A few observations before the Iowa game
1. Well the first observation is that I am going to a birthday party today at game time. My five-year old granddaughter made her first birthday cake for my younger son and his wife (they were born a day apart), so I will be attending that event -- I know Coach Groce will understand about family ties.
2. I don't know who will win today because I don't know which Illini team will show up. Iowa has a lot of talent, but college basketball is about match-ups, and we may match up against them better than our records would suggest -- I am hoping for Purdue, Part Deux.
3. There is often talk about turning corners in a college basketball season, but win or lose today we may have turned a corner at Rutgers. It would have been easy to give up and lose that game at several key moments, but Malcolm and company fought on and won. That may have been the proverbial corner.
4. It is a simple game. If we make our outside shots, I expect us to be competitive. I do hope Finke is back to 100% (no idea if that is the case) because I believe he could help in this game. Mav has improved, but I doubt he can hold off the Iowa front line by himself.
5. This will probably not be DJ Williams' coming out party, but someday he will have one. Today would be a good day to have it though.
6. I am trying to find it within myself to forgive Iowa for being the lowdown dirty lying scum that they are. That is still a work in progress.
7. Today would be a good time to call for a moratorium on the whole Groce debate. He will be the coach until the end of the season, and there will be plenty of time to rant after that. For now, it would be nice if we could just focus on supporting the players.
8. I predict that Malcolm will lead the team in multiple ways again today. If I am wrong about that, it will probably be either a very good thing or a very bad thing!
9. Beat Iowa. Beat 'em bad!