Is there apathy with Iowa basketball with lots of fans?

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uihawk82

Well-Known Member
I notice there are only a couple hundred + posts on a game thread like in tonight's game thread. After a loss like tonight I would expect to come on the site to see at least several new threads talking about the good or bad of the game, performance, coaching. Is it that there are just not a lot of people on HawkeyeNation anymore? I dont know. Is there just apathy and the expectation of another above average but under expectations season by the hawks. I didnt think this team would lose a few or couple games at home even with the Big being tough.

I have to admit I myself hardly know when the hawks are playing this year. Me, the kid, a 13 year old kid who stayed up until about 1 AM on a December nite I believe it was to listen on the radio to Zabel call the hawks upset #1, iirc, UCLA, at Chicago Stadium about 1964 or '65.

I just happened to see on Youtube tv that the hawks were on. I caught the last few minutes of the first half, had some dinner, then forgot to go back to the game. I used to be a die hard Bball fan as I still am a hawk football fan but either I have changed and cant get excited about them or am just expecting a lot of the sameness.
 
uihawk82 said:
I notice there are only a couple hundred + posts on a game thread like in tonight's game thread. After a loss like tonight I would expect to come on the site to see at least several new threads talking about the good or bad of the game, performance, coaching. Is it that there are just not a lot of people on HawkeyeNation anymore? I dont know. Is there just apathy and the expectation of another above average but under expectations season by the hawks. I didnt think this team would lose a few or couple games at home even with the Big being tough.

I have to admit I myself hardly know when the hawks are playing this year. Me, the kid, a 13 year old kid who stayed up until about 1 AM on a December nite I believe it was to listen on the radio to Zabel call the hawks upset #1, iirc, UCLA, at Chicago Stadium about 1964 or '65.

I just happened to see on Youtube tv that the hawks were on. I caught the last few minutes of the first half, had some dinner, then forgot to go back to the game. I used to be a die hard Bball fan as I still am a hawk football fan but either I have changed and cant get excited about them or am just expecting a lot of the sameness.
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The wounds still run deep from how Mr. Davis was handled by Blowsby, and the bigtime failure of Alfraud killing the program and then Lackluster burying it.

And then Fran comes in and brings Iowa back to a competitive level.....but his best years have been average years for Mr. Davis.....and without a signature season like Mr. Davis (or Lute) thus far (zero Sweet 16s or better).

Fran's best teams have crashed and burned. This latest reincarnation is starting to go down that same path relative to expectations. I think fans lose trust and faith and are just waiting for the wheels to fall off.

TV contracts have screwed things up over the years. More people may be on twitter than message boards.

Covid and bad weather also are pretty big factor.

Although I think Carver has a great look to it....it can be a morgue with the blue-hairs and their ice-cream.
 
Well the seasons not over yet and maybe the boys can dig down deep and fight back and bounce back and show us what their made of. Each game we hope they can turn the tide. Hopefully the next game will be the beginning of turning it around.

All of the hype with Garza may have given us unrealistic expectations, but how often will Iowa fans see someone of his caliber at the center position? So there is a tendency to feel this is Iowa’s best chance for really making a good run when the tournament comes around.

However I do think if the team implodes as we have seen in some of the past years when expectations were high, then you may see a large increase in apathy.
 
I'm thinking if the hawks are playing in a top 10 match-up and you forget to go back to the game, you're just not an Iowa basketball fan anymore. I'm as bummed about last night's loss as I've been in a long time so no apathy here.
 
uihawk82 said:
I notice there are only a couple hundred + posts on a game thread like in tonight's game thread. After a loss like tonight I would expect to come on the site to see at least several new threads talking about the good or bad of the game, performance, coaching. Is it that there are just not a lot of people on HawkeyeNation anymore? I dont know. Is there just apathy and the expectation of another above average but under expectations season by the hawks. I didnt think this team would lose a few or couple games at home even with the Big being tough.

