The Hawkeyes and Mountaineers will meet in an 8 p.m. game on Friday, Nov. 28 at the Orleans Arena, prior to a game between Kentucky and Kansas State. Iowa will face either the SEC or Big 12 team the following day with a starting time of 6:30 or 9:30 p.m. based on Friday’s results. ESPN2 will televise the tournament’s championship game.

West Virginia posted a 26-11 overall record a year ago, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16 before a 79-75 overtime loss to Xavier. Hawkeye junior college transfer Devan Bawinkel transferred from the Mountaineers program prior to the 2007-08 season, playing at Highland Community College in Freeport, Ill., before signing with Iowa last April.

“West Virginia was played as well as anyone in the nation at the end of last season, as its run in the NCAA Tournament shows,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said in a statement. “Our guys can gain a lot of valuable experience against high quality programs in this event.”

The Hawkeyes have played West Virginia just once before, winning a 79-76 on Dec. 29, 1956 in the third round of the Dixie Classic in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Iowa will host two preliminary round games in the tourney, playing Oakland University on Sunday, Nov. 23 and Southeast Missouri State on Tuesday, Nov. 25.

The Hawkeyes’ road game will tipoff at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, and it comes on the back end of a cross-country journey for Iowa, which plays the previous weekend in a tournament in Las Vegas that will also includes Kentucky, Kansas State and West Virginia.

Here’s a breakdown of this year’s ACC/Big Ten match-ups, complete with starting times (CT) and TV information:

December 1, Wisconsin at Virginia Tech, 6 p.m., ESPN2

December 2, Ohio State at Miami (Fla.), 6 p.m., ESPN; Iowa at Boston College, 6 p.m., ESPNU; Clemson at Illinois, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2; Duke at Purdue, 8 p.m., ESPN; Virginia at Minnesota, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2

December 3, Indiana at Wake Forest, 6:15 p.m., ESPN; Penn State at Georgia Tech, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2; Michigan at Maryland, 6:30 p.m., ESPNU; North Carolina vs. Michigan State at Ford Field, Detroit, 8:15 p.m., ESPN; Florida State at Northwestern, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2

Players willing to make the extra pass to secure a better offensive opportunity and players willing to play a little defense are more plentiful than in past years. Scores, in general, have been a bit lower, and play has been a little more below the rim than in previous summers when the league on occasion has had its share of high-wire acts on the court.

Four of the seven newcomers who will suit up for Iowa next season found themselves on the court against each other last Wednesday, providing a good look at several key components of future Hawkeye teams.

Aaron Fuller and Anthony Tucker arrived at Iowa after earning plenty of accolades at the high school level and neither disappointed. Both played well within a team framework and have a good understanding of the need to gain strength that will be needed to compete in the Big Ten.

Devan Bawinkel and Andrew Brommer played for the other team. Brommer has gained needed ”good” weight from when I watched him play in a high school game in early February. He remains active both inside and out and continues to show good ability on the boards. Bawinkel hit a couple of money 3-pointers in last Wednesday’s game, something Iowa will need from the juco transfer who started his career at West Virginia.

 Bawinkel, along with juco transfer Jermain Davis, will bring a little more experience to the floor than the Hawkeyes’ four incoming freshmen. That could be important, especially during the early weeks of the season when the schedule will challenge Iowa with a road test at Boston College and potential match-ups against Kentucky, Kansas State and West Virginia in a Thanksgiving-time tournament in Las Vegas.  

“I’m kind of an old-school guy,” Lickliter said prior to an appearance at the Quad-Cities and North Scott I-Club banquet last week. “I can’t tell you how many coaches have come up and told me that they’ve brought teams to our tournament in the past and how much they thought of the experience.”

The early December tourney won’t be back, however, a victim of changing times and changing methods of scheduling nonconference games. Attracting attractive opponents has been difficult in recent years and with additional opportunities to attend exempt tournaments on neutral courts on an almost annual basis, filling the field had become an issue.

The timing — typically one week after playing multiple games in an exempt tourney and at the end of the week when the ACC-Big Ten Challenge is traditionally played — hasn’t been good in recent years, either.

“In some ways, I’ll be sad to see it go, but this was one of the last. Everybody used to have one,” Lickliter said.

The Iowa basketball coach crossed the finish line of his first two-year tour on the I-Club circuit on Wednesday night when the Quad-Cities and North Scott I-Club’s co-hosted their annual banquet at the Davenport Country Club.

The series of events that send coaches from one corner of the state to the other and beyond is uniquely Iowa. Few universities send their coaches out to as many venues as Iowa does each spring, providing fans and financial supporters with a chance to get close to coaches whose programs they support.

It’s not something that should be taken for granted on either side of the equation.

Wednesday’s outing was the 10th Lickliter has appeared at this year, a number similar to the number that football coach Kirk Ferentz has attended. The pair rotate through the circuit every two years, joined by other head coaches and assistant coaches who mix and mingle with fans.

Lickliter said his first experience has given him a chance to get to know the state and the people who support his program. He has appreciated the kindness he has found at every stop along the way.

