Iowa Basketball on The Rise Despite Loss

Tonight Iowa flopped. The Iowa basketball team has struggled year after year to even put up a fight against most of their opponents. Recently, Iowa has started to give every team a run for their money. This year especially, Iowa has really shown up to play. They have had the best season they have had in many years, and actually sold out Carver Hawkeye Arena multiple times!

This year Iowa played well until the end of the game. They managed to blow 10, 15, even 20 point leads.  They were about one win short of getting invited to the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  So, they were shuffled into the NIT tournament. Not as impressive, but post season play nonetheless. The Hawks showed up, they showed up big.

Iowa had grown as a team, and made the adjustments needed to finish out games. When I say finish out games, I mean blow out teams. Once they got up, that lead kept getting bigger and bigger. They never let up, and as a weary Iowa fan that was great to see. It gave us hope for the rest of the season, but most importantly gave us hope for the future of Iowa Basketball.

As the tournament continued, the team continued to improve, game after game, play after play, hope was being instilled into Hawkeye fans around the world. Then they got to the championship game. This was not pretty. There was a lacking desire to win, and they just looked tired. They lost pretty badly, but that doesn’t overshadow the strides they took this post season. There is still a large amount of excitement for Iowa Basketball next year and everyone cannot wait to see what the team and the organization has in store.

Iowa is currently projected to be ranked in the top 25 next season! I can’t even remember the time Iowa was a top 25 team. I’m pretty sure it was in 2004, they were ranked eight I believe. Next season should be an exciting one! My only hope is that they don’t get overconfident and cocky and end up blowing those expectations. Everyone is expecting a great team with great energy next year. If that isn’t what is produced, there will be some very upset Hawkeye fans next year. They have a great run going; it would be nice to see them go deep into the NCAA tournament next year. I would be satisfied with a sweet 16 finish. That would be quite an accomplishment. (WC 418)