I have to admit I myself hardly know when the hawks are playing this year. Me, the kid, a 13 year old kid who stayed up until about 1 AM on a December nite I believe it was to listen on the radio to Zabel call the hawks upset #1, iirc, UCLA, at Chicago Stadium about 1964 or '65.

I just happened to see on Youtube tv that the hawks were on. I caught the last few minutes of the first half, had some dinner, then forgot to go back to the game. I used to be a die hard Bball fan as I still am a hawk football fan but either I have changed and cant get excited about them or am just expecting a lot of the sameness.
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Really not much to talk about as far as why we lost again. The starting 5 Fran is going with is challenged defensively especially on the perimeter. Good teams will have a number of players who can consistently knock down uncontested 3's. Against the better teams, our offense has to be almost perfect to win. Hawks had great balance last night, shot pretty well, and that kind of offensive performance will win you a lot of games. That being said, giving up multiple uncontested 3's to ranked teams will get you beat. As far as coaching goes, Fran I think said he needed to play the bench more last night. No disagreement here, CMac last night really gave us nothing offensively. I'd have to watch again to see what he did on the defensive end, but I'm guessing we wouldn't have missed him out there. Really like to Perkins and Ullis get some more time to see what they have offensively.
 
It's not apathy in my case, it's just that I can echo what others have mentioned above. And it absolutely is not just a "this year" thing. It's 20+ years of frustration going back to the Alford days.

Best opportunity I've seen this program to have a big year in a very long time, with the roster they have, and it appears it's starting to head down the same path as other years. Big games deep into the season, and you can bank on a loss. Iowa continues to suck in close games. Can't get stops, wide open 3's allowed left and right.. And now that it's February, right on cue, they've lost 3 out of 4. I know, tougher competition lately, but still. I've seen this movie before.

I'd just like to be pleasantly surprised by a Hawkeye basketball team for a freaking change. Do our teams ever overachieve or even play to expectations when the expectations are high? 2005-06 might be the last time I remember an Iowa team actually living up to a preseason ranking. But we all remember how that ended. I won't say it.

Maybe from now on I should just stop watching at this time of year, but dammit, they always reel me in just to kick me in the crotch.
 
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We've played 3.5 games without our best 3 point shooter and lost 3 of them. Guess the sky is falling. Remember last year when he was out? Yeah, we lost those too.
 
Ree4 said:
We've played 3.5 games without our best 3 point shooter and lost 3 of them. Guess the sky is falling. Remember last year when he was out? Yeah, we lost those too.
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Iowa made 14 3's last night. Lack of 3 point shooting was not the issue.
 
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Definitely not apathetic here but very frustrated with the poor defense leading to constant wide open looks for our opponents. There was no excuse for how little Joe T and Perkins played last night.
 
How good really is the B1G? At the end of the season after it’s all said and done then we will know.

If our conference goes into the NCAA tournament and kicks ass then that will help put everything into perspectives. Then we can “Damn these were really good teams we barely lost to during the regular season. We then can feel a lot better about a loss here or a loss there.

On the other hand if our conference teams get knocked out of the tourney daily early (in the first two rounds) then we will know it was all over hyped and we were all over ranked. That would shine a whole different light on our conference and on our program.

On another point is it apathy or just losing fatigue? You’ve followed the program for a long time. You have become acquainted with a season popping up when there are high expectations, much higher than normal, and over and over again those expectations crash and burn. This is where how you feel about the competitive aspect of sports come in. People’s expectations are different.

There are those who just want to enjoy watching a sporting event and may for one reason or another associate with one team for one reason or another. They likely don’t have items in their possession that makes a statement that they are fans of a specific team. If they win great, but if they lose oh well no biggie.

Then there are other fans who identify with the team closely for one reason or another. Being a fan of a certain team has been passed on for generations. Your remember your grandfather occasionally taking your father and you to a game or watching it on TV or listening to the radio in the house or out in farms fields religiously. Come crap team or a competitive team, it’s what you did. You would the satisfaction sometime of those around you who followed other teams who went on to make it to the big game. You saw their excitement and you wanted to experience for yourself.

