Tubby To Take Izzo Down First

The first Big Ten game for Tubby Smith will be in East Lansing, against another coaching great Tom Izzo. The Big Ten released the upcoming conference basketball schedule yesterday.

The Gophers didn't receive any breaks with the unbalanced schedule. The two teams Tubby's crew will face only once are Iowa and Purdue. It'd clearly be beneficial if we played Ohio State once, for instance. It's unfortunate that Iowa is on the schedule only once for two reasons: they might be one of the worst teams in the conference this year and they are a border rival. The Big Ten should keep traditional rivals facing each other twice per year.

Three home games--Michigan, Iowa and Indiana--are scheduled to be telvised on the four letter (otherwise known as ESPN). The full schedule can be found here. The vast majority of the games will be televised on the much-discussed Big Ten Network. I'm thoroughly pleased I have DirecTV.

After travelling to East Lansing, the Gophers have two winnable games--hosting Northwestern and at Penn State. I'll be heading to Happy Valley for that contest if anyone would like to tag along.

The nonconference schedule should come out shortly. Various reports have come out indicating some of the games. Someone can correct me, but I believe the Gophers will travel to Iowa State, UNLV and Florida State (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Home games I've seen reported are plenty bland so far: Colorodo State, South Dakota and North Dakota State and UC Riverside.

PJS is a college basketball fan first and foremost. I look forward to breaking down the entire schedule as soon as possible.