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NIT at Iowa is chance for players to play, fans to get primo seats at Carver
Hawkeyes are in NIT for ninth time, but first since 2017. Kansas State is 19-14, tied for 9th in Big 12 at 8-10,
Mar. 17, 2024 8:59 pm, Updated: Mar. 18, 2024 4:46 pm
Iowa’s last NIT home game was a sellout. This one?
It’s not true if you call the UI athletics ticket office and ask what time Tuesday’s game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena starts, they’ll reply “What time can you get here?” But the gathering may be, well, intimate.
An 8 p.m. first-round NIT meeting between Kansas State (19-14) and Iowa (18-14) could be a tough sell. Perhaps the most-attractive lure is this from the UI sports information department:
Because of the short turnaround time from the announcement to hosting Tuesday’s game, season ticket holders are not guaranteed to receive their season ticket location. All purchasers will have the ability to select seats in the purchase process.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for UI students and youths.
None of which is a concern for the Hawkeyes team. Six teams known teams declined NIT invitations, including Indiana and Oklahoma. Just the thought of such a thing made Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery bristle Monday afternoon.
“I would never consider it,” he said.
“We want to keep coaching. The players want to keep playing. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing now.
“This is a ridiculous conversation. It’s obvious what the value is. People don’t want to play, that’s on them. Ask them why they don’t want to play. We’re playing, we want to play, want to continue to play, we’re going to get better.”
The NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, and some of the coaches of teams that spurned the NIT cited that as at least a partial reason for doing so.
“Focusing on our team right now,” McCaffery said.
Historically, attendance at Carver for NIT games has varied wildly. Five of them sold out (15,000-plus) including the latest one, a 2017 overtime loss to TCU.
Just 5,167 attended a 1998 Georgia-Iowa NIT game, and a mere 2,761 were present for the Hawkeyes’ 62-60 win over Valparaiso in the 2003 event.
As for Tuesday’s game, Iowa is the No. 3 seed in the 8-team Villanova Region of the 32-team NIT. Kansas State is unseeded. It went 8-10 in the Big 12 and lost 76-57 to Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals last Thursday after defeating the Cyclones at K-State the weekend before.
K-State fifth-year guard Tylor Perry averages a team-high 15.5 points and has made 91 three-pointers. He already has an NIT championship to his name. In fact, he was the NIT’s Most Outstanding Player last year for North Texas after the Mean Green defeated UAB in the title game in Las Vegas.
Perry also was last season’s Conference USA Player of the Year.
The winner of this game would play the winner of UC Irvine-Utah on Saturday or Sunday. Utah is seeded No. 2 in the bracket, so it presumably would host a second-round game if it defeats Irvine’s Anteaters Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
The quarterfinals are March 26-27 at campus sites. The semifinals and final are in Indianapolis’ Hinkle Fieldhouse on April 2 and 4.
Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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