By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
State Championship Weekend Begins Tonight:
The Iowa High School State Football Championships begin in earnest today when 8-Player, Class A and Class 3A play their championships at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls.
Here’s the full schedule:
10:00—St. Mary’s, Remsen vs. Fremont Mills, Tabor | Eight-Player
2:00—Grundy Center vs. Regina, Iowa City | Class A
7:00—Harlan Community vs. North Scott, Eldridge | Class 3A
Tomorrow’s games include:
10:00—OABCIG vs. Van Meter | Class 1A
2:00—Central Lyon/George-Little Rock vs. Waukon | Class 2A
7:00—Southeast Polk vs. Ankeny | Class 4A
Iowa, ranked fifth nationally in The Associated Press Preseason Poll, plays six of its seven nonconference games on Mediacom Court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, including the first six of the season.
The Hawkeyes begin the season by hosting North Carolina Central on Nov. 25 at 3 p.m. (CT).
Two days later, Iowa will entertain Southern University on Nov. 27 at 4 p.m. (CT) as part of its multi-team event. Southern will challenge North Carolina Central on Thanksgiving. Both Iowa games will be televised nationally on the Big Ten Network.
The Hawkeyes will entertain North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 8 and Northern Illinois on Dec. 13. The home dates for Iowa’s contest against Western Illinois and the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series game against Iowa State are being finalized and will be announced later.
Iowa closes its nonconference slate versus top-ranked Gonzaga on Dec. 19 at 11 a.m. (CT) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Due to COVID-19 safety protocols, there will be no men’s and women’s basketball general admission single game or season ticket sales to home games at this time.
Fans can visit hawkeyesports.com/fancutouts to purchase a fan cutouts for all winter sports in Carver-Hawkeye Arena; 20 percent of the revenue will benefit UI Dance Marathon, with the remainder of the profits supporting the UI student-athletes’ scholarship fund.
Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton Selected 12th Overall by Sacramento:
Iowa State guard Tyrese Haliburton was drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 12 pick in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft. He is the third-highest draft pick in school history.
Haliburton was selected with the No. 12 pick to become the 41st Cyclone to be drafted. Iowa State has had 14 players drafted since the Big 12 was formed in 1996-97, the third-best total in the league.
Last year Haliburton averaged 15.2 points, 6.5 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 2.5 steals before his season was cut short after 22 games due to a left wrist fracture.
He earned All-Big 12 Second-Team accolades.
American Rivers Conference Announces Spring Schedule:
The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) announced winter schedules and schedules for fall sports that were moved to the spring.
All schedules were approved by the conference’s Presidents Council after recommendations from coaches and directors of athletics from the nine conference schools.
The basketball schedule is slated to start January 23 with a round-robin of eight conference games the Presidents Council approved a nine-team conference tournament beginning the week of March 1.
Volleyball would be the first fall-to-spring sport to take the court with first matches scheduled February 20. A full round-robin is planned and there will not be a conference tournament. Women’s and men’s soccer have round-robins planned, beginning March 27. Again, there will be no conference tournament.
A-R-C football has each school scheduled for three games.