LUNCH LINKS HAS GROWING PAINS

What a week it’s been over in Iowa land. The Hawkeyes capped off a successful disappointing acceptable season with a HUGE win over Nebraska on Black Friday and will likely go to an above-average bowl in a desirable destination for the first time since last year.

Also, in case you haven’t heard, Iowa had a few defensive players get the nod for all-conference honors. Josey Jewell—the only linebacker in the conference who’s a finalist for the Butkus award—made the second-team. Makes u think.

Iowa also got snubbed in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, while Tennessee, coming off a good loss against Vanderbilt, is still in. IOWA VS. EVERYONE.

Iowa basketball dropped its third straight game against Notre Dame last night. If you watched, you saw there were flashes of brilliance from Iowa, but the youth of this team is sometimes too much to overcome. Peter Jok, who shot season-worst 4-20 and 2-11 from three, took blame for the loss, according to the Gazette’s Jeremiah Davis.

With Tyler Cook out for three weeks or so, Fran McCaffery had to shake up the starting lineup against the Irish. Mark Emmert explains those shakeups, and how it worked out.

Chad Leistikow details five key numbers to explain Iowa’s football season. Lots of good nuggets in there.

Jarrod Uthoff had 16 points off the bench in the D-League last night. Look at those rosters!

Mike Hlas connects the tragic plane crash carrying professional soccer players in Brazil to Cedar Rapids.

More Words

Is it possible to win without cheating? Thirty college football coaches say no, probably not. Excellent piece here from Bleacher Report. Also includes anecdotes from Bret Bielema, who kicked 20 players off the team in his first 18 months in Fayetteville:

Bielema was determined to start cleaning it up right away. As former Iowa coach Hayden Fry once told him, "You recruit your own problems."

"Nothing sums up what this profession is all about more than that little nugget," Bielema says. "There is nothing more important."

Five years after the scandal, Jim Tressel is still a Buckeye.

Even if Penn State beats Wisconsin this weekend, Ohio State will still make the playoff writes Ben Axelrod.

Not Sportz

The quintessential Fidel Castro obituary from the Miami Herald.

In the least surprising news ever, Hunter S. Thompson grew his own weed. In other news, his wife preserved that strain, and it could soon be hitting shelves in states where medicinal pot is legal. The name, of course, won’t surprise you.

Oh, three of the largest corporations in the world utilize child labor? Who woulda guessed?

If any of you are Redditors, here’s an interesting piece on how the site is tearing itself apart.

A 50 year-old Iowa woman is in search of her birth mother.

IMPORTANT:

Be warm, friends.