Anything can happen once you make the dance. But I've seen too many examples in the last thirty years, in both the Davis and McCaffery years, of talented teams just not developing the toughness, the clutch genes, associated with teams coached by Knight, Keady, Izzo and Ryan. Finding ways to lose just enough conference games to get the dreaded 7-10 seed in the NCAA's, and get exposed in the second round. Since Duke in 1991 we have been knocked out by the eventual national champ four times. Another team, Kentucky in 1997, took Arizona into overtime in the national championship game. It's also been well over a decade since we've been any factor in the conference championship tournament, despite some favorable seeds under Fran, further hindering our NCAA seedings.
It's time for an Iowa team to have a different identity, a different mindset. You saw flashes of it two years ago when JBo beat Wisconsin in Madison WI a late shot, then destroyed Maryland in their own crib. I was hoping they could build on that last year. I don't know what happened last year. At least one player (Bohannon) has come forward saying he couldn't put his finger on it either. The best answer I have, as a fan who has watched Iowa basketball for over forty years, is that this league will chew you up spit you out if you aren't ready to compete tooth and nail every night. Last year's team was not.
Now fast forward to this year. You saw good signs in New York. You saw a team find a way to win a game against Pitt that they would have lost many other years. You saw them respond to Iowa State's noise by pounding them into submission. They took another leap forward in the Nebraska game, have now won five in a row. And are doing it with toughness, grit, making the plays and getting the stops down the stretch. The ways we have seen other teams win games all these years. Anyone want to doubt if we would beat Wisconsin today if we replayed that November 30 game, or if we will beat them in Madison?
Is .500 in the conference and a middling NCAA bid the ceiling for this team? It's possible. If we are tough minded and get key defensive stops and that's where we finish, it will be somewhat satisfying. But the bar suddenly seems higher for this bunch. Much more than for the Uthoff teams, or much of Davis' '90's teams. I would trust Joe or JBo to take a game winning shot, and several others including those two at the line to seal a win. This team has a combination of veteran experience and emerging young talent that I have seldom seen in the last thirty years.
I'm past the stage of being happy for any NCAA bid and not surviving the first weekend. I saw what Lute era teams and early Davis era teams did. I'm aware of the history of the 1956 and 1970 teams. It's time to start a new era of relevance, one that includes occasional conference or conference tournament championships and more frequent tourney runs into the second weekend. I can't wait to see if this team in the second half of the conference season is the real deal. Mostly I'm just excited to see them winning their share of games with grit and toughness for a change.
