The Hyball is a weekly basketball column.

YOKOHAMA -- Greetings from Japan, y'all.

I am currently writing at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, where it is likely 8 p.m. Wednesday for you (if you're in central time back in the States). In the past, we've discussed how traveling can have the side effect of making sports back home matter less; which sounds maybe bad but is usually good.

This notably was helpful when I visited Pebble Beach for the 17-Mile drive in 2021, and Iowa football was down 13-10 at halftime on the road as four point favorites vs. Minnesota. The Hawkeyes came back and won (by five!), but that wasn't the point. The point was instead of watching all three and a half hours of that, I got to see this:

But it's March Madness week, baby -- so forget all lessons learned. Right now is no time for tuning out or gaining new perspective. I'm in goddamn Tokyo and still counting the minutes down for this damn thing to get started, even if being 14 hours ahead means having to wait even longer. And even if it means the Iowa men tipping at 7:50 a.m. Friday and the women going at 5 a.m. Saturday.

March is not for the weak. It's eyeblack, pregame songs, and Home Alone YouTube time:

The original title for this column was going to be Let's Get Hurt, Together. But I'm not in that mode; not right now, at least. Even if the scars of both teams not making it out of the first weekend last year feel fresh as ever.

We've got Caitlin Clark. We've got Kris Murray. That's artillery, and it's not nothing.

To paraphrase Gladiator, death smiles at us all, and all we can do is smile back.

Or, like, do that.

"If you've got the time, I've got the dime."

Was trying to find the chaotic loose ball sequence from the end of the Ohio State loss in the BTT but instead found this:

So we're good here, right?

Iowa (8-seed) vs. Auburn (9-seed): Much has been deservedly made about this being in Birmingham, and seeing the Tigers as 1.5-point faves really has me wondering what the spread would be if the Hawkeyes were given a more favorable regional. In some ways, does this take some of the pressure off, though?

Also I've been hatin' on Houston from afar all year and would really like a crack at them.

This column ran early last week, so some leftovers from the Iowa women's BTT.

She coulda scored zero and still controlled the whole damn game.

Great article, but this part stood out:

The wildest part? She's still not sorry! Carver is gonna be a party this week.

And why wouldn't it be?

Lastly, didn't notice Garza in the Gabbie pic from last week until someone on Twitter pointed it out:

This is the current desktop on my computer. Between him, her, Herky, and the cheerleader, it really checks a lot of boxes. If we could (respectfully) photoshop Taylor Mikesell out, it could be wall worthy.

Not so fast, Bryan Mac -- it's NIT time, baby!!!!

also this happened

Michigan beat Toledo in said game, so this thing is still going. But I'm done piling on. Let's end with a shot at the -- /checks notes -- Oakland A's?!

:(

That woulda been a lot funnier this time last week.

Me: I bet only some of the faces tell a story.

/looks at nearly every individual face in the pic

Me: Wow, every face really tells a story here!

Was right near this and had no idea how it happened.

Remember this one very fondly; such a swaggery Cinderella.

(Us when at least one Iowa team makes the second weekend.)

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

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