I know, I know. After the Iowa Hawkeyes dropped a competitive contest on Saturday, it is certainly easy to sound the horns of doom and gloom for this year's team. Certainly, in the record books, there's no asterisk next to games that were very competitive. Yes, the team is 1-2 in the league and yes, there is no easy game on the schedule. Karen, Alex, Megan, and I are attending the game on Friday at 6 PM against Maryland, who was ranked #10 in the nation when I bought the tickets. If the team had a problem with a team that was ranked 2 better (PSU was #21, Iowa, #23), it's logical to state that Friday's game will be no easy task. On top of the already dwindling bench because of Jack Nunge's ankle injury, Jordan Bohannon's hip surgery, and Patrick McCaffery's health issues, CJ Frederick went down with an ankle injury on Saturday. I believe the team was down to an 8 man rotation which I am sad to say, no, that's not likely sustainable for an entire season. The team will need to find ways to extract greatness from players who are not expected to have greatness within them. Personally, I would find a way to get John Baer into the game to see if he can create the magic his older brother created for the team last year, but I'm probably jumping the gun a bit. Certainly, the deep bench is shallow and players who didn't expect to play a lot are now going to be in a position where they must contribute more. It's a season of opportunity. I'm not going to give up on this year's team until the final game of the season, whether it is in the Big Ten Tournament, the NIT, or the NCAA. I also am not going to put a ceiling on this team. I saw an outstanding team gut out great wins already this year and I have no reason there is not more of those great wins remaining that just need to be released.
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