LUNCH LINKS HITS FOR THE CYCLE

Iowa baseball is on a little bit of a tear here, winning five of its last six, most recently routing Coe last night, 16-1. Iowa was originally slated to take on Bradley, but poor weather forced Iowa to schedule a last-minute game against D-III Coe.

Iowa’s starters only lasted a couple innings, as the Hawkeyes scored 8 runs in the first frame alone against the outmatched Kohawks, while Iowa’s pitchers gave up 9 hits combined, allowing Coe to draw blood just once.

The superlative on the night came from sophomore Lorenzo Elion, who hit for the cycle against Coe just a few days after making it on Sports Center’s top plays.

Iowa travels to Lincoln tomorrow to take on Nebraska in a doubleheader Friday, with the third game taking place on Saturday or perhaps Sunday if the weather doesn’t permit. The Huskers are 15-16 on the year and 2-6 in the conference. We’ll have a full preview for you tomorrow.

It’s the dead of the offseason, we’re running out of stuff to write outside of baseball, but thankfully the 14-win Iowa basketball team is the gift that just keeps on giving this spring.

Yesterday we told you that Isaiah Moss intends to return to Iowa City after going through his NBA draft evaluation, which is exactly what everyone expected. What has been a bit more pressing, however, is the status of Tyler Cook.

The basketball team released a statement yesterday on Cook, where the sophomore forward said the rumors of him having one foot in the NBA door are untrue, and that he’s committed to honoring his ... commitment to the Hawkeyes.

“When I committed here, I made a commitment and I am sticking by that commitment,” Cook said.

Cook went on to say he’s just taking the draft evaluations as a learning process to hopefully take back to the Hawkeyes next year.

Cordell Pemsl, meanwhile, had to clarify comments he made (or didn’t make) during Iowa basketball’s awards banquet on Tuesday. He declined a media interview, leading many to believe his time in the Black & Gold is over.

A release from the basketball program on the situation contains a quote from Pemsl where he says he is 100 percent committed to Iowa, and even talks about his plans for next year as a junior on the Hawkeyes.

“I think I am a likeable teammate who is looked up to by both younger guys and upperclassmen,” Pemsl said. “I try to bring more to the game than just basketball. I try to impact our team in a variety of ways. I believe I can be a guy who can lead this team.”

Calling it right now: Iowa media won’t be invited to anymore basketball banquets.

On some lighter news in regards to the Iowa hoopsters, Connor McCaffery, the son of coach Fran McCaffery, earned a scholarship to the team.

We learned a couple weeks ago that Connor Mac successfully appealed for a medical hardship waiver from the Big Ten, thus allowing him to spend four additional years in Iowa City as a student-athlete.

This leaves one open scholarship on the Iowa roster. Fran told Mark Emmert he intends to use the other scholly on a 2019 recruit — effectively shutting the door on an opportunity for a grad transfer to come in this offseason. If that shakes out, Iowa will have three more scholarships to hand out in 2019, in addition to the one that’s already being used on his other son, Pat.

The other sports

• Iowa wrestling’s Spencer Lee was recognized at the Iowa legislature in Des Moines yesterday.

• Josey Jewell was named to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society yesterday. The NFFHHS recognizes senior football players who are starters or significant reserves, and carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) throughout their college career. A full list of players named can be found here.
• Matt Gatens has been named the director of basketball operations at Drake University. Gatens spent last season as a GA at Auburn. Gatens is one of the first hires for new Drake basketball coach Darian DeVries, who’s spent the last 17 years as an assistant coach at Creighton.
• It’s do or die time for Aaron Mends. I really, really want this kid to succeed.
• The reason Iowa has its spring game on a Friday night for the second straight year.
• It’s a good time to buy a Nate Stanley jersey, Marc Morehouse writes.
• Iowa baseball’s Tyler Cropley demands your respect.
• A must-read on Colton Barker, a 10 year-old Iowa fan who lost his right eye to cancer at age 2. His prosthetic eye features the Tiger Hawk logo.

Not Iowa

• Former Purdue big man Isaac Haas could be in some legal trouble for not disclosing an STD to a sexual partner. Remember, students (and everyone else): be careful when you’re Boilermaking love. (JPinIC is responsible for this bad pun.)
• Mike Leach is a national treasure:

• You should donate to the Charity Bowl, not just because it’s a good cause and our overlords want you to, but also because there’s a special call-out to Iowa’s dominance over Ohio State in the solicitation this year.

Go forth, and go Hawks.