The folks over at Hoopraker bring us an article called An Incubator in Iowa this morning, and it's kind of good:
Driving solo down a Midwest county highway can be soothing, free from any sense of immediate obligation and shackled only by the depth of your music collection. In Iowa City this winter, Todd Lickliter’s Iowa Hawkeyes (10-11, 3-5) have persevered in similar seclusion with a deaf ear to the irrelevant chatter of the myopic ruling class of bracketocrats.
Freed from the glare of gaffers from Big Ten headquarters who obsess over Tubby Smith’s every move, heading into tonight’s game at Purdue (15-5), Lickliter’s solitary teaching efforts should earn him another coach of the year plaque.
COACH OF THE YEAR! EAT IT, PAINTER!
In all seriousness, it's a nice read, and certainly more professional than, uh, we ever do around here. They're even more optimistic than we are (no more 40-point nights? um, right), and they rather heavily underestimate Tony Freeman's impact on the team's resurgence (more on him later this week), but we're not the ones writing the story for them. And of the myriad metaphors for the Hawkeyes season that we've heard/invented, a losing season as an "incubator" might be the tops ever.
Laugh now; they'll be ballin out of control by next fall.