You can't be serious with this. We won (okay, maybe not *officially*) the Big Ten regular season and BTT last year. We had seniors in Frazier and Williams, juniors in Ayo, Giorgi B and Grandison, and a sophomore Kofi. We were not some inexperienced team. We were tenuous last year as a #1 seed, but Iowa is not as a #5 seed? I'm sorry, this is an absolutely ridiculous post.
First off, we had basically zero tournament experience.
Second, if anyone has listened to BU's last two press conferences, he goes pretty heavily into why winning the BTT was such a drain. It wasn't a physical thing. Our guys we're rested enough to have succeeded. It was a mental issue.
Because of covid protocols, the team wasn't able to celebrate after they cut down the nets. Immediately afterward, they had to get tested. From there, rather than going back to campus and getting to celebrate with the community, they went to their hotel rooms. BU said other than a knock on their door to get Chick-fil-a sandwiches, they had zero interaction with anyone. They weren't even allowed to go to each other's rooms. Initially, the idea of staying in Indy seemed like a smart move, but BU said once they experienced it in practice, it was mentally exhausting to be in the bubble for the extra week, cut off from each other.
Add this to the lose-and-go-home nature of the tournament, an experience we missed out on in 2020, and it all starts to become clear why we laid an egg against Loyola.
Iowa is in a different position. They have tournament experience. They don't have the extremely strict covid protocols to deal with. While yes, they are a 5 seed, Iowa is in a better position to succeed than we were last year. Though, personally, I hope they crash and burn in the first round.