Atypical Results Becoming Typical

When I watched the Iowa men's basketball team lose to Iowa State a couple of weeks ago, my confidence in the team was shaken. I freely admit that. Even though the Hawks had built a huge lead and even though Jared Uthoff had 30 points in the first 20 minute, and even though there was a huge halftime lead, I wasn't comfortable. I remember thinking, "This is ISU, this is on their court, and they are a better basketball team than how they have been playing."

Thus, when Iowa went into the locker room after 20 minutes with a huge halftime lead last night, I wasn't comfortable. Even at 9:29 PM, when I sent a text to Brian Rock (Gravel) and the score was Iowa 52, MSU 39, I wasn't comfortable. I've seen MSU blow past more than one team late in the second half. Tom Izzo is one helluva coach and he always always has his players prepared for a game. There's rarely a team that is coached by Izzo that doesn't storm back in the pursuit of a victory.

Finally, though, when the final buzzer went off and victory was achieved, you'd think I would be comfortable.

I'm not.

I looked at their schedule and see that Iowa travels to MSU on Thursday, January 14, 2016. That's 15 days away. MSU's wound from being defeated in Iowa City by Iowa. Per this article, "It was the first Iowa victory over a No. 1 ranked opponent since 1999 (Connecticut) and the first win over the Spartans since 2011. The Hawkeyes had never defeated a top-ranked opponent inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena until now." Their next game is at #14 Purdue on Saturday night. Not to entirely switch gears, but Purdue played one helluva game last night. They defeated Wisconsin in Madison. Wisconsin basketball teams do not get defeated in Madison very often. If Iowa is feeling a high after defeating MSU, which I'm sure they are, Purdue is feeling the same high after their victory. The winner of the game on Saturday will be the team that comes down from the adrenaline and focuses on preparation. I think it will be a very interesting game. If teams like Purdue and Iowa can make a run at teams like MSU and WI and not back down, anything is possible.