Marquette Men's Basketball To Host Iowa In 1st Gavitt Tipoff Games

Scout.com's Brian Snow and Matt Velazquez from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are both reporting that YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles will be playing the Iowa Hawkeyes this coming November in the very first Gavitt Tipoff Games.

Snow had the list of the full set of eight games in the first year of the annual series between the Big East and the Big Ten, while Velazquez confirmed MU's opponent as well as reporting that Marquette will be hosting the game on Thursday, November 19th, 2015.

As we discussed last summer in our Gavitt Games preview series, this will be the 18th meeting between the two squads, with Iowa carrying a 10-7 advantage.  However, the two teams haven't played since December of 1982, and they've played just five times since January 1, 1940.  Iowa was Marquette's opponent in MU's first ever Elite Eight appearance back in 1955, and the Hawkeyes came away victorious on that day.

Under head coach Fran McCaffrey, Iowa has had consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for the first time since 2005 & 2006, and three straight 20 win seasons for the first time since 1997-1999.  It should be a pretty nice early test for Steve Wojciechowski in his second season at the helm, and, barring a surprise opener for Marquette, it will be the first time a national audience gets to see Henry Ellenson in blue and gold.

Here's the rest of the list of matchups that Snow reported:

• Xavier at Michigan
• Creighton at Indiana
• Rutgers at St. John's
• Illinois at Providence
• Nebraska at Villanova
• DePaul at Penn State
• Georgetown at Maryland

Snow didn't actually know the locations for the DePaul and Georgetown games, but with Marquette hosting, that makes four games in Big East barns, so Penn State and Maryland have to host those two games.  Our friends at Casual Hoya can confirm that Georgetown will be going to College Park.

With only eight teams per side in the Gavitt Games and 14 teams in the Big Ten, there were going to be a lot of teams left out on their side.  The obvious omissions this time around are Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Ohio State.  It's not an optimal situation for the television providers, obviously.  Georgetown-Maryland is probably the highlight of the eight games, followed closely by Marquette-Iowa and Xavier-Michigan, particularly with Caris LeVert returning to school.  While this year's slate may not be that strong, there's seven more years to go in this deal between the two conferences, and the six B1G schools sitting this year out still have to make at least four appearances.

Be sure to stop by Black Heart Gold Pants, our Iowa-centric SB Nation sister site, for their take on the Gavitt Games news as well as all the Hawkeye hoops news that you can shake a stick at over the summer.