Tag: iowa hawkeyes basketball

Minnesota, after loss to Iowa, faces uphill climb for NCAA berth

Minnesota is in trouble

First things first: Wisconsin is going to make the 2020 NCAA Tournament, barring a collapse over the next few weeks. The Badgers have a lot of losses, yes, but they have a lot of high-end wins and are five games over .500. They have won on the road, something the Minnesota Golden Gophers have very rarely done this season. There is a considerable gap between Wisconsin’s resume and Minnesota’s resume. We can get that out of the way early in this article. Wisconsin is in good shape to Dance in March.

Yet, let’s imagine a world in which the Badgers weren’t likely to make the NCAA Tournament. Even in a Wisconsin sports fan’s darkest hour — even when the home teams in the home state aren’t doing so hot — there is always solace and comfort found in Minnesota-based teams suffering.

That always makes a day brighter for a Wisconsinite, and the especially great thing about Minnesota sports teams suffering is that it is such a reliable part of the landscape. From the Vikings going (now) 43 years without a Super Bowl appearance, to the Twins continuing to lose baseball playoff series, to the Golden Gophers failing to win the Big Ten West in football, to the basketball team missing the NCAA Tournament more often than making it, Minnesota teams struggle much more than they succeed. Minnesotans’ tears are the perfect beverage to go with a bratwurst, and once again, it seems Wisconsinites are in position to revel in the Gophers’ misfortune on the basketball court.

It’s not a done deal. Minnesota still has a chance to make the 2020 NCAA Tournament. However, time and opportunity now grow short for Richard Pitino and his team. After a loss at home on Sunday to Iowa, Minnesota is 12-12. If a team is 12-12, it better have eight or nine really good wins.

Minnesota has five: a sweep of Ohio State, a win over Penn State, a win over Michigan, and a win over Wisconsin. Other than that, the Gophers did poorly in non-conference play, losing to Utah and Oklahoma and DePaul, among others. Their win over Oklahoma State in December looked decent at the time but has since decreased in value. Minnesota has won only one true road game this season, at Ohio State, a big reason why the Gophers are currently an NIT team. The Gophers have to win a few games away from The Barn to have any chance to make the NCAA Tournament.

The bottom line after the Iowa loss is that Minnesota needs multiple wins away from home; wins against Nebraska and Northwestern if only to avoid a resume-killing loss; and a win in a home game versus Maryland, which is probably now a No. 2 seed in bracketology. If the Gophers don’t get all three of those items and put them in their grocery cart, they are probably staring at the NIT.

It’s not over. It’s not a done deal… but Minnesota is in big trouble. Wisconsin sports fans can smile, all while the Badgers make their way to the NCAA Tournament.

Kobe King DNP vs Iowa is complicated and costly for Wisconsin

More on Kobe King

The Wisconsin Badgers obviously could have used Kobe King on Monday night versus the Iowa Hawkeyes, in a game which was hugely critical for Greg Gard midway through this college basketball season. Gard goes deep into his bench. Spreading around minutes keeps this team fresh at the defensive end of the floor. Players such as Tyler Wahl who barely dent the scoresheet are still valuable because they can eat up lots of minutes without being turnstiles on defense. Wisconsin can hold teams to 60 points or fewer with active defenders who aren’t worn down late in the second half.

Within this context, King — one of the Badgers’ better offensive players — could have provided just enough scoring punch to lift UW over the top in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. King might have been the player who could have prevented the late collapse at the offensive end of the floor. We can guess or debate just how much King meant, but this much is clear: With no superstars on the 2020 Badgers, Wisconsin needs an “all hands on deck” contribution model. Everyone needs to chip in for this team to do well.

Moreover, with Brad Davison being less than 100-percent healthy and Micah Potter picking up an ankle injury late against Iowa, King’s presence could have been useful if only as an immediate response to attrition. Yet, we all know he wasn’t available:

The obvious and easy temptation in a situation such as this is to excoriate a young man for being a coward or a wimp, as though his frustration with a coach is a grave sin (or any sin at all).

Let’s step away from that temptation. This isn’t bad behavior. This is cutthroat competition, and a college basketball career is a very fragile, short-term organism. It doesn’t have a long lifespan. It is essential, from an athlete’s perspective, to make the most of a career. We see transfers all the time, and if King soon becomes another one, we won’t be surprised.

