ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — The Augustana men's basketball team will get a chance to face Big 10 competition on Sunday, November 3 when the Vikings take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in an exhibition contest in Iowa City, Iowa. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
After facing high-level opponents on its recent trip to Brazil, Augustana will take another step up in competition against Coach Fran McCaffery's Hawkeyes. Iowa finished 25-13 a year ago and reached the finals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). McCaffery returns nine of his top 10 players, including all five starters, and his squad recently won five of six games in a span of eight days on its tour of England and France.
Roy Devyn Marble, a 6' 6" senior guard and son of former Iowa great Roy Marble, was the Hawkeyes' leading scorer a year ago at 15.0 points per game. 6' 9" junior forward Aaron White averaged 12.8 points and a team-best 6.2 rebounds per game in 2012-13 and represented the United States at this summer's World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
Veteran Viking Coach Grey Giovanine is excited for his team's chance to face more outstanding competition. "We could not be more pleased with the opportunity to play against the Iowa Hawkeyes this season. Coach McCaffery and his staff have positioned the Hawks to be a national top 25 program and Big 10 contender and we appreciate them affording us the chance to be included on their schedule. This will be an experience that I expect our players to embrace and remember as they go forward."
McCaffery had this to say about his team's exhibition opponent. "Grey has done an unbelievable job at Augustana. We have been talking about getting together for an exhibition and we're glad we were finally able to get it scheduled for this season. We're looking forward to it."
Augustana finished 19-8 a year ago and returns 13 letter winners, including 2012-13 D3hoops.com national Rookie of the Year Ben Ryan (Washington HS, Washington, Ill.). Also returning is 6' 8" senior center Kevin Schlitter (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.), who missed almost all of last season with a knee injury.
Recent Division I opponents for the Vikings have included Northern Illinois (2007) and Valparaiso (2011) in exhibition games and Southern Illinois (2004) and Gonzaga (2009) in regular season contests.
Augustana and Iowa have met 10 times in varsity contests with the Hawkeyes holding a 7-3 advantage in the series. The last meeting was an 87-25 Iowa win in the Vikings' 1945-46 season opener. The first seven contests took place between 1901 and 1906, a period which included all three Augustana victories.
