The first Big 10 team out of the NCAA tournament

I was just checking the scores before writing a post congratulating the Big 10 on getting through the first round of the NCAA tournament without a loss. I knew Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue had won and the last I saw Illinois was beating up on Virginia late in the game which would have been a pretty big upset.

Apparently, the Illini forgot how to score any points over the last few minutes of the game and let Virginia come back and get the win. I was really pulling for Illinois since Pruitt went to my high school and was coached by the same coaches as I was.

I was entirely ready to suggest that maybe a one or two more Big 10 teams should have gotten into the tournament based on the first round success of the teams that did make it.

But, alas, Illinois choked meaning that I really can’t complain about Iowa or Michigan not making the cut. Especially since Michigan got pounded in the first round of the NIT and Iowa wasn’t even good enough to really deserve to get into the NIT this year.

The Big 10 is left with 5 pretty good looking teams with the lower 3 seeded teams getting some really great opportunities to make some noise.

Tomorrow Indiana gets to take on 2 seed UCLA. On Sunday, Michigan State gets to play 1 seed North Carolina and Purdue gets to play 1 seed Florida. Go Big 10. Destroys everybody’s office pool.

NCAA Tournament Day 1

There was exactly one real upset in the first day of the NCAA tournament. Two 9 seeds beat 8 seeds, but that isn’t really an upset and shouldn’t mess up anybody’s bracket too badly.

That one real upset was VCU beating Duke.

With Iowa not getting into either tournament, all I have left in the post season is rooting for Big 10 teams and rooting against Duke.

I may be a small, petty man, but I do am not a Duke fan. I respect the program and the coach (feel free to come to Iowa any time you want) but any team that wins that often goes on my short list of teams to root against.

In other tournament news, if you were a number 13 seed and hoped to advance to the second round, would you prefer to play Maryland, Texas, Virginia, or Southern Illinois. I’m a big fan of Southern for some reason but based on name recognition and history they do not strike the same fear as the other programs. I’m guessing Holy Cross thinks they have a legitimate chance today. They’re wrong but I bet they really believe it.

Also, is Michigan State a 9 seed that could actually scare UNC a little. When MSU is hot, they are about as good of a team as you’ll find. That should be a very good round 2 game.

Hawkeyes miss the cut

Iowa was not one of the 32 teams selected for the NIT tournament.  No dancing this year.

The NIT reduced down to 32 teams this year.  One of the automatic selection criteria is any team that won their conference regular season but did not get into the tournament.  There were 8 of those teams.  That cuts the field down to 24.  I would expect Iowa to be able to beat a good portion of the teams in the tournament but can understand how the selection committee would pass on them.  There were just too many losses to teams that Iowa should not have lost to.  Plus, Iowa does not have a great record in the NCAA or NIT tournament over the last few years.

I’m disappointed because I would have liked for Haluska and Henderson to get a few more games before their careers were done.  That has to hurt to be pretty certain to get into the NIT and then when the show is over realize that you will not be playing any more college games.

It would also have been very nice for the team to get some post season exposure and start getting Tyler Smith ready to take over the team next year.

This has to be one of Alford’s low points as a coach but hopefully it will all start to turn around next year.

Hopefully everybody involved with the program will be very motivated by this and work that much harder in the off season.

Anybody want to guess on where Haluska will end up next year?  Do you think Henderson will head overseas or just start looking for a 9-5 job?

I’m guessing Haluska will get drafted late and end up having a better career than people expect.  He is a competitor and team player that will do well in the pros.  I expect Henderson to follow Brunner and Horner overseas and enjoy playing basketball for a few more years.  It would have to be so much better than working in an office for a living.

Talking nicely about the Hawkeyes

I received some fan mail recently that made me do a little thinking. The writer said:

I stumbled across your site. Normally I would simply move on, but when analysis is this ridiculous it deserves a comment. I simply can’t imagine anyone visiting this site more than once. Stunningly negative and uninformed. Please– read analysis at other sites. Good luck.

First, I’ll make a comment on the analysis being ridiculous and uninformed. I’m just a fan. I have no aspirations of ever being a beat reporter or hosting my own ESPN show. I just want to talk about the Hawkeyes now and then. This is simply a collection of thoughts and opinions that enter my head when I sit at the computer. A fan site in other words. Sometimes I am surprised at how right I am about something. Sometimes I am shocked at how amazingly ignorant I am.

The part of the email that I have been thinking about is the “Stunningly negative” part. I don’t think that is always true but it has frequently been the case recently. I have trouble being an Alford fan. I really do not like Indiana. I had a teacher that I hated who was a Hoosier nut case. I’m still mad that Indiana won the national championship when Alford was playing there. I thought Iowa had a better team that year and if not for a miraculous collapse by Iowa against another team (UNLV if I remember correctly), Iowa would have had a great chance at cutting down the nets that year.

I grew up always shocked when Iowa would lose to Duke in the tournament. I couldn’t believe it when Hawkeyes were not first round draft picks. I lived in Illinois and wore Iowa shirts constantly. And I loved every second of it.

I don’t love talking about the reasons why I don’t think Iowa will win games.

So for now on, I am going to try and go back to being the Hawkeye fan I was in years past. From now on, I will try to remember that:

• Iowa will win every game when the season starts.
• If Iowa loses a game, they will win the rest of the games that year.
• If they lose a second game, they will win the rest of the games that year.
• Etc.

This is sure to make this site much more uniformed and ridiculous. I look forward to all the emails informing me of this.

Also, there are a lot of things that I like about Alford as a coach. I love watching the defense when it is clicking. I appreciate the hustle that is normally there. I’m becoming a big Tyler Smith fan. There are enough positives that I think I can be more supportive of Alford moving forward.

Thanks, David, for reminding me of the kind of Hawkeye fan I prefer to be.