Tuesdays with Torbee
During a possession in the second half of the Iowa-Rutgers basketball game, Luka Garza set up shop in his usual deep post position, received the ball, made several attempted moves to shake his defender, and ultimately passed the ball back out to a waiting shooter.
By my estimation, the entire sequence took around 11 seconds, the final six or so accompanied by outraged shouts of “THREE SECONDS! THREE SECONDS!” from the Rutgers bench. It probably was a violation, but guess what? Those are the kind of breaks you get when you’re a legit Final Four contender.
It’s been odd being the fan of a basketball program that is gushed over by announcers, promoted as must-see TV by television networks and lavished with praise by national basketball writers. But I’m getting used to it.
Another positive side effect of cheering for a Top 5 type team is being rather sanguine about conference road losses. I did not enjoy the blown lead and subsequent loss at Minnesota - at all - but it also didn’t ruin my weekend. In past iterations of good-but-not-great Iowa basketball, every loss was a potential blow to NCAA tournament hopes and throwing away an opportunity for a solid road win would be cause for dismay. But when the squad is this good, it’s more of an irritant than an existential threat to post-season hopes.
A good friend of mine is a hardcore Kansas fan, and I’ve been consulting with him about my new-found basketball feelings. After the Gopher game, he texted to ask if I was freaking out.
“No,” I wrote back. “I just don’t think it’s going to matter much, because the Hawkeyes still look like they can dominate people. Is this what it feels like to be the fan of a Final Four contender?”
“Pretty much,” he replied. “Nice, isn’t it?”
It sure is.
That confidence carried over to the Purdue and Rutgers games.
Objectively, there should have been good reason to fear the Boilermakers. Matt Painter always has a gritty, down-and-dirty team that finds a way to disrupt McCaffery’s high-flying offensive game plan and turns games into back alley brawls that, more often than not, his guys find a way to win. The last two times Iowa was ranked and played Purdue, they lost 77-68 and 104-68. But I just knew this version of Iowa was up for the challenge. As usual, Purdue gummed up the game and played it at their pace, but this time, Iowa was ready and won thanks to defense and rebounding, despite a pedestrian (for him) 22 points from Luka Garza. Talk about a turnaround!
On the road at Rutgers is a scary place for any visiting Big 10 team. Even without fans, a trip to the RAC is no joke. Like Purdue, the Scarlet Knights are the kind of team that loves a fight, and as usual Ron Harper Jr. and Geo Baker gave the Hawkeyes everything they wanted. If stellar point guard/point forward Connor McCaffery hadn’t gone down with a bum ankle or Joe Toussaint had been at 100 percent spelling him, I doubt this game goes down to the wire like it did. But in a testament to this team’s depth and young talent, Keegan Murray, Ahron Ulis and other bench players got more run than usual and delivered. Garza recovered from a tough first half, where his teammates couldn’t manage to feed him the ball in the post, helping secure a tight two-point victory.
The win at Rutgers was sneakily important. There is a big difference starting conference play 3-1 compared to 2-2 and notching this road win solidified Iowa as a legit conference title contender. Again, this is the kind of game past Iowa teams might have had a good showing in, but likely would have dropped in “coulda, woulda, shoulda” fashion.
It’s a new and wonderful feeling heading into every Big 10 game believing Iowa can and should win. They won’t, of course – this conference is too good and too deep to dominate this season. But there isn’t a game on the schedule – minus perhaps at Illinois – that doesn’t look like a potential Hawkeye victory to me.
This might be a generational type team, so my recommendation is to sit back and enjoy it and not sweat the small stuff. There will be games where shots aren’t falling, the defense is porous, or Garza has an off night and only scores 20 with 10 rebounds. To paraphrase a pretty good coach from a different sport: that’s basketball. Don’t let that get you down or fool you – this is a basketball team with an insanely high ceiling that is going to thrill us many times over the next few months.
It’s just a shame we can’t be inside Carver to see it live and in person.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and @12Saturdays