Your expectations weren’t overly high as you figured your day would eventually come. A season approaches where it looks like ducks are all in order, but alas the season ends just slightly above average. You think maybe in a couple of years it will happen again because some of the young players look promising,(Does this sound familiar to some of you?)

Eventually you get losing fatigue. You decide that your not going to follow another team but your tired of getting your hopes up just to be disappointed. So you start to lose the desire to waste hours of your time following a program that a long sports history dictates that greatness is not going to happen.

You may note a score when the sports news comes up while watching the regular news channel. If you see they are dominating teams and have a healthy winning record you may start wanting to watch the sports news a little closer (after all this is your team). Some times those teams sputter out and you think to yourself (oh yeah, just what I thought). This is not a good thing for any fan to go through.

I personally haven’t gotten to this point with Iowa athletics but I have with some of my favorite professional teams who have fallen into the vicious repeated cycle. I think because of the turnover in players in college sports there is always that hope that your team will put together a great team and that if the chips fall right other teams will be down (Lol, not in Iowa’s case, just the opposite seems to happen with the exception of the 2015 football season).

I almost wish I could be in the group of if we play well and have a good game and it’s entertaining to watch, then I will enjoy the game win or lose. That’s not me. After over fifty years of waiting I think my devotion deserves more reward than what I am getting. Patience grows short, you’ve seen enough to know where a program is going in the right direction for hope. If it’s not make changes.

What kills you is when the program falls into stagnation and many fans and the administration excepts it

It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Some say just pick another program to follow. I know some that have done that but they don’t have generations of family and time invested OR they were raised by generations of family or time that belong to that first group of fans I talked about.

I guess each of us falls into one of those brackets or some where in between. I am unfortunately in the most painful bracket.
 
Can almost pick out those that have been following the Hawks for a longer time. We've learned over the years that stellar years are rare and we've seen this story play out so many times (especially in basketball) that we've learned you're better off to adapt a "prove it" attitude. I think most of us try to be positive in the early stages of any season but some of us see things through a different lens at times when season's progress. It's called differences of opinions. Have to chuckle when I see posts that label those with the above attitude that you're not a true fan or any other number of labels.

Yes, there's still games to play as well as the Big Dance but the evidence being presented by this team is less than overwhelming as of late. We're good but so are many other teams as we're seeing. Not feeling too good about IN coming up but love to be wrong.

..............."prove it" Iowa.
 
I’m not apathetic. I’m bummed we’ve lost 3 out of 4. I think we would have won 1 or 2 more games with CJ. So I’m frustrated about that.

I’m frustrated we had to play the (currently playing) best team in the conference on short rest/prep because of COVID. I can’t process how a guy throws up a terrible shot and banks it in from 3.

Random thoughts...

We have to make our FTs. That’s hurting us consistently...not just late in games. Making them throughout would keep us out of some of these late game situations.

I knew the conference was brutal and we could lose 3 out of 4. But it’s depressing when it actually happens.

Take aways...

Make FTs. Don’t wait until 1 minute left to do the offense/defense lineup switch. Do it the last 5 minutes of a close game. Extend the D against a team with iffy ball handling.

Bottom line is we lost by 5 and 4 to the 2 best teams in the conference IMO. We need another 5 game winning streak. And at the end of the day we need to play our best basketball in March...not February.
 
Ree4 said:
We've played 3.5 games without our best 3 point shooter and lost 3 of them. Guess the sky is falling. Remember last year when he was out? Yeah, we lost those too.
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I don't see that being the issue. Seems like CJ's lackluster D allows as many or more 3s than he scores....
 
BigD said:
How good really is the B1G? At the end of the season after it’s all said and done then we will know.

If our conference goes into the NCAA tournament and kicks ass then that will help put everything into perspectives. Then we can “Damn these were really good teams we barely lost to during the regular season. We then can feel a lot better about a loss here or a loss there.

