Raise your glass to the Hawkeye Basketball team

The Hawks were 12 and 0, The Busch Light was flowing, the corn was rolling, the tailgates were bumpin, all was well in Iowa City following the college football regular season. Big Ten west champs, our beloved Hawks were destined for a date in Indianapolis with Michigan State.

The game was tight down to the very last play. A few inches separated us from Big Ten runners-up and playoff qualifiers.

BUT IT’S FINE WE ARE PASADENA BOUND!

The sting of the Big Ten Championship was soon replaced by our excitement for the Rose Bowl. Surely we can redeem ourselves against Stanford right? Yeah… wrong. Christian McCaffery shot down our hopes and dreams quicker than we could say “I need a beer”. Our deflated fan base returned to Iowa City, reminiscing on the good ole days back in October.

But among our self pity, a beacon of hope arose from Carver-Hawkeye arena.

After a narrow, heartbreaking loss to Iowa State, the Hawks seemed to be destined for another season of relative mediocrity. That is, until  #1 ranked Michigan State rolled into town. No one gave our beloved Hawks a chance. But somehow, Jared Uthoff and company dominated the entire game and pulled out a 13 point victory.

So what? You beat one good team at home. It was a fluke right?

WRONG. In the same week, down by 20 points, the Hawks fought back to win at #14 Purdue by double digits. People began to feel that same optimism they did during football season. Wait a minute, this team is good. The Hawks have defeated each Big Ten opponent they have squared off against except for an extremely talented Maryland team and a rising Indiana squad. That stretch included two more victories over Purdue and Michigan State.

How you like them apples?

Our success has not come without a fair amount of haters. People say we’re overrated, that the Big Ten is weak, that Uthoff is ugly. Basically take anything negative that people said about our football team and transfer it to basketball. But like the headstrong and proud Iowans we are, we don’t listen. Just like we didn’t this fall. You’re beautiful to us Uthoff, and so is your fade-away jumper.

Haters or not, across campus, people have taken notice. The buzz that made the fall so special was back. We have something to be excited about again. Whatever magic fueled our fairy-tale football season must have spilled over into Peter Jok’s Lucky Charms one morning. The games are sold out and the bars are filled with hundreds of excited and thirsty patrons. The success of our basketball team has made the usually dreary winter months bearable.

And hey, winning gives us an excuse to drink (not that we really need one).

One can only hope, however, that this season will end in better shape than our football season. While it’s all well and good to have a great regular season, March Madness is what really matters. So here’s to hoping we manage to make it to Houston for the Final Four. Let’s just hope they don’t run out of beer like Indianapolis.

Oh, and Stanford’s basketball team is 12-11. So who’s the real winner here?