Iowa basketball coach Todd Lickliter isn’t necessarily a fan of the time change for Sunday’s Iowa-Indiana basketball game.

The tipoff has been pushed back one hour to 5 p.m. (CST) so that fans in Indiana don’t have to choose between watching the Indianapolis Colts in their 2 p.m. (CST) playoff game with the New York Jets or the game between the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers.

“I wasn’t in favor of changing the time, but in the spirit of cooperation, we agreed to go along with a one-hour delay. That didn’t change our travel plans and that was key. The one hour change did not impact our charter that was set up,” Lickliter said.

Indiana officials, wanting to give their fans a chance to possibly attend both games, initially approached the Big Ten about moving the game to an 11 a.m. (CST) tipoff. The Indiana women are playing at Michigan on Sunday and both games will be televised by the Big Ten Network. However, the Big Ten declined that move citing logistical reasons.

A 6 p.m. (CST) tip was also proposed, but that not gain approval either before the 5 p.m. compromise was reached.

“Supposedly this will help Indiana in some way,” Lickliter said. “What our hope is in talking with Gary Barta is that in the spirit of cooperation if we ever need a change, be it with Indiana or some other institution within the league, that this will be remembered.”

Lickliter said the delay will simply push back Iowa’s schedule in Bloomington by one hour on Sunday, beginning with when the Hawkeyes have their pregame meal.

“I’ve never seen different starting times as being a bad thing. You just have to make adjustments and I think this will be a lesson for our guys in learning how to deal with things that are out of our control,” Lickliter said.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under Hawkeyes Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.