Iowa’s 2010-2011 non-conference basketball schedule has been released.  I first saw it at Marc Morehouse’s blog yesterday.

• Nov. 7 — University of Illinois-Springfield (exhibition)
• Nov. 14 — South Dakota State
• Nov. 16 — Louisiana-Monroe
• Nov. 19-22 — Paradise Jam, U.S. Virgin Islands
• Nov. 26 — Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
• Nov. 30 — at Wake Forest (ACC-Big Ten Challenge)
• Dec. 4 — Idaho State
• Dec. 7 — Northern Iowa
• Dec. 10 — Iowa State
• Dec. 18 — at Drake
• Dec. 21 — Louisiana Tech

That’s a 12-game out of conference schedule, as Iowa will play three games at the Paradise Jam.  Here are the other teams in the field for that event:

Alabama, Clemson, Iowa, Long Beach State, Old Dominion, Seton Hall, Saint Peters, Xavier

Iowa plays against Xavier in game one at the Jam.  Here is a link to the bracket. Winner plays Alabama, loser plays Seton Hall.  Of the nine non-Jam games, I could see Iowa winning between five and seven.

Iowa will play an 18-game regular season Big Ten schedule and that is usually released sometime in August.  I would pick Iowa to finish 10th in the league right now if I had to vote, ahead of Penn State.  Michigan State & Purdue will be national title contenders, Ohio State, Illinois, Wisconsin and Northwestern will probably make the NCAA tournament.  Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana will likely be better than the Hawks, but I wouldn’t say by a large degree.  Michigan has to replace Sims and Harris, two huge losses.

Iowa won just 10 games last year to go along with a school record 22 losses.  They also lost their best player to a transfer for the fourth straight year in Aaron Fuller.

Will Iowa be better next year than they were last year?  Likely, from an odds perspective, because they can’t get much worse than the all time record for most losses in a season.

I do believe they will be more entertaining to watch.

Tags: Hawkeye Basketball, Hawkeye Nation, hawkeyenation.com, Iowa football