Maybe you’ve been basking in the sun on the Canary Islands or cruising the Nile.

Maybe you’ve been without Internet access while in Costa del Sol.

Maybe—and, hey, let’s hope this certainly isn’t the case—you’ve been without access to this website while traveling anywhere in the world.

But if any, or all, of the above has been going on, you may not realize that this has been a collegiate basketball season that is very forgettable.

[Pause. It’s time for the old Bob Commings joke].

Commings was the late and lovable former Iowa football coach. A joke going around in his final years with the Hawkeyes went like this: "A guy walked into Commings’ office and asked if he could see the Hawkeyes’ season highlights film.

"Commings reached into his desk drawer and pulled out one Polaroid picture.’’

Now, back to basketball and on to football again.

With the season going so poorly for Iowa State, Iowa and Drake, and with Northern Iowa’s record at 13-12 after a promising start, it’s easy for people to start thinking about football. Why not? Both Iowa State and Iowa went to bowl games following the 2001 season.

We’re still not at the point where Nebraskans so often find themselves—basketball season is just a throw-away period between football and spring football—but I guess I’m ready to start thinking about spring, too.

I’m especially eager to say that after spending last week in Arizona, where the temperature was in the mid-70s every day.

You know me. Somebody gives me a suggestion, I grab it and run.

So let’s take a look at those 2002 football schedules for Iowa State and Iowa:

IOWA STATE

IOWA

Aug. 31--Akron at Iowa City
Sept. 7--At Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 14--Iowa State at Iowa City
Sept. 21--Utah State at Iowa City
Sept. 28--At Penn State
Oct. 5--Purdue at Iowa City
Oct. 12--Michigan State at Iowa City
Oct. 19--At Indiana
Oct. 26--At Michigan
Nov. 2--Wisconsin at Iowa City
Nov. 9--Northwestern at Iowa City
Nov. 16--At Minnesota

If both would be chosen for bowl games, the Cyclones would play an incredible 14-game schedule and Iowa would play 13 games.

How is this possible?

"The NCAA has allowed a 12-game schedule for the 2002 season,’’ explained Tom Kroeschell, an assistant athletic director at Iowa State. "We had 12 games on the schedule, but one—Florida State—is a preseason game and does not count toward the 12-game limit.’’

The Cyclones play Florida State Aug. 24 in the Eddie Robinson Classic at Kansas City.

"The NCAA in November, among other things to help teams and athletic departments at the Division I-A and Division I-AA level recover from (the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), waived the rule that says you can only play a I-AA team once every four years and have a victory count toward your bowl total,’’ Kroeschell added.

Kroeschell said Iowa State is still working on scheduling a 13^th regular-season opponent. Assuming an opponent is found, it would be the school’s first 13-game regular season.

The Cyclones’ 13^th game would likely be played Sept. 7 in Ames against a Division I-AA opponent.

"Look at our brutal road game schedule,’’ Kroeschell said. "Yikes!’’

Iowa State has road assignments at Iowa on Sept. 14, successive games at Oklahoma and Texas on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26, then successive games Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 at Kansas State and Colorado.

Add the opener against Florida State to that whopper of a schedule, and it’s no wonder Coach Dan McCarney is calling it the toughest in school history.

Another interesting aspect of the schedule has the Cyclones opening their Big 12 Conference saason Aug. 31 against Kansas in Ames. The game was moved to August for TV purposes, and Iowa State will wind up its regular season Nov 23 against Connecticut—not exactly a "natural’’ rival.

Iowa’s schedule can’t come close to matching the strength of Iowa State’s, and the Hawkeyes don’t have to play Illinois and Ohio State, but they’re at Michigan on Oct. 26 and they open their Big Ten season Sept. 28 at Penn State. Certainly the Nittany Lions can’t be as bad in 2002 as they were when Iowa beat them last fall.

Or can they?

The Big Ten opponents Iowa will play at home are Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Northwestern. All are winnable games.

The e-mailer wrote of the "very unattractive non-conference schedule,’’ and—other than the Sept. 14 game against Iowa State—he’s on the money. The other non-conference opponents are Akron and Utah State—both of which will be played in Iowa City—and Miami of Ohio on the road.

That’ll really make you want to pull out your wallet and buy your season tickets, right?

My question: Why didn’t Alford bench Evans sooner?

Surely, Evans didn’t just now quit going to class—the reason given for the benching.

It’s difficult for me to credit Alford with some sort of coaching brilliance for sitting a guy who apparently has been somewhat of a problem earlier in the season.

When Cortney Scott, a sophomore forward, quit the Iowa team in January, one of the reasons he gave for leaving was the "favoritism’’ Alford showed toward some players—especially Evans.

Scott said Alford wouldn’t discipline Evans for rough play in practice.

Some people thought Alford was "sending a message’’ to Evans by letting him warm the pines against Ohio State.

The message should have been sent several weeks ago. Had it been done then, Iowa might not be struggling just to get into the NIT now.

On the other hand, there are other coaches who would have "looked the other way’’ when it became evident that one of their star players was skipping classes. Not looking the problem squarely in the eye is easy to do that when you’re dealing with a senior who is your best all-around player.

By the way, two players who must be going to class—Iowa State’s Jake Sullivan and Iowa’s Luke Recker—have been named to the Verizon Academic All-District VII team.

During the telecast of the Iowa-Ohio State game, play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee kept telling viewers that he wasn’t aware of any reason—physical or otherwise--why Evans wasn’t playing.

My question: Why didn’t Larrivee or a member of the TV crew go to Alford, an assistant coach or someone on Iowa’s sports information staff to find out that Evans was being benched for skipping classes?

How many games do you see on TV where there’s a reporter asking a coach just as the first half ends or just before the second half starts why something happened? There’s big money involved in the televising of these games, and the network owed it to viewers to tell them why Evans didn’t play.

Instead, they got lazy, horrible reporting by Larrivee and the rest of the TV crew.

Where was Jim Gray when we needed him?

Steve Deace, who has been quoted occasionally in this column, has been fired as the afternoon KJJC sports-talk radio host.

"This story isn’t over yet,’’ Deace told me Wednesday. "Stay tuned. If and when the final conclusion is reached, I’ll let you know what happened.’’

Meanwhile, WHO-TV sports director Keith Murphy said he has already been offered—and turned down—the opportunity to replace Deace.

"I’m afraid the hours wouldn’t work with my job here (at WHO-TV),’’ Murphy said. "But they already asked me if I’d be interested. Can you believe that? Pretty quick.’’

Marty Tirrell, a former Des Moines talk-show host, said recently that Murphy would be an excellent radio sports personality.

This just in from Tucson: Women are throwing themselves at Arizona basketball Coach Lute Olson, but the widower has yet to take the bait.

[E-mail Ron Maly at malyr@juno.com]