Cyclones, Panthers, Hawkeyes all invited to Big Dance

Seth Tuttle: "I get to go to Seattle. That's cool." Photo courtesy of Mike Dunlop — Seth Tuttle: “I get to go to Seattle. That’s cool.”
Photo courtesy of Mike Dunlop

NIT – All three major-college basketball programs in the state of Iowa are headed to play in this seasons NCAA Tournament.

Winners of five-straight, the Iowa State Cyclones (25-8, 12-6 Big 12) earned the No. 3 seed in the South Region and will face No. 14 seed UAB (19-15, 12-6 CUSA) Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. The game will tipoff at 11:40 a.m. CT on truTV.

The winner of the Iowa State-UAB game will play the winner of the SMU-UCLA game on Saturday.

The University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team will take on the Wyoming Cowboys in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Seattle, Wash., on Fri., March 20. The game will tip at 10:40 a.m. local time (12:40 p.m. CT) on TBS.

The Panthers (30-3 overall) earned the program’s best-ever seed – No. 5. Wyoming (25-9 overall) is the No. 12 seed. UNI and Wyoming were both placed in the East Regional. The winner of the UNI-Wyoming game will play the winner of the Louisville-UC Irvine game on Sun., March 22.

This will be the fifth meeting between UNI and Wyoming. The Cowboys hold a 3-1 series edge. UNI won the last matchup between the two schools with a 72-54 victory over Wyoming in the McLeod Center on Dec. 23, 2009. The game will be played in KeyArena.

The Iowa Hawkeyes (21-11) are a 7 seed and will face Davidson (24-8) in the South Region of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Iowa will play on Friday in Seattle.

Kentucky takes overall No. 1 seed int he tournament.