The financial support provided by fans who attend the I-Club events is the lifeblood of the athletics program at Iowa, which is based in the smallest-population state in the Big Ten region and maintains a self-supporting program.

Those dollars help the Hawkeyes compete.

CSTV.com has the Hawkeyes’ incoming 2008 class — the first full class put together by Todd Lickliter and his staff — ranked as the 34th-best class in the nation and the fifth-best class in the Big Ten.

The website ranks UCLA, Kansas, Ohio State, Memphis and Florida as programs nationally which topped the country in basketball recruiting following the end of the spring signing period last week.

In addition to the Buckeyes’ third-rated class, Minnesota (17), Indiana (21) and Michigan State (28) joined the Hawkeyes in the top 40. Iowa State’s class ranked 35th.

Lickliter finds a lot to like about this group as well, from the way it fits into Iowa’s team-oriented approach to the balance it will bring in terms of numbers to the Hawkeye program. With four freshmen — guards Matt Gatens, Anthony Tucker and forwards Andrew Brommer and Aaron Fuller – to go with a pair of versatile junior college transfer wing players, Jermain Davis and Devan Bawinkel, Lickliter appreciates the fact that Iowa will not have any one class with more than four players.

He believes that type of balance will only help with the development of players and provide consistency within the program.

“I’d prefer to never have more than four players from any one class on the team at a given time,” Lickliter said.

It’s an interesting question.

On one hand, Freeman’s transfer takes an experienced guard out of the program and removes one of the team’s most poised 3-point shooters from the roster.

On the other, it eliminates Freeman’s freelancing ways. Tony had a tendancy to play his own game at times whether or not that is what Iowa coaches wanted. There were moments when inside opportunities were there to be exploited that Freeman, at the helm of the Iowa offense, opted to dribble, then drive or simply lauch an unnecessarily-hurried 3-point shot.

Freeman had the potential to be a distraction next season, and because of his competitive nature, it is unlikely that he would have quietly sat on the bench if he wasn’t getting the minutes he felt he deserved.

So, parting ways may be the best thing for both parties in this instance.

As for Freeman, he’s juggling a variety of options right now. More than two dozen schools have requested information on him from Iowa’s athletics department. That’s not surprising. Freeman has skills that can be a good fit in the right situation. He’s talked with folks from Illinois, Iowa State, DePaul, Illinois-Chicago and even with former Hawkeye coach Steve Alford at New Mexico.

Freeman will land on his feet — but the gut feeling here is that he won’t be alone. The chance to work and teach a team that will largely consist of players who have played for no other coach that Lickliter – 9 of Iowa’s 12 players next season will be in that situation — should benefit the Hawkeyes as well.

Your thoughts?

A competitor who dispised losing as much as any player who put on a Hawkeye uniform last season, Freeman is a little uncomfortable not knowing what the future might bring and in some respects, he feels he was pushed out the door at Iowa. At the same time, he acknowledges that his game isn’t exactly a perfect fit for the style of basketball that the Hawkeyes want to play these days.

Round peg. Square hole.

It’s nothing new. Freeman isn’t the first player to be stuck in a system he wasn’t recruited to play in. He won’t be the last.

Give credit to Freeman for at least being willing to try. It would have been easy for him to bolt when Steve Alford sprinted out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena a year ago, hopped in his Escalade and jetted off to Albuquerque.

Look at the exodus that has taken place at Indiana since Kelvin Sampson’s university-issued cellphone was taken away. That’s the way it’s played these days in the college game.

While some players were noncommital about their future on the day when Todd Lickliter was introduced as Iowa’s new coach,  Freeman didn’t waiver. He was staying put. No ifs. No ands. No buts. He was where he wanted to be.

Freeman worked hard to make it work. He worked on his offensive game, but struggled defensively and was never truly comfortable at the point where he was forced to play.

Without question his foot injury forced him to play from behind all season as he attempted to learn Lickliter’s system and it just didn’t fit. When the Hawkeyes’ 13-19 year came to a merciful end in the opening round of the Big Ten tourney, no starter played fewer minutes than Freeman.

Perhaps there was a message being sent. Perhaps the round peg and square hole were never meant to fit. Sometimes, that’s the way it works.

Now free to select a new place to continue his career, Freeman will find himself with a fresh start. He’ll have the two full years he truly wanted to work on his game before taking his chances at the next level, time he needs to grow defensively and to work on his mid-range shooting skills.

A quality person who made the most of an awkward situation, Freeman deserves the chance to find the right fit.

 Your thoughts?

The game will be played on Dec. 4 in Durham, N.C., and will give the Iowa women the experience of playing in one of college basketball’s most historic venues, Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“They have an exciting women’s basketball environment and we look forward to the test of playing in that venue,” Hawkeye coach Lisa Bluder said in a statement.

Cameron Indoor is a unique environment, a throwback in many ways to a classic era of collegiate basketball with its wood-grained and brass-rimmed balcony overhangs to the close environs that opposing teams find themselves dealing with when they meet the Blue Devils.

The arena is also the site of final college game played by Iowa’s Chris Street, who was killed in an auto accident two days after the Hawkeye men lost a 65-56 game there on Jan. 16, 1993.

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.