Iowa added two players to its 2008 recruiting class on Wednesday.

Junior college guard Devan Bawinkel and high school forward Aaron Fuller fulfilled their earlier verbal commitments by signing letters of intent to continue their career with the Hawkeyes.

 Bawinkel began his college career at West Virginia, but returned to his home state of Illinois to play at Highland Community College after Bob Huggins was hired to take over the Mountaineers program. A versatile guard with good range, he averaged 13.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists and set a school record with 10 3-point baskets for Highland in a game against Kankakee.

 Fuller is a late bloomer who attracted recruiters after evolving from a back-to-the-basket post player as a junior to a player who displayed good range as a senior from a forward’s position. The Mesa High School senior was named the Arizona 4A-5A player of the year by the Arizona Republic while averaging 24.7 points and 11.6 rebounds as a senior.

Coach Todd Lickliter on the newest of the six recruits he has signed for next fall:

On Bawinkel: “Devan is a proven winner who joins our program with two years of college experience. He is an excellent scorer who complements his game with his overall intensity.”

 On Fuller: “Aaron is a very versatile player who can be effective both facing or with his back to the basket. He’s very conscientious in his preparation. His strength, work ethic and physical abilities make him a solid defensive player as well.”

Guards Matt Gatens of Iowa City High, Anthony Tucker of Minnetonka, Minn., and Jermain Davis of Kirkwood Community College and forward Andrew Brommer of Rosemount, Minn., signed with Iowa in November.

Iowa will visit Boston College in the 10th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the conference announced today.

The Hawkeyes have a road game in this year’s event and will play in Boston on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the first meeting between Iowa and Boston College since 1974. BC won the only previous meeting between the schools.

The road test will test the Hawkeyes in more ways than one next season. It comes shortly after Iowa plays in the Las Vegas Invitational. The Hawkeyes are scheduled to join Kentucky, Kansas State and West Virginia in a bracket that will play in Las Vegas on Nov. 28-29.

 This year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge match-ups include a game between North Carolina and Michigan State that will be played at Ford Field in Detroit on Dec. 3. The event tips off on Dec. 1, when Wisconsin plays at Virginia Tech.

In addition to the Iowa game on Dec. 2, Duke visits Purdue, Clemson is at Illinois, Ohio State travels to Miami and Virginia is at Minnesota.

On Dec. 3, Indiana is at Wake Forest, Michigan visits Maryland, Florida State is at Northwestern and Penn State travels to Georgia Tech.

It was 52 weeks ago today that Todd Lickliter was introduced as the new basketball coach at Iowa.

The competitiveness of the coach Gary Barta hired probably leaves him less-than-satisfied with the on-court results of his first season in Iowa City. I’d argue that a pretty solid foundation is in the process of being laid, both in terms of recruiting and in terms of players currently in the program settling into a new system. The 2007-08 season was clearly a year of transition.

I’d be interested in your take on where you feel this program is at one year after a new coach settled into his office in Iowa City.

Iowa’s latest men’s basketball commitment continues a trend.

Devan Bawinkel of Highland Community College adds to the Hawkeyes’ collection of mid-sized shooters who bring a strong shooting touch and plenty of versatility to the mix. Those are the type of players who thrived in the system Iowa coaches used when they were at Butler and it is clearly the direction that the Hawkeyes are moving as they work toward the future.

Bawinkel will be one of at least two players to sign with Iowa in April, joining a collection of four players who signed letters of intent in November. Stay tuned… there could be more.

Iowa drew one of the most experienced tournament teams for its opening-round match in this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Overshadowed only slightly by Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference, the Bulldogs have been one of the nation’s top programs during the 28 seasons Andy Landers has been Georgia’s head coach. He’s led his program to 25 NCAA appearances in 27 years, the third-highest total of any school in the nation.

The Bulldogs finished as an NCAA runner-up in 1985 and 1996 and have played in the Final Four five times, the Elite Eight 10 times and the Sweet 16 16 times while averaging 24.3 wins per season during Landers’ tenure.

Iowa has faced Georgia once previously in NCAA play, ousting the Bulldogs from the tourney in 1987 by a 62-60 score in a Midwest Regional semifinal played in Monroe, La. The Hawkeyes are 2-2 all-time against the SEC team, but have not played Georgia since a 1995 loss in a tourney in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Iowa is in the NCAA field for the 17th time. The Hawkeyes are unbeaten against the other two teams it could face this weekend in Norfolk, Va. Iowa is 2-0 all-time against North Carolina and 1-0 vs. Bucknell.

Iowa’s No. 9 seed is shared by two of the three other Big Ten teams to reach the NCAA tourney. Purdue and Minnesota were also given No. 9 seeds. Ohio State, the team Iowa shared the Big Ten regular-season title with and the league’s only ranked team this season, received a No. 6 seed.

The No. 9 seed is familar territory for the Hawkeyes. Iowa has been a No. 9 seed in three of its last four NCAA appears. On the fourth occasion, in 2006, the Hawkeyes were a 10 seed.

