Very impressive, Gophers!

[StPaulHawkeye]

Understanding that the Hawkeye squad is young and not that talented (the Gophers sweep the position-by-position matchup game), but to come out, build a big lead, step on their throat, and put Iowa away as fast as they did has to be a good sign for you guys as the B10 tournament approaches. Good luck to you guys - it's a pretty good tournament position seeding-wise for the Gophers, IMHO.

On a "the season is mercifully over for Iowa men's basketball this week" note, if I played the comparative scoring game, would that mean that the Wolverines beat my Hawkeyes by 60 on Thursday?

Now Hawkeye fans can only wait to see how Iowa's recruits pan out, how hard the Hawkeyes work over the off-season, and if that translates to improvement next year. It's easy to be optimistic, because they really couldn't get much worse.

 

[march madness]

Unfortunately the Gophers are a different team at home than on the road..drastically different. We have had a dissappointing year. But I don't expect any sympathy from a Hawkeye fan. Your team needs to improve, as does recruiting, but more importantly you can't keep losing your best players in the offseason every year.

 

[StPaulHawkeye]

Unfortunately the Gophers are a different team at home than on the road..drastically different. We have had a dissappointing year. But I don't expect any sympathy from a Hawkeye fan. Your team needs to improve, as does recruiting, but more importantly you can't keep losing your best players in the offseason every year.

It's not sympathy that you want. But I do have empathy - losing the best returning players every offseason in the Coach Lickliter regime does make it and endless cycle of rebuilding year after rebuilding year (Kelly, Peterson, & Tucker this year alone). Some of that has to go on Coach Lickliter for sure, some perhaps is bad luck.
The empathy comes when considering what Coach Smith could have done and where Minnesota would be now with Trevor, Royce, and Al for the whole season.

On a somewhat funny note, I have to admit that when Blake hit that three with a minute left, I thought, "Jeez, what is he still doing in the game?" But then I considered the depth of the Gophers bench (even without those three previously mentioned) and that he didn't start the game and thought, "Well, Hawks, if you don't like it, do something to stop it." Overall, like I said, very impressive game...

 

[Friend Of Tubby]

Unfortunately the Gophers are a different team at home than on the road..drastically different. We have had a dissappointing year. But I don't expect any sympathy from a Hawkeye fan. Your team needs to improve, as does recruiting, but more importantly you can't keep losing your best players in the offseason every year.

What might have been. 10 or 11 W in OOC play. 12 or 13 W in Big 10 play. 23 or 24 W overall.