Fans will get their first chance to see the 2010-11 Iowa basketball team on the court together on Saturday when a shirts-and-skins game – a long-time Iowa tradition – is held at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 8:30 a.m. prior to the Hawkeyes’ 11 a.m. kickoff against Eastern Illinois.

The shirt-and-skins games typically last around an hour and are open to the public free of charge.

Newcomers Melsahn Basabe, Bryce Cartwright, Devyn Marble and Zach McCabe won’t be the only new faces on the floor.
The Hawkeye roster posted on the university’s website includes four walk-ons who will give new coach Fran McCaffery 14 players to work with as his first season in Iowa City begins.

Here’s a quick breakdown:
Cody Cox – He’s a 6-foot-4 freshman wing who prepped at Waterloo West and averaged 9.6 points per game last season.
Jordan Stoermer – Is a 6-2 guard from Iowa City West who spent the past two seasons at Kirkwood Community College. Stoermer has been a regular in the Prime Time League in recent years. He averaged 10.7 points as a sophomore at Kirkwood, where he has been an all-region selection the past two years.
Darius Stokes – The son of former Hawkeye Greg Stokes is a 6-7 forward who averaged 5.7 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block while shooting 51 percent last season for Linn-Mar.
Branden Stubbs – Is a sharp-shooting 6-2 guard from Pleasant Hill, Iowa. He was selected as the Iowa Class 2A player of the year last season and was a four-time all-conference selection during his high school career at Des Moines Christian. He finished with 2,145 points at the high school level, which ranks in the top 20 all-time among Iowa preps. Stubbs got a taste of what lies ahead in the Prime Time League this summer.

The last time I spoke with Rock Island native Sharm Scheuerman I was talking to him from a place he remembered well.
It was before Iowa’s basketball game at Northwestern last season and I arrived early to phone Scheuerman to talk with him for a piece I was working on about Galva native Rich Falk, who Scheuerman attempted to recruit to play basketball at Iowa.
He wasn’t successful in his attempt, but Scheuerman maintained a life-long friendship with Falk.
I mentioned to him I was sitting in the arena in Evanston and that opened a floodgate of memories for Scheuerman. He recalled playing in the Final Four there when was then known as McGaw Hall was nearly new and Bucky O’Connor’s Fabulous Five was making its second straight apperance in the Final Four.
Scheuerman talked a bit the Hawkeyes’ 83-76 semifinal win over Temple and the challenge that awaited the winner in the final, a Bill Russell-led San Francisco team.
The Hawkeyes — with seniors Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, Bill Logan, Bill Seaberg and Scheuerman — in the lineup, held their own for a half but eventually fell 83-71 in Iowa’s only appearance ever in the NCAA title game.
Scheuerman recalled Russell as being one of the most gifted players he ever stepped on the same court with.
He said that Russell and his teammates were so good that Iowa probably could have played them a dozen times and the outcome would have remained unchanged.
Scheuerman, then a little over two months after asking doctors to end chemotherapy treatments that he had undergone to deal with cancer, seemed to enjoy the small talk and remembered coaching the Hawkeyes against Northwestern there.
We talked a bit about last season’s Iowa team. Scheuerman said he tried to attend gatherings in the Denver area where Hawkeyes would meet to watch games on television.
A point guard himself, Scheuerman said he liked what he had seen from Cully Payne during his freshman season and said he believed he had the potential to become one of the best in the league over time.
Scheuerman said he could relate to the pressures that former coach Todd Lickliter had to be feeling at the time, saying that the Big Ten was a little too experienced for a generally inexperienced Hawkeye team to handle at the time. He said he believed the experience would benefit them over time.
We talked a bit about his memories of Falk, who was being honored that night, and Scheuerman compared Falk’s shooting abilities to those of Purdue legend Rick Mount.
Scheuerman talked a bit about the camps he helped set up for youths and how he appreciated the opportunty to help, especially in the inner cities.
For Scheuerman, it was a labor of love that was created by the memories he had of playing on some of the most memorable Hawkeye teams of all time.

Unviersity president Sally Mason’s signature on Monday finalized the contract of new Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery, which was released on Wednesday by the school and includes details of the six-year deal the parties agreed to.

McCaffery’s annual base salary begins at $650,000 through June 30, 2012 and escalates to $900,000 in the sixth year of the contract. McCaffery will be paid $150,000 per year for public speaking appearances, fundraising appearances and camps, $150,000 per year by Learfield Communications for television and radio coaches’ shows and $150,000 by Nike as part of an apparel and shoe contract.

The outside income leaves McCaffery’s total annual guaranteed income at $1.1 million at the onset of the deal. It grows to $1.35 million in the sixth year of the contract.

As is the case with most contracts involving Iowa coaches in recent years, the deal is filled with incentives.

McCaffery can receive up to $100,000 per year if his team achieves academic success. Additional $100,000 bonuses are available for winning Big Ten regular season or tournament titles. An NCAA berth results in a $25,000 bonus and each win in the tournament is worth $15,000 during the first three years of the contract. McCaffery will also receive a $10,000 bonus if Iowa qualifies for the NIT during his first three years on the job.