On the other hand if our conference teams get knocked out of the tourney daily early (in the first two rounds) then we will know it was all over hyped and we were all over ranked. That would shine a whole different light on our conference and on our program.

On another point is it apathy or just losing fatigue? You’ve followed the program for a long time. You have become acquainted with a season popping up when there are high expectations, much higher than normal, and over and over again those expectations crash and burn. This is where how you feel about the competitive aspect of sports come in. People’s expectations are different.

There are those who just want to enjoy watching a sporting event and may for one reason or another associate with one team for one reason or another. They likely don’t have items in their possession that makes a statement that they are fans of a specific team. If they win great, but if they lose oh well no biggie.

Then there are other fans who identify with the team closely for one reason or another. Being a fan of a certain team has been passed on for generations. Your remember your grandfather occasionally taking your father and you to a game or watching it on TV or listening to the radio in the house or out in farms fields religiously. Come crap team or a competitive team, it’s what you did. You would the satisfaction sometime of those around you who followed other teams who went on to make it to the big game. You saw their excitement and you wanted to experience for yourself.

Your expectations weren’t overly high as you figured your day would eventually come. A season approaches where it looks like ducks are all in order, but alas the season ends just slightly above average. You think maybe in a couple of years it will happen again because some of the young players look promising,(Does this sound familiar to some of you?)

Eventually you get losing fatigue. You decide that your not going to follow another team but your tired of getting your hopes up just to be disappointed. So you start to lose the desire to waste hours of your time following a program that a long sports history dictates that greatness is not going to happen.

You may note a score when the sports news comes up while watching the regular news channel. If you see they are dominating teams and have a healthy winning record you may start wanting to watch the sports news a little closer (after all this is your team). Some times those teams sputter out and you think to yourself (oh yeah, just what I thought). This is not a good thing for any fan to go through.

I personally haven’t gotten to this point with Iowa athletics but I have with some of my favorite professional teams who have fallen into the vicious repeated cycle. I think because of the turnover in players in college sports there is always that hope that your team will put together a great team and that if the chips fall right other teams will be down (Lol, not in Iowa’s case, just the opposite seems to happen with the exception of the 2015 football season).

I almost wish I could be in the group of if we play well and have a good game and it’s entertaining to watch, then I will enjoy the game win or lose. That’s not me. After over fifty years of waiting I think my devotion deserves more reward than what I am getting. Patience grows short, you’ve seen enough to know where a program is going in the right direction for hope. If it’s not make changes.

What kills you is when the program falls into stagnation and many fans and the administration excepts it

It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Some say just pick another program to follow. I know some that have done that but they don’t have generations of family and time invested OR they were raised by generations of family or time that belong to that first group of fans I talked about.

I guess each of us falls into one of those brackets or some where in between. I am unfortunately in the most painful bracket.
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Well said. The "losing fatigue" you described I believe is exactly what I'm going through. I'm just sitting here waiting for the next "fade" to come, derailing what was supposed to be a great season.

I know there's plenty of time to get some W's and get things back on track, but the team has lost 3 of 4 and the schedule isn't going to get any easier going forward from what I see. Next up - a road game against a team that just handled us by double digits in Carver.

ONE Sweet 16 in the last 33 years since BJ, Roy and Ed got us there in '88. 33 YEARS. I find that unacceptable.

I can't simply pick another team to root for. I'm a lifelong Hawk fan and it would never be the same if I were to suddenly decide to become a Kansas fan or something. Nah. It's Hawkeyes or bust.
 
No apathy for me. I am frustrated, but I am enjoying the hell out of this season. We've been in the top 10 since the start of it. We're going thru a stretch where we aren't playing very well. I do see a lot of flaws in this team and I honestly don't think they are final 4 caliber. They might be sweet 16 and we haven't been to one of those in 22 years. I think that's my floor expectation for this team. Gonna enjoy the heck out of watching them try and do it. No apathy here
 
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