By Justin VanLaere

PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2010-11 IOWA HOOPS SEASON AND BIG TEN RACE

Let’s be honest, no one has a good feel for how well Iowa will do this year.  Expectations will be low, understandably, as Iowa has a new coach, a new style of play, and a boatload of new players.

Iowa’s non-conference schedule is fairly tame.  They travel to the Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam against a less than stellar pool of teams.  In the Big Ten-ACC challenge, Iowa gets one of the weaker teams in the ACC in Wake Forest, a team that returns just one starter from last year’s squad.  What hurts Iowa in this matchup is that it’s on the road (not to mention Iowa’s first true road game of the year).  UNI is the clear favorite to win the battle of Iowa, as they will likely sweep all of the in-state programs.  Iowa has a good shot at beating a down Iowa State team at home, while Drake has yet to get back the magic without Keno.

Onto the Big Ten schedule, which begins with Iowa staying at home for three of their first four games.  Unfortunately, three of those four games are against the top teams in the Big Ten.  The rotation this year has Iowa getting Wisconsin and Penn State just once, the Badgers at home and the Nittany Lions in University Park.  Or another way to look at it, Iowa gets five of the six top teams in the top conference in the nation twice this year.  It will be hard to take Iowa to win on the road in conference this season, however they have a chance to upset some teams at home if people show up to Carver.

Regardless of wins and losses, this Hawkeye team will be much more exciting to watch than the last few years’ teams.  With that in mind, here are my predictions for the 2010-11 season.

Projected W/L for the Iowa Hawkeye Men’s Basketball Team

South Dakota State IOWA CITY  - WIN

Louisiana-Monroe IOWA CITY  – WIN

Xavier PARADISE JAM – WIN

Alabama or Seton Hall PARADISE JAM – LOSS

Opponent TBD PARADISE JAM – WIN

SIU-Edwardsville IOWA CITY – WIN

Wake Forest  Winston-Salem – LOSS

Idaho State IOWA CITY – WIN

Northern Iowa IOWA CITY – LOSS

Iowa State  IOWA CITY – WIN

Drake Des Moines – WIN

Louisiana Tech IOWA CITY – WIN

Illinois IOWA CITY – LOSS

Ohio State IOWA CITY – LOSS

Purdue West Lafayette – LOSS

Northwestern IOWA CITY – WIN

Minnesota Minneapolis – LOSS

Ohio State Columbus – LOSS

Indiana IOWA CITY – WIN

Penn State University Park – LOSS

Michigan Ann Arbor – WIN

Michigan State IOWA CITY – LOSS

Indiana Bloomington – LOSS

Wisconsin IOWA CITY – LOSS

Minnesota IOWA CITY – WIN

Northwestern Evanston – LOSS

Michigan IOWA CITY – WIN

Illinois Champaign – LOSS

Michigan State East Lansing – LOSS

Purdue IOWA CITY – LOSS

9-3 NON-CONFERENCE

5-13 CONFERENCE

14-16 OVERALL

Projected Final 2010-11 Big Ten Basketball Standings

1. Michigan State
2. Purdue
3. Ohio State
4. Illinois
5. Wisconsin
6. Minnesota
7. Northwestern
8. Indiana
9. Penn State
10. Iowa
11. Michigan

Up to nine teams could make the postseason with likely six going to the dance.

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