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A day after the Iowa-Indiana game scheduled for Tuesday evening was postponed, we're still not much closer to knowing when -- or even where -- the game might end up being played. We do at least know why it unexpectedly began raining pieces of death metal inside Assembly Hall on Tuesday afternoon, though. Per Dustin Dopirak of The Hoosier Scoop:
[Indiana athletic director Fred] Glass explained that the piece of metal that fell was part of a facing of steel plating that runs along the corners where the roof of Assembly Hall meets the walls and where there is a curve in the roof. The roof is held up by cables in a system similar to a suspension bridge. The roof, he said, was flexing under the enormous weight of the snow and ice to the point where it made contact with the plating, which is not meant to bear weight. The plating popped out under that weight and fell into the stands, damaging 2-3 seats in Section F of Assembly Hall.
However, Glass also said that that plating is entirely ornamental and serves no structural purpose.
Glass said that Indiana plans to host the Indiana-Michigan women's basketball game in Assembly Hall tonight; the only seats used will be along the sidelines and not in the corners of the arena. He said that Indiana also still plans to their other two remaining homes (against Ohio State and Nebraska on March 2 and 5, respectively) at Assembly Hall. Those plans are also contingent on Indiana officials receiving an "all clear" from the engineers inspecting the facility today.
We also know that Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers, offered to serve as an alternate host site for the game and that it could be played there tonight. As Hawkeye Drive's Brendan Stiles reported, Iowa "was open" to staying in Indiana an extra day and doing just that, but Glass ultimately decided it wouldn't be feasible, citing logistical issues -- in particular, season-ticket holders and seating arrangements.
The Indiana Pacers offered to lend their arena, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, to the teams and allow them to make the game up Wednesday in Indianapolis. Glass said Iowa "was open" to staying around and playing the game there Wednesday, but he ultimately decided it wouldn't be logistically possible.
"The feeling was on a 24-hour, 48-hour turnaround, that just didn't make sense," Glass said. "As the host, I think it was our responsibility to decide whether we could appropriately host a Big Ten game on that short notice and my conclusion based on advice from our event staff was we could not."
Glass elaborated on such logistics as dealing with season-ticket holders and seating arrangements with less than 24 hours to work with being an issue.
Given the schedules for Indiana and Iowa the rest of the season, the best option undoubtedly would have been to play the game in Indianapolis tomorrow night. It would have interrupted the remaining schedules the least. Unfortunately, that option isn't on the table. So when might they be able to reschedule this game? Let's take a look at the options.
First, we'll list the Iowa and Indiana games already scheduled for the rest of the season. It's pretty unlikely that any of those games are going to be rescheduled for the benefit of Iowa-Indiana; that would just add another few layers of logistical headaches. I'll also include the scheduled home games for the Pacers and -- since they're another local-ish team -- Butler. Indiana's primary plan is to play this game at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, but that may not be possible. If that's the case, they'll need to come up with an alternative solution and playing a "home" game at a site in Indianapolis might be a decent option.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Iowa vs Wisconsin (at Iowa City, IA)
Indiana vs Northwestern (at Evanston, IL)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Butler vs Providence (at Indianapolis, IN)
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24
No games scheduled
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Iowa vs Minnesota (at Minneapolis, MN)
Indiana vs Wisconsin (at Madison,WI)
Indiana Pacers vs Los Angeles Lakers (at Indianapolis, IN)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26
No games scheduled
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27
Indana Pacers vs Milwaukee Bucks (at Indianapolis, IN)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28
No games scheduled
SATURDAY, MARCH 1
Iowa vs Purdue (at Iowa City, IA)
SUNDAY, MARCH 2
Indiana vs Ohio State (at Bloomington, IN)
Indiana Pacers vs Utah Jazz (at Indianapolis, IN)
MONDAY, MARCH 3
No games scheduled
TUESDAY, MARCH 4
Indiana Pacers vs Golden State Warriors (at Indianapolis, IN)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5
Indiana vs Nebraska (at Bloomington, IN)
THURSDAY, MARCH 6
Iowa vs Michigan State (at East Lansing, MI)
FRIDAY, MARCH 7
No games scheduled
SATURDAY, MARCH 8
Iowa vs Illinois (at Iowa City, IA)
Indiana vs Michigan (at Ann Arbor, MI)
Butler vs Seton Hall (at Indianapolis, IN)
SUNDAY, MARCH 9
No games scheduled
MONDAY, MARCH 10
No games scheduled
THURSDAY, MARCH 13
Day 1 of Big Ten Tournament
Based on the schedules, there are really only a few days that make much sense: 2/27 and 3/10. For the next week, Iowa and Indiana are actually on the same schedule: both teams play Saturday and the following Tuesday. Things diverge after that, though -- Iowa plays on the following Saturday (3/1), while Indiana plays on that Sunday (3/2). The week after that, Indiana plays on Wednesday (3/5) , while Iowa plays on Thursday (3/6). Both teams end their season the Saturday after that (3/8).
Neither 2/27 or 3/10 is an ideal option. Both dates would involve having Iowa and Indiana play just two days after another game. Between those two options, 3/10 would have the advantage of not also forcing both teams to play two days later; both teams would have at least three days off before their next game (3/13 or 3/14). The downside of playing on 3/10 is that it would extend the Big Ten regular season another day and prevent the seeds (and schedule) for the Big Ten Tournament from being locked into place until Monday evening. The downside of 2/27 is more obvious: Iowa would end up playing 4 games in 8 days (2/22 WIS, 2/25 @MINN, 2/27 @IND, 3/1 PUR) and Indiana would end up playing 4 games in 9 days (2/22 @NW, 2/25 @WIS, 2/27 IA, 3/2 OSU). (It's probably worth noting that a similar "4 games in 8 days" schedule is currently being played by both Duke and North Carolina in the aftermath of their snow-postponed game last Wednesday.) Playing on 2/27 shifts more of the burden onto the players and coaches; playing on 3/10 would shift more of the burden onto the league (as well as people trying to lock in plans for the Big Ten Tournament).
I would favor having the game played on 3/10 rather than 2/27 since it would benefit the players slightly more and since the student-athletes -- and the games they play on the court -- are the things that we care about the most. Having said that, it wouldn't shock me in the least if the game was re-scheduled for 2/27. Again, there isn't a truly good option on the table if the game can't be played this week (and even then we're talking about Iowa and Indiana playing three games in six days if the game was re-scheduled for this Thursday, aka tomorrow). Hopefully we'll find out today what option the Iowa and Indiana settle on. As always, we'll keep you updated as more information becomes available.
In the meantime, can we not make this a new Iowa basketball tradition? It was nearly a year ago (2/21/13) that Iowa's road game with Nebraska had to be rescheduled due to a blizzard. This whole rescheduled games business is getting old already.
2/19 PM UPDATE:
Indiana held a presser this afternoon to discuss the situation with the roof.
the expectation is the repairs will be done before the next IU game here. No reschedule date yet set with Iowa
— Mike Pegram (@peegs) February 19, 2014
Glass says conversations ongoing with Iowa and IU is confident that the game will be in Assembly Hall
— Mike Pegram (@peegs) February 19, 2014
Glass said conversations are ongoing with Iowa. Said confident they'll reach an agreement in the 72-hour window.
— Dustin Dopirak (@DustinDopirak) February 19, 2014
Long story short, we know about as much as we did this morning (or last night). It's going to happen, date/time TBD. The game will almost certainly be in Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
