Hawkeyes, Illini draw Challenge home games | College Sports

Iowa and Illinois drew home games for this year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge involving men’s basketball teams from the two leagues.

The Hawkeyes will host Georgia Tech at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and the Fighting Illini will welcome Syracuse to the State Farm Center for games that are both scheduled to be played on Tuesday, Nov. 29 — the second of three days of competition between the conferences.

Iowa, returning five of its top seven scorers from a 26-10 team, will look to add to its collection of victories in seven of its last nine games in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, including wins over Virginia, North Carolina, Syracuse and Pittsburgh the past four years.

Coach Josh Pastner’s Georgia Tech team returns two starters from a 12-20 team which finished 14th in the ACC with a 5-15 conference record. Guard Kyle Sturdivant and center Rodney Howard, who combined to average 14.1 points last season, are the team’s top returning scorers.

The Hawkeyes and Yellow Jackets have met on two previous occasions, both at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa defeated Georgia Tech in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in 2000 and lost a 79-78 game in the second round of the 2003 NIT.

Illinois has faced Syracuse only three times in the past and the teams have not met since the Orange defeated the Fighting Illini in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu in 1995.

The Fighting Illini won the other two meetings, in an NCAA tourney Elite Eight game in Minneapolis in 1989 which sent Illinois to the Final Four and at the Kentucky Invitational in 1978.

Illinois has won its last two ACC/Big Ten Challenge games, defeating Notre Dame in Champaign last season and beating 10th-ranked Duke in 2020.

The Orange enter the 2022-23 season looking to rebound after finishing under .500 for the first time in coach Jim Boeheim’s 46-year tenure. Six freshmen and Duquesne transfer Mounir Hima, a 6-foot-11, 240-pound center, are likely to play solid roles on a team which finished 16-17 last season including a 9-11 record in the ACC.

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge opens on Monday, Nov. 28, with Minnesota visiting Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh traveling to Northwestern.

The Iowa and Illinois games are part of a lineup on Tuesday, Nov. 29 that includes Penn State playing at Clemson, Virginia visiting Michigan and Wake Forest traveling to Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, Nov. 30, Rutgers visits Miami, Boston College plays at Nebraska, Ohio State travels to Duke, Purdue is at Florida State, North Carolina travels to Indiana and Notre Dame hosts Michigan State.

Game times and television plans for all games will be determined at a later date for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, which the Big Ten won a year ago by taking eight of the 14 games.