Iowa women's basketball releases full nonconference schedule

After announcing a couple pieces of the schedule earlier in the offseason, the Iowa women’s basketball team released its full nonconference slate Thursday afternoon.

The Hawkeyes will open the 2018-19 regular season Nov. 9 against Oral Roberts at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game at Notre Dame (Nov. 29) and Iowa’s participation in the Junkanoo Jam had previously been announced.

The Hawkeyes will take an interesting road trip for their second game, playing at Western Kentucky on Nov. 13. The Hilltoppers won 24 games last season and reached the NCAA Tournament.

December marks Iowa’s annual run through the in-state slate. The Hawkeyes will host Iowa State on Dec. 5 and Northern Iowa on Dec. 16, before traveling to Drake on Dec. 21. Sandwiched in between is a home game versus IUPUI (Dec. 8).

Thursday’s release nearly completes Iowa 2018-19 schedule. The Hawkyes’ conference foes and locations were announced in April. The dates for those games will be announced at a later time.

Buzz has already started building for this Iowa season, which could be one of the best under Lisa Bluder. The Hawkeyes bring back all but one key contributor from last year’s NCAA Tournament squad. Iowa should be, at minimum, a preseason top-20 squad.

Iowa’s women’s basketball nonconference schedule

Nov. 6 — Dakota Wesleyan (exhibition)

Nov. 9 — Oral Roberts

Nov. 13 — at Western Kentucky

Nov. 17 — North Carolina Central

Nov. 23 — West Virginia (Junkanoo Jam, Bahamas)

Nov. 24 — Florida State/Eastern Kentucky (Junkanoo Jam, Bahamas)

Nov. 29 — at Notre Dame (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)

Dec. 2 — Robert Morris

Dec. 5 — Iowa State

Dec. 8 — IUPUI

Dec. 16 — Northern Iowa

Dec. 21 — at Drake

Dargan Southard covers Iowa and UNI athletics, recruiting and preps for the Des Moines Register, HawkCentral.com and the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.