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Carver-Hawkeye Arena will play host to the first game of the Big Ten Conference men’s basketball season, an Iowa-Michigan State showdown scheduled for Dec. 29.

Opponents were already known, but the 18-game schedules for the league’s 14 teams were revealed Thursday evening.

Some of the things that stand out on the schedule for Iowa, which tied for third in the league last year with a 12-6 record under Fran McCaffery:

There are no Saturday home Big Ten games for the Hawkeyes. They’ll host four on Sundays, three on Tuesdays and two on Wednesdays. Carver-Hawkeye usually gets its biggest and sometimes most boisterous crowds on Saturdays, so that’s a bit of a disappointment.

Iowa plays Michigan State twice in its first four league games, visiting East Lansing on Jan. 14.

There’s only one set of back-to-back road games: Feb. 7 at Illinois, then Feb. 11 at Indiana. Conversely, there’s only consecutive home games once: Jan. 31 vs. Northwestern and Feb. 3 vs. Penn State.

Six of Iowa’s first 10 Big Ten games are at home. The finishing four games are going to be a challenge: Wisconsin, at Ohio State, Indiana, at Michigan.

Iowa’s last regular-season meeting against retiring Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan comes Feb. 24 in Iowa City. Don’t look for Ryan and Hawkeye star and former Badger Jarrod Uthoff to hug at midcourt.

Senior Day will be March 1 against Indiana; Iowa closes the regular season March 5 at Michigan.

Big Four Classic: Iowa’s Big Four Classic game vs. Drake will be played at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. It’ll be televised on ESPN3 and precede the 6 p.m. meeting between Iowa State and Northern Iowa on ESPNU. Season-ticket holders for all four schools have first crack at tickets, which range from $25 to $70 and are good for both games.

IOWA’S BIG TEN SCHEDULE (times will be released at a later date)

Tuesday, Dec. 29 – vs. Michigan State

Saturday, Jan. 2 – at Purdue

Tuesday, Jan. 5 – vs. Nebraska

Thursday, Jan. 14 – at Michigan State

Sunday, Jan. 17 – vs. Michigan

Thursday, Jan. 21 – at Rutgers

Sunday, Jan. 24 – vs. Purdue

Thursday, Jan. 28 – at Maryland

Sunday, Jan. 31 – vs. Northwestern

Wednesday, Feb. 3 – vs. Penn State

Sunday, Feb. 7 – at Illinois

Thursday, Feb. 11 – at Indiana

Sunday, Feb. 14 – vs. Minn.

Wednesday, Feb. 17 – at Penn State

Wednesday, Feb. 24 – vs. Wisconsin

Saturday, Feb. 27 or Sunday, Feb. 28 – at Ohio State

Tuesday, March 1 – vs. Indiana

Saturday, March 5 – at Michigan