Additinal bonuses are laid out for everything from reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 to winning a national championship – something that would be worth $150,000. An NIT championship? It’s worth $50,000.

McCaffery, who along with director of athletics Gary Barta signed off on the deal on Aug. 17, would receive additional compensation for being selected as the Big Ten or national coach of the year.

The deal also calls for the university to provide two automobiles for use by the coach and his spouse. McCaffery also receives 12 tickets to each men’s basketball home game, six game tickets to all home football games and six tickets to any bowl game for use by the coach and his immediate family. The university will also pay for four game tickets to each NCAA Final Four for McCaffery.

The contract also calls for Iowa to pay a buyout owed to Siena, McCaffery’s former employer, in the sum of $240,000. The payments will be made in three installments, as was dictated by McCaffery’s contract with Siena.

Former Hawkeye Jeff Peterson is back on the court, preparing for his junior season at Arkansas.

The Iowa transfer averaged 8 points and just under 7 assists per game while playing for the East Coast All-Stars, a group of 10 collegiate players who went 1-4 during a tour of Switzerland and France.

In a release issued by the Arkansas sports information office, Peterson said he welcomed the chance to compete in game situations before beginning the upcoming season with the Razorbacks.

“It felt great to get get back on the court in real game situations,” Peterson said. “I felt a little rusty at the beginning but felt that I was able to get back into game shape quickly.”

Peterson was required to set out last season after joining three other players in transferring from Iowa following the 2008-09 season. He started the first 25 games of his sophomore season with the Hawkeyes, averaging 10 points and 4 assists per game.

He will begin practices at Arkansas as the probable starter at point guard. Coach John Pelphrey is searching for a replacement at the point for Courtney Fortson, who left the program following his sophomore season last spring to turn professional.

ESPN unveiled its Super Tuesday schedule for the 2010-11 basketball season today, but Iowa will not be among the teams televised on the weekly doubleheader that includes one Big Ten game and one from the SEC.

Actually only six Big Ten programs will be featured during the eight-week run in the upcoming season. Purdue will be featured four times, while Michigan State, Illinois and Ohio State will be featured three times apiece. Wisconsin is scheduled for a pair of games, while Indiana will make one appearance.

Here’s a breakdown:

Jan. 11: Wisconsin at Michigan State

Jan. 18: Michigan State at Illinois

Jan. 25: Purdue at Ohio State

Feb. 1: Purdue at Wisconsin

Feb. 8: Indiana at Purdue

Feb. 15: Michigan State at Ohio State

Feb. 22: Illinois at Ohio State

March 1: Illinois at Purdue

The rest of the Big Ten schedule is expected to be released in upcoming days. Unlike in previous years, it is anticipated that a number of teams will play twice during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The two holidays fall on a Saturday this year and conference games will be played as early as Monday, Dec. 27.

The last piece of Iowa’s four-member 2010 basketball recruiting class is in place.

Point guard Bryce Cartwright has passed needed coursework this summer at Paris Junior College in Texas and is scheduled to arrive in Iowa City later this week for the start of fall semester classes later this month.

“Bryce has worked hard to take care of business in the classroom,” Paris coach Tom Schuberth said. “The chance to play in the Big Ten has him pretty motivated. He’s good to go.”

Cartwright, a 6-foot-1 point guard, joins three incoming freshmen who spent the summer in Iowa City — Melsahn Basabe, Devyn Marble and Zach McCabe — as part of Fran McCaffery’s first recruiting class.

A native of Compton, Calif., Cartwright led Dominguez High School to a CIF title in Southern California and began his college career at Fresno State, where he started as a freshman.

Cartwright averaged 9 points and 3.5 assists while leading Paris to a 27-6 record last season.

Iowa’s game at Wake Forest in the 12th ACC/Big Ten Challenge will be televised by ESPNU, it was announced today.

The Hawkeyes will visit the Demon Deacons at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30, the second of three days for this year’s series between the two leagues. Pairings for the Challenge were announced earlier, but the tipoff times and television assignments were unveiled this afternoon. Not surprisingly, games featuring Illinois, Michigan State, North Carolina and Duke landed the prime-time assignments.

Here’s a breakdown:

Monday, Nov. 29: Virginia at Minnesota, 6 p.m., ESPN2

Tuesday, Nov. 30: Iowa at Wake Forest, 6 p.m., ESPNU; Georgia Tech at Northwestern, 6 p.m., ESPN2; Ohio State at Florida State, 6:30 p.m., ESPN; Michigan at Clemson, 8 p.m., ESPN2; North Carolina at Illinois, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Wednesday, Dec. 1: Indiana at Boston College, 6:15 p.m., ESPNU; North Carolina State at Wisconsin, 6:15 p.m., ESPN2; Purdue at Virginia Tech, 6:30 p.m., ESPN; Maryland at Penn State, 8:15 p.m., ESPN2; Michigan State at Duke, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Iowa remains on the refined list of schools that Cedar Rapids Washington guard Josh Oglesby is considering.

