Some Other Suggested Start Times for Men’s Basketball Games

As Iowa State’s men’s basketball season slumps along to a merciless end, an interesting trend popped up. Yesterday’s game with Oklahoma State started at 3:00pm locally on ESPN+. Extreme weather in that area prompted the change, but mid-afternoon weekday games have not been uncommon across the country this year. Many Iowa State fans might not have even been aware that the game was happening. The rest of this season needs as little awareness as possible, so let’s brainstorm when our remaining games should tip off. With any luck, we won’t have even known the games happened.

February 20th vs #9 Oklahoma

Folks will be more tuned in since this game is on a Saturday. But, West Virginia plays Texas at 3:00. I would say put this game on the same network and start it at 3:30pm. With any luck, we won’t make it to our game before Texas shoots it’s 50th free throw of the 2nd half.

February 23rd at #2 Baylor

9:00am feels about right here. Most everyone will have started the work day by then, and there’s almost no chance of overlapping with anyone’s lunch breaks. Baylor will be returning from a long pause and should be excited to play not matter what time the game starts.

February 27th vs TCU

Instead of playing on Saturday, let’s move this one to Friday night at 10:00 and broadcast it on ESPN the Ocho. Hopefully some better weekend activities have materialized by then and if not, the Friday beers should have taken the edge off.

Big 12 Tournament 1st Round TBD

This is tough because fans are conditioned to games all day during conference tournament season. We’re lucky enough that there should be a number of other games happening at the same time, but we can do better than that. Play this one at 5:00am. Wake up, check the box score, and call it a season. And before you say that’s unfair to the other team, they’ll get an additional 18 or so hours to rest and prepare for their next opponent that they wouldn’t have under a traditional tournament schedule.