And Thus Endeth the Iowa Season

The Iowa Hawkeyes fell victim to the biggest upset of the tourney so far, falling to Northwestern State 64-63 on a long three-pointer at the buzzer.

Now, a lot of people are going to talk about how this shouldn't tarnish a great 25-win season, a Big Ten Tournament title, and a season that our seniors can be proud of. But you know what? It does.

Say what you want about conference record, RPI, or however else you measure success in college basketball- all that matters is where you get seeded in the Big Dance, and how far you are able to go. And for the second year in a row, Iowa got beat in the first round.

A lot of people are also going to express sympathy for our seniors, in particular Jeff Horner and Greg Brunner, because they went out on a sad and disappointing note. Those guys were great players and represented the Hawkeyes really well for four years, but I have zero sympathy for them. Here's why:

This. Team. Choked. This was one of the worst of many epic choke jobs that Steve Alford-led teams author the minute any sort of pressure is applied. Consider the following:

1) We had a 17 point lead on a #14 seed with a little less than 8 and a half minutes to play. They went on a 27-9 run to win the game. That is a collapse of almost indescribable proportions. There is no excuse for allowing your opponent to come back like that, especially when you pride yourself on your defense. None.

2) Our senior center, Erek Hansen, went 2/4 with 1 offensive rebound and 5 turnovers.

3) Jeff Horner was 4-13 from the field, including 1-7 from downtown. That just isn't going to get the job done.

4) We got 7 points on 1-4 shooting from our bench.

5) We turned the ball over 18 times.

6) Northwestern State managed to shoot the ball at a 38% clip and still beat us.

7) Greg Brunner missed a free throw with 14 seconds to go that would have put us up by 3.

All of this leads me to a couple of, in my view, inescapable conclusions. They are hard to swallow, but even as a person who lives and dies with the success of the Hawkeyes, we have to be honest here. They are:

1) Steve Alford is, simply put, a loser. It took him 5 years at Iowa to author a .500 season in the Big Ten (Tom Davis never had a sub-.500 year, ever.). He has won precisely 1 NCAA tournament game in 7 seasons at Iowa. He has gotten beat by inferior teams the last two years in the first round, both played fairly close to home.

2) This team is composed of post-season choke artists. We haven't gone on a post-season run in the Alford era, and it's not just in the NCAAs either. Remember when we got beat by St. Louis University in the first round of the NIT a few years ago? We just can't perform in a one-and-done situation.

3) We desperately need to shake up our program and recruiting. We are not going to get Iowans like Brunner and Horner on a regular basis, and right now, we're not effectively recruiting anywhere else. Time to get a new coaching staff and a new attitude in our program. For tips, call Kirk Ferentz.

4) Time to start laying blame where it belongs. Lack of preparation and mentality is on the coach. Lack of poise and odd absence of fundamentals in crunch time is on the players.

Thanks to our seniors. Horner and Brunner had great careers at Iowa, and I believe they will be remembered for their entire body of work, not just today's game. But no excuses: they were beaten by an inferior team because they couldn't hold a 17-point lead for 8 minutes.

That's a tough thought to ponder on the way back to Iowa City, and for the rest of the off-season. See you guys next year.


Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Be proud of your Irish heritage, I know I am.

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