The argument will be made by some — and it is fair — that if you’re not happy with your role on a team, you should still try to arrive at an understanding with the coach and work through problems so that you can be there for your teammates. I think we can generally agree with that claim. Life being difficult doesn’t mean you abandon teammates or co-workers in a time of need.

Yet: Relationships require a lot of hard work. They go through very difficult periods, sometimes difficult enough that the two people in a relationship (Kobe and Gard as player and coach) need some distance and time to refocus. This is an honest, human conflict. It is part of life. The timing could not be worse, but if any of you have been embroiled in a work conflict, a bad roommate situation, or a contentious family argument that got nasty, you can relate to Kobe King. One can disapprove of his actions yet still retain empathy for him. Adults know how to be critical of other people yet not allow that stern criticism to wipe away their respect or care for that person.

So it should be with Wisconsin fans and Kobe King.

This was a costly DNP versus Iowa, but it is also complicated. Be mad at Kobe King, a member of the Badger family who hasn’t done what the family needed him to do. Don’t let that anger erode your respect and care for him, however.

Let’s see if he and Gard can make peace. This upcoming Michigan State game might be the game which ultimately determines where this team lands on Selection Sunday.

Micah Potter vs Iowa embodies this season for Wisconsin

Micah Potter vs Iowa

Micah Potter isn’t the most important player on the 2019-2020 Wisconsin Badgers, but he is the player who most profoundly and aptly symbolizes what the Badgers have gone through.

Potter didn’t play in the first 10 games of the season, through no fault of his own — darn NCAA! — and his team could have used him. Small doses of minutes in his arrival to the lineup in late December seemed to snap the rotations into place. Potter gave Greg Gard and his own teammates more flexibility.

Yet, Potter didn’t play too many minutes because of his defensive limitations. Wisconsin has needed to win primarily with its defense, so Gard accordingly tried to restrict Potter’s minutes. The Badgers will generally win by containing damage rather than exploding past the opposition. To that extent, there was and is a clear logical coherence to the decision by Gard to limit Potter’s minutes.

However, Wisconsin’s offense dies much too often in games. Potter unquestionably makes the Badgers a much more potent team. On a broader level, Potter can’t improve his defense without getting more minutes and being exposed to more situations. This doesn’t mean he has to play 30 minutes, but the 15 minutes per game he averaged coming into the Iowa game put him eighth on the roster, behind Tyler Wahl and Aleem Ford.

Before this Iowa game began, though, something happened which magnified Potter’s importance to the Badgers: Kobe King would not play for personal (non-health-related) reasons. The rotation would be shortened by one player. This increased the odds that Potter would play more minutes.

As it turned out, Potter played 15 minutes against Iowa, right in line with his current average of 14.9 per game, but he played 15 minutes while getting into foul trouble and then suffering an ankle injury (severity unknown) with just under four minutes left in regulation.

Getting into foul trouble was to be expected, given his defensive deficiencies, but it has to be said that Wisconsin’s defense was generally very good in this game. Potter might not have been particularly impressive, but he didn’t bring the team down with him. Picking up fouls isn’t fun or positive in itself, but such an experience makes a player aware of how — and why — his defense has to improve. Potter learned, and Wisconsin’s defense didn’t suffer — not severely, at any rate. There were some encouraging developments to note in Potter’s play and the way he fits into this rotation with King out.

Yet, the ankle injury (even if not especially serious) left Potter and Wisconsin with a story which was ultimately anything but happy. That individual story mirrored the loss to Iowa: UW made great progress from the Purdue game, but the bottom line was a negative one, since this game needed to go in the win column and did not.

Potter’s game against Iowa was a microcosm of the whole season to this point: Potter, like the team, needed time to find itself. It improved in the middle stages, then weakened later on. Notable improvements were overshadowed at the end by larger and more negative realities.

The only good news is that the “end” refers not to the full season, only the portion of the season which has been played to date. The month of February awaits. Hopefully Potter, Greg Gard, and the whole team will be able to evolve in ways which don’t create moral victories, but actual ones.

Three takeaways from Wisconsin’s 68-62 loss to Iowa

Wisconsin dropped a heartbreaker to Iowa on Tuesday night, falling 68-62. Here are our top three takeaways of the game for the Badgers.

