The Hyball is a weekly basketball column.

It was like the Final Four -- with less calories.

Or maybe more like a big ticket boxing match. Back-to-back bouts, anticipatory arena, all leading to a main event. A peak.

And it generally unfolded how we wanted. The 'good guys' (or, good gals, in the back half) went 2-0 and won their games by a combined 65 points. Easy peasy.

But it was so much more than a box score, wasn't it? It was half I'm Comin' Home and half pure coronation. Caitlin Clark's basketball began in Des Moines but didn't hit the national radar until she arrived in Iowa City. Last Saturday night, she came to unify the damn state.

And, uh, spoiler alert:

I think, when it's all said and done, that sequence is going to be a Top 10 Iowa highlight for her. A real "Who else, but me?" moment. The special blend of joy and swagger she continues to perfect. It doesn't top the Indiana shot in stakes, but it might in joy.

You wanted to watch the Indiana shot now though, didn't you? Me, too.

That'll cure what ails ya.

While Iowa's one-two punch in Des Moines cemented an already pretty satisfying night, the pro leagues seemed to shout back "What about us?"

I'm a damn Chicago Bears fan and will spend zero minutes of my time hating on this Lions season, Sam LaPorta or not. But LaPorta times three does make it a little better.

The night was already in icing mode, but before the dessert cart could come out, Keegs threw down a 44oz. Porterhouse.

Really don't mean to diminish an ounce of the joy by ranking all of these fine moments against each other, but this one? Are you kidding me?

When the dust settled, and we entered numbers mode, everything looked downright tidy.

Keegan Murray not having a Twitter handle... very perfect.

"Let’s revolt. Life’s been a little too boring lately."

12/16 - No. 4 Iowa 104, Cleveland State 75:

I'm more Kate Martin highlights than man at this point.

Stray notes:

- Tripling down at this point, but this game earnestly did feel like a party

- Tried to guess the GIA headline in my head before opening the site and went with "DeMore, DeMerrier" before seeing they went with the much, much better "Dub Moines"

- Officially getting slightly concerned about Gabbie; another 0% shooting game (0/6) from three; would love to see her be a little more assertive when she handles the ball, but I also know it doesn't happen enough to have those regular reps where you'll just have this auto-confidence; as much as she feels like a PG to me (especially based on size), it's clearly Caitlin, Molly, then* her in the pecking order for ballhandling, so you could see why that would make it harder to have that "OK, it's me" confidence when it swings her way

- Kate Martin, a G, goes 9/9 from the free throw stripe

- The team shot 92.9% overall from the line (26/28); file that one for tournament time

- Kylie Feuerbach got a bad whistle

12/21 - Iowa (4) vs. Loyola Chicago: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Big Ten Plus.

Loyola was one of four non-Iowa schools I applied to, and the only one that offered to give me money. To this day, my mom remains mystified this happened, as my admissions essay included a section about my high school band titling one of our records Dope John Paul -- as Loyola is a Jesuit school. As our guitarist once said, maybe it could mean we think the pope is DOPE, yo.

A Brock Harding double-digit assists game with a minimum of three Tony Perkins dunks is like a "Bobby's Iowa MBB fan-fiction" type of game.

Don't look now, but late-career Green Day strung together three pretty sturdy singles.

(this is me closing my eyes, plugging my ears, and blissfully attempting to ignore the Michigan men's team blowing a double OT game against Florida this week)

A few things.

1) South Dakota State made the natty again, and we should root for them to win back-to-back chips, as their QB went to my high school and is cool and good. Last year was the first in school history, so it would be wild to see the Jacks repeat. I imagine they'll be favored, as they haven't dropped a game all year and won their semifinal by an eye popping 59-0 marign.

2) On the other side of the bracket, Montana.

3)

The part about Clark being the most searched player in all 50 states was incredible.

If this was not, you know, an Iowa site, I may have centered the entire column around analyzing these highlights. What is this team?! How is this happening?!?!?

[Editor's note: I never told him not to center the entire column around these highlights, and I'll take a thousand words on them at this time next week. Thanks Bobby!]

We know, Dave.

For real.

We cannot export this to Indiana:

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