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It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It: Wisconsin Squashes Iowa's Big Ten Title Hopes

Big life. Big stage. Big loss.

By PlannedSickDays
Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sport

IOWA MEN'S BASKETBALL HASN'T WON A CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP SINCE 1979. That streak will likely continue. The Hawks had a chance at the title this year but home losses to Michigan State, Ohio State and Saturday's loss to Wisconsin will keep them from that elusive title. It wasn't for the lack of atmosphere in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

FRAN MCCAFFERY TALKED ABOUT THE LOSS. (Source)

IF YOU WANT TO GET RECAP-Y. Josh Oglesby said the team "didn't play well." He added, "that's sad because the atmosphere was great. The fans were into it." Wisconsin was into it too. It seemed the Badgers couldn't miss in the first half. Iowa kept pace and had a chance to take the lead with less than a minute to play. After a Roy Devyn Marble miss, Iowa fouled and was down three after two Wisconsin made free throws.

The following possession, senior Zach McCabe came off a double-screen and couldn't hit the game tying three pointer with 17 seconds to go. McCabe said of the final play, "It just slipped. I was going up and it slipped off my hand. It was probably as perfect as we could run."

Wisconsin leaves Iowa City with the win and replaces Iowa in third in the Big Ten standings. The Hawkeyes now have to battle to retain the fourth spot in the standings to hold on to a first round bye in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. Iowa holds a slight win percentage lead over Ohio State for fourth (.615% vs .600%).

SO, WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THE AFTERMATH. There was an Iowa fan meltdown following the tough loss. A small number of Iowa fans took to their Twitter accounts to direct their frustration at Zach McCabe. This isn't a matter of a player searching for his name but rather messages sent directly to his account that can appear in the form of text messages on your phone depending on your personal settings. McCabe responded in frustration with a tweet that has since been deleted. In fact, McCabe locked his Twitter account that then deleted it all together.

Mccabe_medium

I'll exclude the few tweets that were directed at him. Fuck those people. I mean, really.

Nut-jobs aren't exclusive to Iowa sports. They are everywhere and have and want to share their opinion on every topic. Perhaps, Kirk Ferentz is really a genius that had the foresight years ago to ban football players from Twitter. Not out of fear of what they'll say but what weirdos that exposes them too and how they react when weirdos fire away. If you need proof, check out the messages sent to Brian Ferentz's Twitter account. Especially, after a loss.

Maybe it's becoming a distraction for Fran McCaffery's team. We've seen Adam Woodbury react to fan criticism by shushing his home crowd. And now we've seen a player take to his Twitter account to tell fans to go places and do things which now he surely regrets. It's unfortunate that these so-called fans exist but they do and we can't change that. What McCaffery can change is the accessibility those weirdos get in the form of social media.

HAWKEYE LADIES WIN. Lisa Bluder's team got their 21st win on the season at Michigan Saturday. The game was back and forth as Iowa was down 13 at one point and also had a 16 point lead. Michigan held a four point lead with just under seven minutes to go but Iowa ultimately prevailed 74-70. We have highlights:

BASEBALL IS HOT.

WRESTLING. Hawks win a share of the Big Ten title.

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