbinger of things to come.

The Big Ten released the full basketball schedule earlier in the week, so let's take a look.

The non-conference schedule is lackluster, but it features a lot of games against nearby schools (all of the non-conference games take place in-state). The Missouri Valley Conference has three teams facing Iowa: Creighton, Northern Iowa and Drake. The B1G/ACC Challenge game with Clemson and the rivalry game with Iowa State are the only games against teams from major conferences. Iowa vs. Boise State would be a big deal if it were a football game, but it's not.

As far as the conference schedule, Iowa might have the easiest schedule in the conference. Iowa only has to play Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois and Ohio State one time each. Even with that advantage, the Hawkeyes are still going to have to beat some pretty good teams to finish the season with a respectable record.

The Big Ten schedule starts out hard for Iowa, with six out of the first seven games against opponents who played in the NCAA tourney last year. The only break in that stretch is a game at Minnesota (which isn't much of a break). The rest of the season is mostly against teams that finished in the bottom half of the conference last year, with a couple of tougher games thrown in.

Click on to see Iowa's full schedule with TV information.

2010-11 Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball Schedule