The Iowa women’s basketball team is expected to receive an NCAA berth when pairings are announced Monday night. Although Iowa ended up in the WNIT as a 20-9 team three years ago, Iowa’s 21-10 record is expected to be more than enough to earn the Hawkeyes a berth.

The difference? Iowa went 8-8 in the Big Ten three years ago, but shared the league regular-season title with a 13-5 record this season.

Don’t expect the Hawkeyes’ seed to be all that flashy. There hasn’t been a lot of love thrown the Big Ten’s direction this season and most projections list Iowa as an 8 or 9 seed.

Pairings for the women’s tourney are now announced on Monday night and they will be unveiled at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

The season came to a merciful end for the Iowa men’s basketball team on Thursday in the opening round of the Big Ten tourney. Iowa 55-47 loss to Michigan was a struggle from the start and in some respects, the Big Ten Network did fans who can’t yet receive the fledging operation a favor by keeping this match-up off of mainstream TV.

The loss mirrored Iowa’s issues throughout the season in many respects. Long scoring droughts, untimely turnovers, missed chances at the free-throw line, this game had them all. The Wolverines proved equally inept at times, one reason the mood in the locker room ranged from frustration over another missed opportunity to relief that a new season will provide the Hawkeyes with a fresh start.

I’ll share comments from some of the returning players both in the QC Times and at hawkmania later this weekend. Talking with the freshmen, most found it surprising how quickly the season went and talked about how they now have a better understanding of what it takes to compete in the Big Ten.

Iowa coach Todd Lickliter shares that understanding as well. Although his Butler teams regularly played an occasional Big Ten team during the nonconference portion of the season, the week-to-week grind that is an 18-game Big Ten schedule is a beast of its own.

Lickliter said he believes his team made progress, but conceded it wasn’t enough to help Iowa compete during the second half of the Big Ten schedule. The Hawkeyes won just two of their final nine games and both of those wins came against cellar-dwelling Northwestern.

An influx of at least six recruits should change the face of Iowa’s team next season. Iowa’s Mr. Basketball, Matt Gatens of Iowa City High, is among the players who will suit up for the Hawkeyes next season.

When asked earlier this week if Gatens could help the Hawkeyes, Lickliter deadpanned, “Can he go with us to Indianapolis?”

Gatens will be a good fit for what Iowa likes to do and Lickliter and his staff continue to court additional talent on the recruiting trail.

Iowa’s first-round match-up in the Big Ten tourney with Michigan is an interesting one for a number of reasons.

Both teams have first-year coaches, both have a limited number of scholarship players to work with and the two played a strange set of games against each other that were both decided by eight points.

Iowa shot the ball extremely well in the second half of its 68-60 win at Michigan in January, while the Wolverines returned the favor with a strong shooting effort in the second half of a 60-52 win on the Hawkeyes’ home court in mid-February.

“It’s tough to make a lot of sense out of either of those games,” Wolverines coach John Beilein said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been a part of something like that where the games were so different and the road team won both.”

Both coaches say they will have to be careful in choosing what areas from the past games to emphasize, both in terms of areas that need improvement and areas of success that potentially can be built upon.

“I think in the end it goes back to seeing if we can do a better job of affecting their shots,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “Give them credit, in the second game they did a good job of what they do to get themselves open looks. We have to do a better job with that.”

Beilein said it will be a matter of “putting the bad and good together to see what we need to emphasize in this game.”

A chance to watch his son play in Iowa’s Class 4A state basketball tournament gave first-year Iowa coach Todd Lickliter a first-hand view of the event and the son of a high school coach who spent 12 seasons on the bench himself came away impressed.

“It was a great environment, great competition and in a great setting,” Lickliter said.

Lickliter said his two older sons drove in from Indianapolis to join he and his wife in the stands while watching Iowa City High top Davenport Central for the state title on Saturday night.

“It was a terrific weekend,” he said.

Lickliter doesn’t see a lot of difference between the level of high school basketball being played across the country any more.

“It’s cyclical, no question, but there is good basketball played at the high school level in a lot of states. I do think this City High team could compete anywhere,” Lickliter said. “I’ve enjoyed watching them play, the way they share the ball and work together. They’re what a team is about.”

A nine-day break between games at the end of the regular season and the start of the conference tournament isn’t necessarily a great thing.

Iowa finds itself coping with that this week for the first time since the Big Ten began tourney play and coach Todd Lickliter will attempt to find a balance between needed practice time and a little free time at the end of a long regular season.

“When these situations come up, I like to give the players a couple of days off during the actual school week. It gives them a chance to be students and I feel like that is important,” Lickliter said. “We’ll get our work in, but I want to give them a break, too. The timing is a little different, but we’ll try to make the most of it.”

 That shouldn’t be a problem for Lickliter. He spent Wednesday afternoon watching his son, John, compete in the Iowa Class 4A state quarterfinals in Des Moines for Iowa City High. He expects to be in the stands for any game the Little Hawks play this week, doing what he can to blend into the crowd.