Wisconsin dropped its second consecutive game on Tuesday, falling to No. 18 Iowa in a heartbreaking 68-62 decision. Here are our top three takeaways from the game for the Badgers.

Wisconsin doomed by a late-game meltdown

Jan 27, 2020; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Joe Toussaint (1) shoots the ball over Wisconsin Badgers guard D’Mitrik Trice (0) to take the lead late during the second half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

The Badgers couldn’t have encountered much more adversity in this one.

They were already dealt a blow before the game even began with the announcement that their No. 2 scorer and arguably the team’s best player, Kobe King, did not travel with the team for personal reasons and appears to be mulling over his future with the program. When the ball actually rolled, Wisconsin started out ice-cold from the field and quickly started to get on the wrong end of the referee’s whistle. It was only due to their excellent defense that the Badgers were able to remain in the game.

Remarkably, Bucky had somehow managed to scrape together a 12-point lead by around the seven-minute mark in the second half thanks to a stretch of hot shooting to complement its solid play on the other end. What came next was an implosion of epic proportions.

Iowa proceeded to close the game on a 23-5 run that brought them victory as a result of some opportunistic shooting, a stifling 3/4 court press that shut down Wisconsin’s offense, and some help from the officials. They had not led since the first minutes of the game, but the Hawkeyes managed to take the lead again with just over a minute left in the game.

Regardless, the Badgers had a possession to go down and try to tie the game with about 30 seconds remaining. However, Brad Davison was dealt a devastating flagrant foul that effectively sealed the deal for Iowa. It was the story of the game for Wisconsin, who committed a season-high 28 fouls to Iowa’s 15. The Hawkeyes’ 25-32 clip from the free-throw line was the difference in this one.

For a program that has suffered plenty of late-game collapses over the last few years, this one may take the cake.

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Cruel irony visits Wisconsin in late collapse at Iowa

Wisconsin-Iowa instant reaction

If you have followed the Wisconsin Badgers all season long, you knew Monday night’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City was a huge moment for this team. Wisconsin had just been embarrassed by Purdue. The game was a disaster, and we made sure to say that.

Here is an excerpt from that story on Friday night:

The news is very bad for the Wisconsin Badgers not because they lost to the Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night in West Lafayette. Had Wisconsin played a 58-57 game and failed to make the last shot, the Badgers would have played a game largely in line with what we have seen the past few weeks. The limitations of the team would have persisted, but so would the strengths. We know Wisconsin has a relatively low ceiling, but the encouraging part of the past few weeks is that the Badgers had raised their floor.

*snip*

Friday against Purdue, the Badgers looked a lot like the weak team which had no clue on the road against ordinary opponents such as New Mexico, Richmond, and North Carolina State. Getting thrashed by Michigan State wasn’t an indication of erosion. Getting drubbed in a 19-point loss to a 10-9 Purdue team — in a game the Badgers once trailed by 28 — offers no guarantees, but it DOES carry the possibility that this team is in trouble heading to Iowa City for a game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday.

We discussed the need for Wisconsin to fight and scratch and claw, to play with desperation and not get bullied in this Iowa game.

The Badgers definitely did that. They were tougher on the glass. They made this a physical game, the kind of game Iowa doesn’t like and, frankly, has never liked under Fran McCaffery. Iowa shot poorly because the Badgers got in the Hawkeyes’ chests and faces. Wisconsin played the tough defense we expected against Purdue, and which we generally expect every night UW takes the floor. It was precisely that 58-57 kind of game late in regulation, and Wisconsin came a little bit short.

Yet, Wisconsin didn’t need the moral victory here. It needed to WIN… and just before the game, it was announced that Kobe King would not play for personal and non-health-related reasons.

Tyler Wahl and the other players asked to play more minutes in King’s absence did a good job. This team played hard for Greg Gard. It showed so many of the good traits we hoped for and expected… but it wasn’t enough. More precisely, it wasn’t enough because King wasn’t there, and THAT is going to be the story which overshadows everything else.

The cruel irony of this loss is that Wisconsin did so many good things and yet suffered a loss in a game it had to win, which makes all the good things UW did very worthless. A team improved by miles from Friday against Purdue and yet watched its NCAA Tournament resume get worse, with Michigan State looming this Saturday.

