Time to fill up Carver and support the Hawkeyes
USA Today Sports
The Iowa basketball team is heading into the stretch run of the Big 10 race as March draws ever closer, but one is hard-pressed to see or hear a lot of hullabaloo or gloating from the Iowa fan base.
This despite the fact their team is ranked in the Top 5 for the first time in, well, almost as long as many fans can remember and are in sole possession of first place in the conference standings.
Even inside cavernous Carver, there are still empty seats to be found most games, and you can often hear the squeak of shoes on parquet and the shouted instructions of the opposing team’s coach. Iowa fans have a reputation for irrational exuberance, so what gives in this unexpected and unbelievable basketball season that has kept the excitement level on simmer instead of steaming?
Well, there is that aforementioned “irrational exuberance” tag.
Less than four months ago, Iowa fans took to the streets of Indianapolis en masse to watch their Hawkeyes try to win a Big 10 championship (its first since 2004 and what would have been its first non-shared title since 1985). Even when that fairy tale ending came up (literally) a yard short, the joyous expectations (and accompanying braggadocio) didn’t let up, as Hawkeye Nation headed west to see if their team could finally win its first Rose Bowl since the 1950s.
That, uh, didn’t work out so well.
So it’s understandable that fans are keeping expectations for basketball somewhat tempered. No one wants to be Charlie Brown falling for Lucy’s old swipe-the-ball trick again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and Christian McCaffery scores again.
Is this fair to the ballers in short pants? Probably not, but the fan base is in show-me mode for a reason.
That said, there is a lot of evidence that Jarrod, Jok, Woody, Sapp and Mike G just might have what it takes to get us fired up again. After all, this is a basketball program that hadn’t won at Michigan State since I was a senior at Iowa (yes, I am old). This is a basketball program that had only won in Champaign twice over two decades. This is a basketball program that hadn’t been ranked this high in the AP poll since 1987.
Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” was the number one song in America in mid-February of 1987, by the way. Maybe that’s some karma for the cagers as they head into Bloomington – another place where Iowa victories have been relatively few and far between.
I am not going to tell you that you are obligated to believe this squad will win the program’s first Big 10 basketball title since 1979. I’m not going to tell you that you have to believe – like many bracketologists apparently do – that this squad has what it takes to get to a Final Four. And I’m certainly not going to tell you that this story is guaranteed to have a happy ending. As Iowa fans, we know all too well that can be a siren song leading toward despair.
I will, however, exhort you to embrace the journey, have fun cheering for this amazingly special group of basketball players and to feel no shame telling everyone you know that Iowa Basketball is back.
No matter how this season ends, the Hawkeyes are in rarefied air and the death-like stench of the Lickliter years has finally dissipated.
So fill up Carver for the final three games and don’t tamp down your enthusiasm because you fear success might be fleeting. Even if it is, revel in the moment. Seasons like this come and go with far too much rarity to not be fully enjoyed.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and follow the 12Saturdays podcast @12Saturdays.
