Tory Brecht | Columnist
Being an Iowa fans never seems to be easy
Good grief.
Everyone knows being an Iowa Hawkeye sports fan isn’t easy. But does it have to hurt this bad?
Two weeks before the season-defining stretch of the Hawkeye basketball season, I wrote the following in this space: “No one wants to be Charlie Brown falling for Lucy’s old swipe-the-ball trick again.”
Three straight losses, a rapid tumbling out of the Top 10 and most likely the loss of a post-season appearance in nearby Des Moines later, here we are - flat on our backs - fooled again.
Maybe it’s our own fault as fans. After all, it’s pretty apparent that Iowa’s hot start to the Big 10 conference slate was a bit of fool’s gold. This was a squad picked by the media to finish ninth in the conference race, after all. In retrospect, it’s clear they overachieved in sweeping Purdue and Michigan State. This was never a legitimate Top 5 type team. But the crash back to reality is so much worse when you’ve tasted the rarefied air of national respect and relevance.
This is an all-too-familiar trajectory, coming on the heels of an improbable football season that saw the gridiron heroes also get off to a storybook start, a Top 5 ranking and national acclaim only to be followed by a gut-kicking loss in the Big 10 championship game and a humiliating defeat in the Rose Bowl.
Since we are going with a Charlie Brown theme, let’s look at another quote from America’s favorite chronically depressed cartoon character.
“I think I’m afraid to be happy because whenever I get too happy, something bad always happens.”
Is it any wonder that in the color panels, Charlie Brown is always wearing black and gold? Maybe we should change our mascot name from Hawkeyes to Peanuts.
But do you know why Peanuts was so beloved so for long? Because we can all relate to the struggle. Sure, Charlie Brown gets knocked down, tricked, fooled and generally pilloried time and time again. Yet he continues to pick himself up and carry on with the hope that next time, maybe things will be different.
As fans, who have absolutely zero control over the outcome of games or seasons, what else can we do? I mean, I guess you could quit cheering on the Hawkeyes, but I know I can’t. It may be a Sisyphean task, but sometimes pushing that rock up the hill feels good.
Another sneaking suspicion I have is that somehow, the sense of doom and fear of the bottom dropping out is making its way into the Iowa locker room. My armchair psychologist diagnosis of the current basketball slump is that the players are simply wilting under the weight of expectation.
Look at the things that are leading to the late losses: sloppy turnovers, short shots, missed free throws, empty drives. To me, this looks like a team full of players who are pressing. Earlier in the season, when no one had super high expectations, the game flowed for these guys. The ball movement was crisp and easy and scoring came from everywhere and anyone. Now, it’s clearly a grind.
The dream of the program’s first regular season conference championship since disco was invented looks to be shot. There’s no way to sugarcoat it - that sucks.
But there is still a lot to play for. My hope is that with the evaporation of the pressure to bring home that hardware, this team can somehow rekindle its looseness. In the NCAA tournament – which Iowa will still be in, likely with a semi-decent seed – at least they won’t be playing bitter conference rivals who know Iowa’s weaknesses and proclivity to fold under pressure. This presents an opportunity to redeem themselves to an extent and keep the program on the positive trajectory it’s been on since Fran McCaffery arrived.
So take the snap, Lucy. I’m lining up for the kick again.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and follow the 12Saturdays podcast @12Saturdays.
Being an Iowa fans never seems to be easy
Good grief.
Everyone knows being an Iowa Hawkeye sports fan isn’t easy. But does it have to hurt this bad?
Two weeks before the season-defining stretch of the Hawkeye basketball season, I wrote the following in this space: “No one wants to be Charlie Brown falling for Lucy’s old swipe-the-ball trick again.”
Three straight losses, a rapid tumbling out of the Top 10 and most likely the loss of a post-season appearance in nearby Des Moines later, here we are - flat on our backs - fooled again.
Maybe it’s our own fault as fans. After all, it’s pretty apparent that Iowa’s hot start to the Big 10 conference slate was a bit of fool’s gold. This was a squad picked by the media to finish ninth in the conference race, after all. In retrospect, it’s clear they overachieved in sweeping Purdue and Michigan State. This was never a legitimate Top 5 type team. But the crash back to reality is so much worse when you’ve tasted the rarefied air of national respect and relevance.
This is an all-too-familiar trajectory, coming on the heels of an improbable football season that saw the gridiron heroes also get off to a storybook start, a Top 5 ranking and national acclaim only to be followed by a gut-kicking loss in the Big 10 championship game and a humiliating defeat in the Rose Bowl.
Since we are going with a Charlie Brown theme, let’s look at another quote from America’s favorite chronically depressed cartoon character.
“I think I’m afraid to be happy because whenever I get too happy, something bad always happens.”
Is it any wonder that in the color panels, Charlie Brown is always wearing black and gold? Maybe we should change our mascot name from Hawkeyes to Peanuts.
But do you know why Peanuts was so beloved so for long? Because we can all relate to the struggle. Sure, Charlie Brown gets knocked down, tricked, fooled and generally pilloried time and time again. Yet he continues to pick himself up and carry on with the hope that next time, maybe things will be different.
As fans, who have absolutely zero control over the outcome of games or seasons, what else can we do? I mean, I guess you could quit cheering on the Hawkeyes, but I know I can’t. It may be a Sisyphean task, but sometimes pushing that rock up the hill feels good.
Another sneaking suspicion I have is that somehow, the sense of doom and fear of the bottom dropping out is making its way into the Iowa locker room. My armchair psychologist diagnosis of the current basketball slump is that the players are simply wilting under the weight of expectation.
Look at the things that are leading to the late losses: sloppy turnovers, short shots, missed free throws, empty drives. To me, this looks like a team full of players who are pressing. Earlier in the season, when no one had super high expectations, the game flowed for these guys. The ball movement was crisp and easy and scoring came from everywhere and anyone. Now, it’s clearly a grind.
The dream of the program’s first regular season conference championship since disco was invented looks to be shot. There’s no way to sugarcoat it - that sucks.
But there is still a lot to play for. My hope is that with the evaporation of the pressure to bring home that hardware, this team can somehow rekindle its looseness. In the NCAA tournament – which Iowa will still be in, likely with a semi-decent seed – at least they won’t be playing bitter conference rivals who know Iowa’s weaknesses and proclivity to fold under pressure. This presents an opportunity to redeem themselves to an extent and keep the program on the positive trajectory it’s been on since Fran McCaffery arrived.
So take the snap, Lucy. I’m lining up for the kick again.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and follow the 12Saturdays podcast @12Saturdays.
