51
Random Thoughts
T
he month of March has had more than its share
of black-and-gold "Madness" moments, and
at the top of my list is the effort of senior Tony
Ramos in the championship match at 133 pounds on
March 22 of this year's national championship. It was
fitting that Ramos' last opportunity to add his name to
that certain location on a certain wall inside the Dan
Gable Wrestling Room inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena
required the No. 3 seed to put in a little more time.
Based on the smile on his face and that upliing post-
victory celebration with his family in the stands, the
overtime was worth it.
No. 2 on that list? For me it was the performance by
the freshman-who-no-longer-is-a-freshman-and-
hasn't-been-one-for-quite-some-time, Ally Disterho,
in the final game of the brilliant season for Bluder's
Bunch. e Iowa City native scored a team-high 15
points in Iowa's loss to Louisville, 10 in the opening
20 minutes when the No. 3 Cardinals were doggedly
determined to run away and hide from the good
gals in black and gold. Disterho is one of the many
reasons fans of the Hawkeyes have to be excited
about what 2014-15 could be for Lisa's program.
e Hawkeyes lose just one (very talented and very
inspirational) player — eairra Taylor — off a team
that won 27 games and will welcome two newcomers
who were named the player of the year in their
respective state. You can read the good news about
Iowa's recruits HERE.
What can I write that has not already written about
Hawkeye seniors Roy Devyn Marble, Zach McCabe,
and Melsahn Basabe? Not much more, other than
a simple "ank you" for being big pieces of Fran
McCaffery's puzzle that successfully returned the men's
By RICK KLATT
basketball program at the UI back to a position of
national relevance. Each, four-plus years ago, decided
to be difference-makers, and then went about the
business of being difference-makers.
For the record, my NCAA Tournament bracket
features an all-Big Ten championship game. When that
is accomplished later this week, that should put to rest
all the chatter about which conference truly was the
best in the country in 2013-14.
Isn't this a wonderful world? A year ago, many across
this great land of ours didn't think the Iowa football
team was capable of tying its shoes, much less winning
Big Ten Conference football games. Fast forward to
today, and many across this great land have us squarely
in the race for a trip to Indianapolis and the 2014 Big
Ten Conference Football Championship. en and
now, our head coach plows forward as he always does,
squarely in the middle of the two extremes, working
the plan. You can read every word of what Kirk shared
with the media on the first day of spring practice
HERE.
We shared this earlier in the month and it's worth
repeating: Iowa was one of only seven institutions
across the country to have a football team participate
in a January bowl game, and have both their men's
and women's basketball teams receive invitations
to their respective NCAA Tournament. Add to that
the fact that Iowa sent 10 wrestlers to the national
championship for the first time since 2010 and, if
you're a fan of the Hawkeyes, you have good reason to
smile.
Go Hawks!