That is the upside-down and very dark reality associated with the word “irony.” It is very cruel indeed.

Three Iowa players Badger fans need to know

Wisconsin heads to Iowa City to take on the No. 17 Iowa Hawkeyes. Badger fans should be sure to know these three opposing players.

After getting blown out in its last two road games, Wisconsin (12-8) will look to reverse that trend on Monday evening in Iowa City against No. 19 Iowa (14-5).

To put it mildly, that will not be an easy task.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena has a well-deserved reputation as one of the toughest places to win on the road in the country, and Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes are arguably the Big Ten’s hottest team at the moment, having won four straight and eight of their last ten. That stretch includes victories over No. 12 Maryland, No. 19 Michigan, and No. 24 Rutgers, all of which came in Iowa City.

While Iowa was expected to be a solid team this season, I’m not sure anyone thought they would be this good, especially once one of its top players, senior guard Jordan Bohannon, opted to shut down his season after playing in ten games to undergo hip surgery. The loss of Bohannon’s leadership and productivity (career scoring average of 12.3 points per game, 39.8 percent three-point shooter) could have been devastating.

Instead, the Hawkeyes have managed to thrive in his absence, thanks in large part to the emergence of one of his teammates into a full-fledged superstar and a few others stepping up to the plate and taking on larger roles.

With that said, here are three players in Iowa’s rotation who Badger fans should make sure to keep an eye on in this matchup.

Luka Garza – Center

Current stats: 23.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 56.1 FG%, 38.5 3P%

Jan 4, 2020; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes center Luka Garza (55) shoots the ball over Penn State Nittany Lions forward John Harrar (21) during the first half at The Palestra. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Garza was certainly one of the Big Ten’s better big men throughout his first two years at Iowa, but the 6-11, 260-pounder from Washington D.C. has taken a quantum leap in his third season.

The junior center’s production has absolutely exploded in 2019-20, to the point where he has launched  himself into  the conversation for National Player of the Year honors. Garza leads the Big Ten and ranks No. 5 nationally in scoring average, with the conference’s No. 3 field goal percentage. He also cleans up on the glass, currently sitting second in rebounds per game.

A multi-dimensional offensive threat who dominates the paint and can stretch the floor from beyond the arc, Garza has been straight-up unguardable at times for the Hawkeyes. He has scored in double figures in all but one game, a stretch that has included some jaw-dropping performances: Garza dropped 44 points (17-32 from the floor) in Iowa’s loss to Michigan in December and 34 (13-19) to go along with 12 rebounds in an 89-86 defeat to Penn State earlier this month.

Garza is coming off of another monster outing the last time out against Rutgers in which he racked up 28 points on 11-17 shooting to go along with 13 boards.

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Wisconsin-Iowa is part of a Big Ten seeding scramble

More on Wisconsin-Iowa

We have discussed Monday’s game between the Wisconsin Badgers and Iowa Hawkeyes through a number of lenses. These discussions have revolved around the matchup between Nate Reuvers and Luka Garza in the paint. They have dealt with the need for Wisconsin to show its toughness and manhood after being humiliated by Purdue. Removed from those angles, however, Monday’s game also carries with it the simple fact that any game lost in the Big Ten can have profound consequences for the Big Ten Tournament.

The annual goal for Wisconsin basketball, relative to the Big Ten Tournament, is to get the double-bye as a top-four seed. If UW hits that target, its Big Ten regular season achieved one of its central objectives. Before the start of play on Sunday morning, Jan. 26 (Maryland visits Indiana later on Sunday, while Minnesota hosts Michigan State and Ohio State visits Northwestern), Wisconsin and Iowa are part of a traffic jam in the upper half of the conference.

The Badgers and Hawkeyes are part of a six-team cluster. Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota occupy the third through eighth slots in the Big Ten standings. They are separated by one game. Rutgers is 6-3, while Wisconsin and Minnesota are currently 5-4. The Gophers will either be 5-5 or 6-4 by the end of Sunday. The Maryland-Indiana loser will also be 5-4, while the winner joins Rutgers in a tie for third at 6-3.

