It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It is BHGP's regular news roundup. Send all tips to any of the email addresses at the bottom of the page. Also, if you're the guy who keeps spamming my inbox with emails in Arabic: I hate you.
A Face For Every Occasion. Courtesy of blog-buddy PlannedSickDays (whose blog you should really be reading if you want to stay on top of Iowa-related news on the interwebs), The Changing Faces of Fran:
Should I stay or should I go? It's been as regular around this time of year as MARCHIFORNICATION and first-round exits in the Big Ten Tournament to Michigan; we speak, of course, of TRANSFERMANIA, which was been running wild with the hoopyball program for the last three years. As we pointed out the other day, Iowa's lost a leading scorer (and/or rebounder) each of the past three offseasons. So is Fran expecting more of the same this year? Not really...
"Sometimes that conversation goes exactly like I thought and sometimes it goes into a completely different direction," he said. "But that’s all part of it. I mean, there is not a conversation that I’m going to have at the end of the year that I haven’t already had, I can tell you that. I’ve seen it all."
McCaffery isn’t expecting any problems.
... but kids be crazy, too:
"I mean, I can remember vividly a young man coming in and saying he’d like to play more. I said, ‘What position do you play?’ He said, ‘I’m a 2.’ I said we have the best 2 guard in the league. He scored 2,000 points. He’s like, ‘Well, why don’t you move him to the point and let me play at the 2?’ You know, nothing surprises me. Believe me."
And it doesn't sound like those end-of-season chats will have to wait for any CBI games to be played; Carver's lack of availability due to the ongoing renovations will prevent Iowa from hosting a home game, which pretty much kills the CBI's interest in having Iowa. Which is fine: after we SHOCK THE WORLD, YO by winning four games in four days to earn the Big Ten's auto-bid, we'll have bigger fish to fry than the CBI anyway. This is totally happening.*
* No it's not.
Caring is creepy is feeling the Latino heat. One of the leading subplot of Iowa's stirring upset win over Purdue on Saturday was the fact that much-hyped PG recruit Cezar Guerrero was in attendance. You may remember all the signs and chants and whatnot. So what did the man of the hour think of his trip?
"I liked it a lot," Guerrero said. "I saw the atmosphere, how people really were and that they were in love with basketball. It was a great thing. I loved it to be honest with you.
Granted, he couldn't have picked a better game to attend -- a close, exciting win over a top-10 team in front of a large, hot crowd. Frankly, there hasn't been a game like that in Carver in quite a few years. Landing him would be a nice coup for Fran, both in terms of landing a top prospect and landing a guy at a position of major need. Meanwhile, Guerrero wasn't the only recruit in attendance on Saturday -- 25-year old (!) combo guard Anthony Hubbard was also taking in the scene. The recruitment of Hubbard has drawn a few raised eyebrows on account of the fact that he spent almost four years in the clink (CBS and SI just had a coronary after reading that sentence), but it seems like Fran and the university have given him a pretty thorough vetting.
HALF-COURT HEAVEZ
* The Big Ten handed out all-conference honors on Monday night; the fact that we haven't mentioned anything about it until now should tell you how it went for Iowa guys. Melsahn Basabe and Bryce Cartwright received honorable mention honors (Basabe was also named to the All-Freshmen team, which was totally expected -- and totally deserved) and Jarryd Cole won Iowa's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Kudos to all.
* Speaking of the end of the season... FOTP storminspank took a look at the conference-only stats for various Iowa players -- and they came out looking a little better than you'd expect. The fact Cole ranked in the top ten in so many categories was particularly eye-opening.
* According to one mathemagician's formulas, Ricky Stanzi grades out as not just the best QB prospect in this draft, but a potential superstar QB-in-the-making. Personally, I became a blogger because I was told there would be no math (just dick jokes and bad photoshops), so I'm not exactly in a position to critique his numbers, but I'll be shocked if Stanzi turns into a superstar QB. Pleasantly shocked, mind you, but still kinda shocked all the same.
* Do you like stuff that's free and awesome? Then you should check out the new Childish Gambino EP, which dropped on Tuesday. Coupled with the previously released Culdesac, Donald Glover has now released almost two hours worth of killer tunes -- all for free.
* And Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery call Landon Donovan's game-winning goal against Algeria from last year's World Cup; it's every bit as mind-blowingly fantastic as you'd expect.