The Hyball is a weekly basketball column

"It's a 'miss or miss less' league."

While attending the Iowa-Northwestern game this past Sunday with my college roommate and his brother, I made this joke around halftime. If we only knew what the next three halves would look like.

Iowa is 6/52 from three in its last two games.

Six for fifty-two.

When normal basketball games turn into rock fights like that, it's hard not to think about Greg Popovich's 2018 quote on three pointers:

Now, I don't actually believe this... but I sure did consider believing in it watching the offense careen off the rails these last two games.

One of my first columns of this season was titled "Sweet, Precious Offense." The premise was, win or lose, Iowa was still going to put up points. Turns out there should have been a caveat there...

We need to get this team back to Iowa City before the brick house turns into a brick skyscraper.

"I'm not a nerd. I'm a jock who's too cool for sports."

2/16 - Iowa 92, Ohio State 75: Way back in the halcyon days of Iowa men's 2022-23 basketball, Iowa hit double digit threes in a game. That said, 10/27 isn't exactly the beautiful game incarnate (good for 37%).

2/18 - Northwestern 80, Iowa 60: As I mentioned above, was at this game, so we're gonna dive in with some bullet points...

- This was one of those games that just felt over from the jump; Iowa seemed to be down 7-15 points the entire time

- Keegan picked a great way to spend his all-star break

- Northwestern's new stadium is really great; couldn't rec going more; there is not a bad seat in the house

- Speaking of... they have a scene there, man. I went in December 2018 for Michigan-Northwestern, and the atmosphere itself was fine, but it's night and day compared to the game we saw this week. They have a DJ (who somehow integrates music well and doesn't take away from the fan experience), and the arena got so loud, at one point my buddy wondered if he should've brought earplugs. All glory to the students for finally creating a semblance of a sports culture there. They were Cameron Crazies level with customized, clever chants; hitting poor Kris with a "Keeg-an's Bet-ter" chant throughout the game (double stung when we realized Keegan was in the house) and the McCaffery brothers with a "Where's-your dad-dy?" chant after, well...

- It really does feel special when your team's coach gets ejected while you're in the building, watching them struggle; it's like he's an avatar for all of your frustrations; and, before you think I'm exaggerating, it was one of the few times all game were every Iowa fan in my section stood up and clapped in unison; thank you, Fran.

2/22 - Wisconsin 64, Iowa 52: Be honest, you're kinda surprised we cracked 50, right? After Iowa lost as road favorites against Northwestern and we held off on betting, I wasn't gonna make the same mistake vs. Sconnie. When the spread that morning came out as Iowa -1.5, I pounced in seconds*. Need every emotional hedge possible when watching basketball at the Kohl Center.

This is tweet is actually from 2011, but it's an evergreen comment, really.

(* - easy, sad money)

2/25 - Iowa vs. Michigan State: In honor of the Gold Out, maybe Iowa can aim to shoot 49% from three (higher also works).

2/28 - Iowa at Indiana: Who's ready to go back on the road?!

SHE BACK.

My uncle sent me this (on Facebook, of course), and despite all aversions to watching a 6-minute plus music video, it was riveting. Consider:

- Collins rocking the headset mic

- Collins rocking business casual

- Collins spending most of the video at the front of the stage before sauntering over to the abandoned drum kit to play the iconic fill around 4:25

- Also this is the bassist

June of 1990. What a time.

After M defeated MSU in a very emotional outing following the shooting on the East Lansing campus, I found myself really wanting a win for Sparty in their next game. Fortunately, Mady Sissoko got the message loud and clear.

That, friends, is a forever highlight.

How long do you think it takes her to say "ESS EE SEE" in this video?

(Trying to diplomatically reconcile the cavalcade of missed threes with our general love for Iowa basketball.)

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to Go Iowa Awesome. Find him on Twitter @bobbystompy or email at bobbyloesch [at] gmail.com.