The Hyball is a weekly basketball column.

Forget bucket list -- this was for the buckets list.

After graduating from Iowa and moving back to Illinois, I realized there was still so much more to do in the state I'd lived in for four years. Off the dome and after some conversations with friends, I put together my Iowa/Iowa City bucket list over a decade ago. Some items:

- Play a round of golf at Finkbine
- Bowl at Colonial Lanes
- Do a corn maze
- Watch "Cedar Rapids"
- See The Black Angel

There are others, and maybe one day I will write about them all, but none required more planning and patience than finally seeing a Grinnell basketball game.

Grinnell first emerged as a bucket list item after Jack Taylor dropped 138 in a game in 2012. Did you know he broke 100 again the following year? I did not. In 2022, just slightly 10 years later, Grinnell once again made national news after attempting 111 threes and zero twos all in the same game.

They're still playing this way?!

The itch absolutely needed to be scratched, so we sharpened our claws and turned the whole weekend into a hoops smorgasbord.

I drove out to Iowa City through a mixture of sunshine, clouds, rain, and snow (yay, Midwest winter weather) on a Friday afternoon. Skipping the usual Pancheros visit due to a January diet felt like heresy, but Blackstone on the far east side of Iowa City was a solid replacement.

From there, we ended up at Double Tap, a new (to me) arcade bar near The Graduate hotel. In keeping with the mega hoops theme of the trip, I see none other than Filip Rebrača. First thought: damn, he looks kinda small.

In his defense, he was going up the stairs as my 5'9'' ass was going down, but have you ever seen a college 5 in person and thought that thought? I kept my mouth shut to avoid a potential Aaron Rodgers moment. But yeah... there's a reason he doesn't take the tips.

The following morning, after playing some basketball ourselves at the new (to me) rec center, we scooted over to Carver to see the Iowa women vs. Nebraska at noon.

(Sadly, use of the hashtag did not get us included on the JumboTron fan montage.)

The ladies started a little slow, going down six to end the first quarter, but the Hawkeyes' 26-9 second quarter made the rest of the game relatively comfortable.

A random highlight was seeing Robert Gallery.

Him and his wife both had tattoos and looked so cool. Didn't know she was an Iowa hooper. They had some kids running around, who I can only assume will be stellar athletes in their own right very, very soon.

After Iowa closed out the 80-76 victory on the back of Caitlin Clark's 33 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists, it was time to once again hit the road.

Grinnell time, baby.

As we were driving out, my friend Ryan mentioned his older brother lived there. Like, 'house is a 10 minute walk from the arena' close. We met up with the brother, his wife, their two young kids, and the six of us trekked through the frigid cold on our little basketball pilgrimage to Darby Gymnasium.

The first great thing? Admission was free. My high school's sporting events were typically $5, so this was a pleasant surprise. Once in, we immediately encountered the second great thing:

National scoring champions!!!! Love the style or hate the style, they most definitely own the style. This of course begs the question: who has been winning the (completely made up) national scoring champion title from 2016 to present? Never ended up researching, so it remains a mystery of the ages.

Grinnell faced off against Illinois College -- based in Jacksonville, IL and with an enrollment 1,150 students (a little less than the Pioneers' 1,733).

The game quickly began, and their unique brand of basketball was immediately on display. It was like a freak show combined with a 12-year-old playing video games. Even though it's what I thought I wanted, it was also kind of like eating cake for every meal; not sustainable.

They just. kept. shooting threes. That's what stuck out, above all else. Even though I went in thinking "Man, this is gonna have so many threes," I still found myself almost mentally out of breath, like "MY GOODNESS, THIS IS AN EXPONENTIAL AMOUNT OF THREES."

Extreme "be careful what you wish for" energy. Watching some of their players pass up open or semi-contested layups sent my basketball brain into a tailspin. I'm not Mr. Hoops Genius or anything, but sometimes the Right Play is just that apparent. But they clearly had bigger philosophical goals in mind.

Another interesting wrinkle to the day: Grinnell features sophomore David Bluder, son of Lisa Bluder. So when we drove out the hour-ish from IC to Grinnell after Iowa-Nebraska, it was cool to think she was driving the exact same route; even sat in our row -- five back from the court.

I spent a lot of time also thinking "What does a more... traditional basketball coach think of this?" It felt less like strategy and more like scientific variance. A true bastardization of sports, for better and for worse. Not only do they hoist threes like a sick person goes through tissues, but they also platoon. Short little spurts with five man changes very similar to hockey shifts. Their warmup shirts even have a very noticeable 3>2 above the school logo.

Though, on this day, two may have been a little more valuable than three. Grinnell was down 55-41 after two quarters, and, while not ideal, halftime itself was a blast:

In fairness to Miles, I went 2/6 from three (both makes were banks, so completely disgusting... but hey, shooting shoeless is not the easiest task).

When the game resumed, Grinnell caught a little fire from three -- finally -- and ended the second half scoring 56... only Illinois College finished just one point behind that output. The Blueboys dropped 55 in both halves, defeating the Pioneers, 110-97. David Bluder was the second leading scorer and finished with 15 points.

In the end, Grinnell went 16/55 from three -- good for 29% but not nearly good enough. The Pioneers are currently 6-14 overall and 2-10 in conference.

As they sometimes say with sports, if you can't be great, be memorable. And Grinnell is most definitely that. I had a wonderful time visiting and would very much go again. So, if you've at all had the thought to go, take the damn plunge already.

You miss 100% of the garish threes you don't take.

“Everybody under 6-10 looks exactly the same”

1/29 - Iowa 93, Rutgers 82: The Pat Mac Is Back game. Wish I stayed in Iowa City one more day to have seen this one.

1/31 - Iowa 86, Northwestern 70: Payton Sandfort is offense. Is there a chance he starts again this year, or does Fran want to keep him as the microwave bench scorer?

2/4 - Iowa vs. Illinois:

Illinois fans... the weirdest people out there.

"We're just hoping to spin this back into philanthropy."

For those of you who do not follow the WNBA, it was a rough week for my beloved Chicago Sky. Our 2021 championship squad has been damn near completely gutted.

The good news is this puts us in prime position to Tank for/Stank for Caitlin in 2024.

Damn right.

Michigan secured its first Quad 1 win of the season (yes, for real) against Northwestern on Thursday. More importantly? Our man Tarris Reed went 100% from the free throw line (2/2... and yes, one banked in).

Not sure why I'm rooting so hard for Touchdown Tommy to end up in Tuscaloosa, but the alliteration certainly isn't hurting.

Happy MJ day to those who celebrate.

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