Hey there, friends. Look who's here to try to turn our frownyfaces upside down -- it's Cap'n Fran and the Iowa hoopsters! A mere two days after kicking off the season with a resounding 96-53 win* over a frankly terrible Chicago State team, the Iowa basketball team is back in action, this time against North Carolina A&T. The Fightin' Aggies aren't quite as bad as Chicago State... but they're still pretty bad. They lost 97-65 to Creighton on Friday. KenPom has them ranked 300th -- up from Chicago State's 345th place ranking.
* Fun fact: Iowa's 1-0 record marks the first time they've been over .500 since December 21, 2010 when they were 7-5 after beating Louisiana Tech. It was also the first time in three years Iowa managed to win a season opener. These are the sort of things we used to take for granted and that we'll hopefully be able to take for granted again very soon, but in the meantime: huzzah for progress.
More importantly, tonight is also ANDREW BROMMER BOBBLEHEAD NIGHT and at the very least I hope one of you kind souls that procures one will post a few pictures of it. For those of us who cannot be in CHA to admire the in-person BROMMICIDE (Brommer is expected to suit up tonight), your audio-only option remains the Hawkeye Radio Network and your legal audio plus video option remains ($$$) video.btn.com (orHawkeye All Access at hawkeyesports.com). I am told that there may be illegal online streams of the game out there as well, I must remind you that legally we cannot permit you to link to such streams. Any such links will be deleted, post haste.
Tonight is quite a busy activity for televised sports (and sports-like activity), since MNF brings us Packers-Vikings, and RAW brings us three hours of pro wrasslin' (NOTE to nostalgiaheads: The Rock and Mick Foley are scheduled to appear). So this thread will also serve as your all-purpose Hamsterdam thread, especially once the Iowa game is done. Game starts at 7pm CT. The usual rules of open threading apply: no illegal online streams, no porn, no religion, no slurs, no politics, and no general douchebaggery.