Imagine a scenario in which the Big Ten remains bunched up like this in early March. That certainly seems realistic if not likely. Imagine the final two games of the Big Ten regular season making the difference between a double-bye (top-four seed at the Big Ten Tournament) and having to play in the 8-versus-9 second-round game, with the winner to face (potentially) top-seeded Michigan State in the quarterfinals. That is a massive difference. Right there, the value of notching a win in Monday’s Wisconsin-Iowa game can be appreciated.

Do we have to say more? We could, but if a point is adequately made, why add more words? That’s mere fluff. The heart of the matter is abundantly clear. Wisconsin and Iowa need that four seed, and they just as urgently need to stay away from the 8-9 game at the Big Ten Tournament.

Nate Reuvers takes center stage vs Iowa

More on Nate Reuvers

Yes, Nate Reuvers won’t defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes by himself on Monday night in Iowa City. He will need help. He will need his teammates to compete with the vigor and pride one would expect after the Wisconsin Badgers no-showed against the Purdue Boilermakers this past Friday in West Lafayette.

Reuvers, Wisconsin’s main man in the middle, can’t expect to outplay Luka Garza. Iowa’s sensational big man is a Big Ten First-Team All-America lock and a genuine Player of the Year candidate. Outplaying Garza in a one-on-one matchup is an overly ambitious expectation. It doesn’t square with reality. Here’s the thing, though: Reuvers doesn’t have to outplay Garza.

Brendan Stiles has covered Iowa athletics for several years through multiple outlets. He has a radio segment every Friday afternoon — 5:20 p.m. Central time — at 1700 The Champ in Des Moines. If you want someone who is attuned to Iowa basketball and knows what makes the Hawkeyes succeed or fail, Brendan is a terrific resource.

I asked him for his main insight into this game. This is what he said:

“The key matchup will undoubtedly be Nate Reuvers going toe-to-toe with Luka Garza, who is continuing to make a case for not only Big Ten Player of the Year honors, but national as well. If Reuvers can hold his own against Garza, the Badgers have a chance to steal this game on the road. If Garza has his way with Reuvers, though, it will be a long night for Wisconsin.”

There you have it. It’s not matter of Reuvers getting the better of Garza. Merely putting up a good fight and not getting demolished is Reuvers’ task. If he shows he belongs on the same court and doesn’t allow Garza to run wild, Wisconsin’s team identity and cohesive defense can have their desired effect. If Reuvers gets trucked by Garza, however, the damage of such a blowout (if it happens) will spill into the rest of the game and make life very unmanageable for Wisconsin.

One subplot of the Reuvers-Garza matchup is the question of how many minutes Wisconsin coach Greg Gard will allot to Micah Potter. Gard can’t put Potter on Garza — that would be a total mismatch in Iowa’s favor. Reuvers has to be reasonably effective against Garza if only because few other players on the Badgers’ roster can handle Garza. Reuvers is the central figure of this game for Wisconsin whether he likes it or not. Given that Wisconsin seems to keep running into road opponents at the worst possible time, the idea of Reuvers needing to handle an unwelcome assignment fits the mood and the situation for the Badgers.

This figures to be an uncomfortable game for Wisconsin. No one has a more uncomfortable assignment than Nate Reuvers. Let’s see how he handles it.

Iowa game is a test of manhood for Wisconsin

Wisconsin-Iowa

In a crowded and cluttered Big Ten — a conference which could put as many as 10 to 12 teams into the NCAA Tournament this season — every game matters. Every contest reshapes the Big Ten standings. Every game night not involving Nebraska or Northwestern is accompanied by a lot of pressure, partly because Big Ten teams are so inconsistent this season, and partly because of the home-and-road imbalance in the conference this year.

There is a lot to gain in victory, and a lot to lose in defeat. This is the law of the jungle in Big Ten basketball in 2020. When viewed through that prism, Monday’s game in Carver-Hawkeye Arena isn’t especially important for the Badgers. There is always “the next game,” which — for UW — will be a huge home game against Michigan State on Feb. 1 in the Kohl Center. Win or lose, Wisconsin will have to turn the page from this Iowa game and move forward. If you therefore want to say this Iowa contest isn’t THAT huge, I get it. If a team makes one game into a referendum on its season, losing the game could elicit a harsher and more damning verdict than is truly warranted.

The logic of that thought process — not putting too much stock in one game — is sound.

