The Iowa men's basketball season starts Sunday ... and it's hard for me to care

A few reasons.

1. I don't watch college basketball in November. No matter who is playing. Football season isn't over yet. Thanksgiving isn't here yet. The World Series is barely over. The 21st Century has barely begun. (That last one has no bearing, but it's a fact all the same.)

2. I need the Hawkeyes to prove to me they're more interesting before I get, uh, interested. That may happen this season. I'm willing to wait to find out. Willing and quite able.

3. The early home opponents, as usual, are faceless, nameless entities brought in from a long way away. Texas-San Antonio is Sunday. Folks, Iowa played Texas-San Antonio in Carver last year.

Texas-San Antonio is now some sort of yearly rival for Iowa or something? I've been to a few Alamo Bowls. Texas-San Antonio barely makes news in San Antonio.

The Roadrunners lost 73-67 to the Hawkeyes a year ago. The teams combined for 35 turnovers. Or so I read.

Then comes Duquesne Tuesday night and Bowling Green Friday. North Carolina Central, Virginia Tech and Prairie View A&M make their way through Carver before the season starts in earnest, with intrastate games.

Is there no mid-major in a bordering state capable of bringing the same kind of game to Iowa City? A Saint Louis or Missouri Valley Conference team or a Wisconsin-Something?

But back to the intrastate games. Those, I'm interested in. Can Iowa hang on the road with Northern Iowa and Iowa State? Is UNI going to build on what it did last year in winning the Missouri Valley Conference? Will ISU cross over to a winning season for the first time under Greg McDermott. Will Harrison Barnes of Ames sign with the Cycl0nes on Friday?

Yet again, the Big Ten season will start in late December while Iowa's football team is at a bowl, insuring smaller attendance. Iowa has home games Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 with Purdue and Minnesota, respectively. Winning them would be a good idea instead of starting behind the 8-ball in the Big Ten yet again.

I know this sounds very negative. But there's so much clutter in modern life, and I think it's unreasonable for college basketball to expect to be noticed before football has ended.

If the Hawkeyes have an interesting, competitive, entertaining team, I'll be all over it and so will those of you who belong to the black-and-gold persuasion. If not, we'll easily fill our lives with something else like we have the last couple winters.