It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It Is On The Rubber Chicken Circuit

Coming, Going, Staying Put?  Ferentz has been making the rounds on the I-Club circuit, hitting up Polk County last night.  As you might expect, he was asked about some of the in-limbo players, like Willie Lowe and Adam Robinson.  What'd he have to say?  He expected Lowe to make a decision in the next few weeks:

Ferentz said the door is still open for a return.

"I think he needs to figure out what he wants to do and what his next move is," Ferentz said. "We’re going to support him. I told him from day 1, we want him to stay here and graduate from Iowa. It’s up to him, entirely up to him."

And A-Rob?

"My No. 1 focus for him is to do well academically this semester and then we’ll see where it takes him," Ferentz said. "Clearly, he’d have to have some idea on what he wants to do, I would think in the next couple weeks."

It sounds as though the door is more open for Lowe than for A-Rob, but I'm not sure I would hold my breath on seeing either guy suit up next year. 

In other absence-related news, Ferentz also updated the injury status of a number of players who missed some (or all) of spring practice after the Spring Something Or Other last weekend.  Marvin McNutt (thumb and shoulder), Tanner Miller (shoulder), Thomas Nardo (lower right leg), Steve Bigach (upper body), Jim Poggi (shoulder), Shane DiBona (shoulder), and Austin Vier (back) all missed time this spring, but according to Ferentz all are expected to be available by summer.  The big question mark remains Brad Rogers, who still hasn't been fully cleared to return to practice; Ferentz seemed optimistic that his mysterious health situation was improving, but so far they remain in "wait and see" mode.

Old faces in new places.  Despite rumors that Cully Payne would be following new coach Mark Gottfried to North Carolina State (Payne committed to Alabama when Gottfried was the coach there), Cully ultimately wound up at a new school much closer to home: Loyola University in Chicago.  Best of luck to him there.  Meanwhile, it is with heavy hearts that we report that Brennan Cougill, the Cougillsaurus, the Dessert Fox himself, will not be rejoining the Iowa hoopyball team after spending a year in exile at Kirkwood.  Instead, Cougs will be taking his talents to UW-Green Bay, where he will attempt to rise from the ashes like a... some sort of flaming bird, maybe?  Mmm, barbecued chicken.  /drools And just what wound up costing Cougs his eligbility at Iowa?  Would you believe it was those damned fancypants artistes?

Last summer, on the day he was ruled ineligible, Cougill told reporters that he needed to get an A in a three-week art class to maintain his eligibility. He said he got a B instead.

We really don't know what to say about that.  In any event, good luck to Cougs, too: may he tear the Horizon League apart like a delicious creampuff.

Strikeout.  Iowa baseball's season to forget continued with another lost series last weekend, dropping two of three to Indiana.  The good news is that the pitching was pretty solid: Iowa gave up just nine runs total over the three games.  The bad news is the offense was MIA: they scored just three runs themselves over those same three games.  Unless you plan on winning every game 1-0 (not easy!), that's just not enough run support.  Iowa squandered a solid pitching performance by Jared Hippen (CG, 2R, 9H) in a 2-1 loss on Saturday, took advantage (barely) of a solid pitching effort by Matt Dermody (CG, 1R, 8H) in a 2-1 win on Sunday, and thenran out of gas in a 6-0 loss to Indiana in the nightcap on Sunday. 

The loss dropped Iowa to 13-20 overall, 3-6 in the league.  They're currently tied with Minnesota for last place in the Big Ten.  Tonight brings a one-off game with Western Illinois in Davenport; Iowa took two of three from them earlier this season.  The good news for Iowa is that six of their next seven games are against Minnesota and Michigan, two of other teams languishing near the bottom of the league.  If Iowa baseball is going to make a move this season, now's the time to do it.

FIELDER'S CHOICEZ

* Ferentz awarded Chris Doyle the inaugural assistant coach of the year award at the aforementioned Polk County I-Club shindig; it seems like it would be easier to just send Gregg Doyel and Dennis Dodd emails that say "fuck you," but whatever.  Meanwhile, Doyle spoke about Rhabdogate, although only in the blandest and coachspeak-iest terms possible.  (Like you expected anything different.)

* Dochterman thinks Miami could be a likely opponent for Iowa in next year's Big 10-ACC Challenge in hoops; sounds fine by us.

* Speaking of injured Hawkeyes (or former ones, anyway), Ed Podolak's rehab continues to go well.  I imagine he'll be back in the booth calling games this fall, which is certainly good news.

* Vince India remains awesome and the Iowa golf team is pretty good, too.

* Courtesy EDSBS, the hype video for NCAA '12.  Maybe they fixed the swarm this time. (LOL NO WAY)