Yet: This Iowa game sure feels like a defining test for the Badgers this season. The particular convergence of circumstances makes it so.

Remember this basic truth about sports: Winning and losing are the bottom lines of competition, but HOW one wins and loses often leaves a mark. Losing when you play your best is tough, but ennobling and sometimes encouraging. Losing by playing poorly and without inspiration sends a very different message inside a locker room. Teams which get humiliated — as Wisconsin clearly was against Purdue on Friday — need to show in their next game that they are tougher than many think. Teams which endure embarrassing defeats need to answer the bell the next time out… and if they do, they often change the trajectory of their season for the better.

Embarrassments are never sought or coveted by teams, but WHEN embarrassments do occur, teams can derive more benefit from responding to them with a win than if the embarrassment had never occurred in the first place. A team which successfully responds to an embarrassment realizes how resilient it can be. Heading into February, imagine what a win in Iowa City can do for the Badgers.

Also consider this point: The source and center of Wisconsin’s utter humiliation against Purdue was the rebounding mismatch: 16-2 for Purdue on the offensive glass, 42-16 overall. Wisconsin got outworked.

Guess what? Iowa averages 12 offensive rebounds per game, with Luka Garza averaging 10 rebounds per contest. If Wisconsin stands up to Garza and the Hawkeyes on the boards, winning on the road in the process, the Badgers can credibly say that they can battle with anyone in the Big Ten, since Garza is quite reasonably the best player in the conference. (Illinois fans would say Ayo Dosunmu, but Garza certainly has a solid argument.)

Why is this game so huge? Yes, Wisconsin just got embarrassed by Purdue. Yes, Wisconsin can’t keep losing. Yes, Michigan State is next. Those are all important reasons why UW needs to prevail in Iowa City. Yet, the biggest reason is that for the first time since the Rutgers loss in December, Wisconsin’s toughness is on trial. Do we know how resolute, and flinty, and persistent this team is? I don’t think we do — not after the Purdue game.

Wisconsin isn’t merely trying to win a road game in the Big Ten on Monday night. It is trying to show how tough it is, three nights after getting punched in the mouth and not fighting back.

The Badgers have to fight AND win here. If they do, it resets their season. If they don’t, February will begin with the Badgers near the NCAA Tournament bubble, wondering if they truly have the right stuff this year.

Viewing this is a huge game doesn’t seem so irresponsible when framed in those terms.

10 for 20: Iowa basketball

Iowa basketball in the 2020s

The Iowa Hawkeyes aren’t expected to be a giant in the college basketball world, but the program has shown under numerous coaches that it can reach a relatively lofty place in the sport — not the top tier, but in a very solid and respectable second tier below the heavyweights. No, Iowa shouldn’t be expected to be Michigan State or Ohio State, but it is hard to deny the sense that it should be a little more dependable than it has been under Fran McCaffery.

Iowa, to be very clear, is a hard-to-peg Big Ten program. It doesn’t have the access to big-city talent other league schools enjoy. It doesn’t have a towering reputation, but it does have an appreciably impressive basketball tradition developed by Ralph Miller, Lute Olson, and Tom Davis, three great college basketball coaches. If one is to ask about the big challenge facing Iowa basketball in the 2020s, you will probably get many different responses and many different standards. Some will say Iowa ought to be making more Sweet 16s — it has made none under McCaffery. Some will say Iowa needs to get higher NCAA seeds. The highest under Fran is No. 7. Those are good answers.

To me, however, the ultimate challenge facing Iowa basketball is this: Can it make the NCAA Tournament a high percentage of the time? That gets at the sense of underachievement in Iowa City more than anything else.

If you look at Iowa under Fran McCaffery, you will note that the Hawkeyes have missed the NCAAs five times in nine seasons. Sweet 16s are good, and more high seeds will likely translate to a Sweet 16, but before Iowa tackles those bigger goals, the Hawkeyes simply have to get to the Big Show more often. Wisconsin is a really good role model here. The Badgers wouldn’t always thrive under Bo Ryan in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but they were always there. One of those years, they were bound to do better, and they did occasionally climb higher.

Wisconsin fans won’t mind if Iowa continues to stumble… but if Iowa wants to reach a specific level of quality in the coming decade, it needs to give itself more chances in March.