The Hyball is a weekly basketball column.

Why does the unexpected always feel sweeter?

Goliath treating David like a Whack-A-Mole? Yawn. David going at Goliath and taking the giant down with a rock and a slingshot? That's the story, right? That's the bread and butter.

When Caitlin Clark, our anointed forever superstar, does something as natural (for her) as making an early season all-tournament team, it just kinda feels like a box that was already checked.

When Molly Davis does the same?

Look at the pure joy on those faces; each and every one. It instantly reminded me of when Gabbie Marshall made the Big Ten Tournament team after canning a trillion three pointers last March.

That bigger cheer, to me, is significant. You have to big up your role players as much as possible -- whether they need it or not.

* * *

Molly Davis is David. Molly David. OK -- sorry for that one. But it's true. She is. Outside of freshman Kennise Johnson, Davis is the shortest player (5'7") on Iowa's roster. When she transferred from Central Michigan last season, it wasn't exactly with the same buzz as Hunter Dickinson going to Kansas. Size tends to move the needle in basketball.

But what she lacked in height, she made up for in handles. Outside of Clark, she is probably the best pure ballhandler on this team. Last year, she was the clear option to lead the bench unit when Clark got in foul trouble and/or needed the rare blow.

This year, she's starting, second on the team in assists, third in minutes (nearly two full minutes more than Kate Freakin' Martin!), and, five years into her college basketball career, it feels like her game still continues to blossom.

That's some football shit.

She's got her own t-shirts. Her headband has a Twitter account.

We all know where we want this team to go. And if and when they get there, she is going to play a massive part. And while we commend her development, we should equally appreciate her sacrifice. At CMU, she averaged 18.6 points playing 35.9 minutes a game.

But the diminutive guard wanted something bigger.

And we... we do, too.

"Loyalty one way is stupidity."

11/24 - No. 5 Iowa 98, PFW 59: Clark looked *on* with 28 points and 8 assists. Sharon Goodman with 16 off the bench... but the story really was the other center. How bad is Hannah Stuelke's injury?

Fave play was this Clark hockey assist with Kate Martin making the extra (39:35 mark).

11/25 - No. 5 Iowa 100, FGCU 62: Buncha notes for this one...

- Feels like this team averages one first or second quarter buzzer beater per game; just delightful

- A barrage of made threes and sweet, glistening offense (Iowa football, take hard notes)

- Kate Martin backcuts galore

- Taylor McCabe once again! Gal is a sniper

- That above note was written in the first half before she drilled, like, four more in Q3 and Q4 on her way to a career high

- No Hannah :(

- Goodman is seriously a presence with her size, especially against mid majors

- Iowa put up 55 in the first half, and maybe more impressively (if you're boring), gave up only 19

- Bluder career win Five Hundo, woooo

- This Kate Martin rebound/assist combo = /chef's kiss (24:59 mark)

11/26 - No. 5 Iowa 77, No. 14 Kansas State 70: Say it with me, you jabronis...

REVENGE

IS A DISH

BEST

SERVED

CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK

In all seriousness, as stoked as I was for three wins in three days and a nice early season tournament championship... I'm honestly still thinking about this K-State team.

They are so undaunted, so resilient. I know they lost, but these gals don't blink. I would be blown away if they don't make a deep NCAA Tournament run given what we've seen in two games against them. Center Ayoka Lee is the realest deal; 9,000 heart eye emojis to Kate Martin for having to check her for a stretch.

Nice to notch a non-con win against another Top 15 team. Clark closed the damn thing down like we all know she can, could, and would.

12/2 - Iowa (4) vs. Bowling Green: Clark went out of her way to say Bowling Green was a good team in her post-tourney presser, and while they are 5-1, their one loss was a 26-point blowout loss to -- /checks notes again -- Texas State?!

12/6 - Iowa (4) at Iowa State: Sweep. The. State.

The rarely seen triple block.

Makes you never wanna drive the lane again.

(Had to.)

Rough times in Atlantis for the Blue Boys. After rebounding following the Lil Penny loss with a five point win over Stanford, Michigan took one on the chin against Texas Tech (losing 73-57 in their final tournament game).

/takes a deep, sincere breath

/cracks knuckles

/looks up

/looks left

/looks straight ahead

Aright.

The last time I previewed Iowa (my alma mater) and Michigan (my childhood team) in the Big Ten championship game, I told the lovely readers of GIA I'd be rooting for the Wolverines, who had CFP aspirations, over Iowa (who had, you know, backed in).

Readers, probably understandably, didn't take kindly to this, and I never wrote another full football column again. It probably wasn't related... but it didn't hurt, either.

After sitting out the last two years of Iowa football primarily due to Glaringly Bad Offense reasons, I did watch the Iowa-Nebraska game with my step-dad (Nebby fan) as part of our annual Black Friday tradition.

Y'all, it was brutal. Though I am of course happy for the Hawks -- and for you! -- on actually closing out the game, the futility on display was so, so hard to stomach. I knew the play calling would be uninspired and air yards would be at a minimum, but the dropped passes are really what got me.

Don't get me wrong, Nebraska contributed more than their fair share of Vomit Plays, but some of the execution in that game was sub-high school level football. All you can do is start laughing. I am positive the announcers were not taking the game seriously.

How Iowa made the title game and how y'all were able to stomach an entire season of that offense is beyond me. I commend you but am also worried for you. I saw this team draw so much angst from the fanbase before turning a corner and, seemingly, winning everyone back. I'm told a lot of that had to do with BF not coming back (which, fair), but, to me, that doesn't solve everything, you know? It's still a KF operation, through and through.

I wish everyone the best in Indy, but fundamental change needs to happen here, and with the way this season improbably played out, I'm not sure it's the driver to see any sort of major change any time soon.

(gotta call it both ways)

Hahahahahaha.

OK -- that was great, though.

Sleep on her at your own peril.

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