The 6-foot-5 combo guard has cut his list of college possibilities to four and plans to visit Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Arizona State before reaching a decision later this fall on where he will continue his basketball career.

Oglesby’s AAU coach, Jamie Johnson of the Iowa Barnstormers, relayed his player’s choices via Twitter on Monday evening.

Iowa offered Oglesby a scholarship last month after new coach Fran McCaffery had his first chance to closely watch Oglesby in action. He saw him play both in Milwaukee and in Las Vegas, where Oglesby earned a spot on the all-tournament team at the Fab 48 Invitational.

As has been the case with a number of Midwestern recruits in the Class of 2011, new Iowa coaches have been playing a game of catch-up as they catch their first glimpse of players this summer that other programs have been scouting for a year or more.

Iowa was the last of Oglesby’s final four to offer. That’s no knock on McCaffery or an entirely new staff. It’s a simple fact of life that accompanies any coaching change.

Oglesby has the skill to play at the Big Ten level. He received his offer from Illinois after his performance in a camp in Champaign, Ill., earlier this summer and he has been one of Tubby Smith’s primary targets at Minnesota for some time. His Arizona State offer came in early April.

Another recruit has cut Iowa from his list of college possibilities. Cody Zeller, a top-50 prospect from Washington, Ind., announced today that he will choose from a final three that includes Butler, Indiana and North Carolina.

The 7-foot Zeller listed Iowa among his possibilities after receiving a scholarship offer from the previous Hawkeye coaching staff. He is the younger brother of former Notre Dame player Luke Zeller and current North Carolina junior Tyler Zeller.

Apparently, Pierre Pierce can still play the game.

The former Iowa basketball player - grudgingly removed from the Hawkeye roster by coach Steve Alford five years ago following the 6-foot-4 guard’s second arrest in three seasons – is taking his skills to the top league in Greece next season.

According to the Euroleague website, Pierce signed a one-year contract this week to play for Aris Thessaloniki during the 2010-11 season. The move to the team that plays in the top professional league in Greece follows to years of competition with Hyeres-Toulon Var Basket in France.

Pierce, who was convicted on third-degree sexual assault charges in 2003 and was sent to jail two years later after pleading guilty to five misdemeanor charges following a second arrest, was originally prohibited from traveling outside of the United States under terms of his sentence.

He convinced an Iowa judge in 2008 to allow him to travel abroad and Pierce landed a second — or is it a third — chance in the professional leagues in France.

Pierce averaged in double figures in each of the past two seasons there, including aveaging 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists over 30 games last season.

His work there is providing Pierce an opportunity to take his game to the next level in Greece. Now 27 years old, Pierce is seen a rising star in European basketball.

Nobody has ever questioned his skill on the court and Pierce’s ability to keep his focus on that skill will determine just how brightly his star will shine.

Jarrod Uthoff’s announcement tonight that he will sign with Wisconsin in November should provide fans with an eye-opening reflection on the state of college basketball in the state of Iowa.

The Cedar Rapids Jefferson forward had previously cut his list of college possibilities to six, saying that he hoped to remain close to home. While fans at Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa defined that as remaining within the state’s borders, Uthoff’s definition was a little more worldly. He picked the Badgers over a collection of programs that also included Illinois and Butler.

All made sense. All are Midwestern based. All are close to home.

Before jetting off with his AAU team to play games in Las Vegas this week, Uthoff indicated he saw himself as a good fit in the Badgers’ system and that he liked the notion of playing for a program with a successful track record.

Iowa and Iowa State don’t have the luxury of selling that right now. While first-year coaches Fran McCaffery and Fred Hoiberg can sell new practice facilities, hope and the chance to help build something special, neither are in a position to wow any recruit with stories of recent success.

That is state of the state right now. McCaffery is trying to clean up the mess left by the Alford and Lickliter administrations and Hoiberg is mopping up after Eustachy, Morgan and McDermott. 

Because of that, Iowa will remain fertile ground for recruiters from surrounding states. The high school talent level in the state in the Classes of 2011 and 2012 is as good as it has ever been.

While McCaffery and Hoiberg hope to reap benefits from that, it would be foolish to think that others won’t continue to try to lure as many Iowa prep players to leave the state as possible.

This isn’t the first time.

Roy Williams had plenty of tradition to sell at Kansas, but he made a career in Lawrence out of going into areas where home-state programs were dealing with uncertainty and convincing gifted players that leaving home was the best thing to do. Williams did just that in the state of Iowa in 1999 as Tom Davis’ tenure at Iowa neared its end and Larry Eustachy was taking over for Tim Floyd at Iowa State. He reeled in Kirk Heinrich and Nick Collison at a time when the Hawkeyes and Cyclones were in a state of transition.

In an age when high school-age players are jetting off to both coasts for games with AAU teams on a regular basis, it’s fantasy to think that loyalty to home-state institutions is all that strong. Ask Harrison Barnes.

McCaffery and Hoiberg will need to win a few of those recruiting battles if they hope to have success at their new jobs. To expect them to win them all, however, probably could be filed under the category of fantasy as well.