Hawk Talk Daily: Random Thoughts

Feb. 20, 2012

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• Iowa and the Big Ten Network
• Big Ten Network: Free Hawkeye Video
• 24 Hawkeyes to Watch

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Random thoughts from the Heartland…

Splish, splash, they were taking a bath…all weekend long at the UI’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. The swimming and diving was outstanding – just like our prized new facility. You can read about it HERE. You can watch some free video HERE.

We chuckled in the office on Friday afternoon how our visitors from the conference would leave with a wonderfully incorrect appreciation for the weather here in Iowa City. Yep. It was the third week of February and there was nary a cloud in the sky or a hint of a more real Iowa winter piled in the corners of campus parking lots. Four straight days in the 40s was our gift to our visitors. So where did all of our snow go? Maybe HERE.

The ESPNU announcers hit the nail on the squarely on the head Thursday night during Iowa’s men’s basketball game at Penn State when they compared the point guard position in hoops to the quarterback position in football. It’s pretty hard to win without your starter at that position and doubly so when you’re a program like Fran’s that’s still getting its feet underneath itself. Fran also spoke the obvious afterward when he suggested you also can’t dig yourself that big of a whole in any game much less one against a Big Ten opponent in their building. That’s tough to overcome. If you missed the game, check out the highlights HERE.

They erected the first pieces of steel this week at the construction site that is the new indoor practice facility for the Iowa football program. The word that came to my mind when watching from afar was “impressive.” It was impressive to watch those skilled craftsmen and impressive to gaze at the size of what will eventually be a building large enough to drop a full-size football field and then some inside. The indoor practice facility is the first of a two-phase project that is a down payment on a prosperous future for the Iowa football program. The second phase is the Iowa Football Operations Center. You can read about that HERE.

Our good friend Zach Johnson is at it again, hanging around near the top of another PGA Tour event leaderboard. To see the details, click HERE.And, here’s hoping today is a good one for the former Cedar Rapidian and partner of Transamerica and its parent company, AEGON USA.

250,000. That’s a lot of anything and that’s about the number of video downloads off of Hawkeye All-Access, the multi-media portal of hawkeyesports.com during calendar year 2011. It doesn’t include what the UI offers on its Facebook pages or on YouTube. That’s a pretty good number – a number that, based on the pace of downloads during the first seven weeks of 2012, will be surpassed this year – and it speaks to the appetite fans of the Hawkeyes have for news and information about the Hawkeyes and the good work being done by the video production staff on the UI Athletics Department. You can check out the offerings HERE.

If one could injure their wrist from prolonged use of the television remote, Thursday night was a pretty good test. Back and forth…ESPNU to BTN. BTN back to ESPNU. ESPNU back to BTN. Fran and his squad’s comeback. Lisa and her team’s comeback. BTN back to ESPNU. ESPNU to BTN. Good stuff, this technology stuff.

So how about that win by Bluder’s Bunch in Ann Arbor Thursday night. Our head coach will tell you there’s still work to be done on the NCAA Tournament resume, but I have to believe the ink is dry on the invitation particularly if Lisa and her staff and squad take care of business with what’s left on the regular season schedule and get at least one victory in Indy. Kind of amazing…six straight wins with one of the nation’s best player on the sidelines. Speaks to two things: A talented and determined team inspired by and under the direction of an extremely solid coaching staff.

Two more down, one to go. Kirk added LeVar Woods and his son, Brian, to the staff yesterday. Two great choices for reasons The Gazette’s Mike Hlas summarized very nicely HERE. You can read more HERE.

Fran’s squad has Indiana on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena today at 5. If you’re in the neighborhood, buy a ticket and check it out. I’m betting this one is a whole lot closer than the game in Bloomington.

Speaking of young talent — LeVar and Brian — I’m fortunate to be surrounded by smart, talented, and driven young people every day. I’ve also been introduced to another collection of smart, talented, and driven young people by my daughter, who, for the last three years, as participated in her high school’s show choir program. Allow me to suggest that there’s absolutely no shortage of smart, talented, and driven young people in our country. Some shoot a basketball or swim or hit a tennis ball in their spare time. Others have other talents that entertain us. All are pretty remarkable.

Go Hawks!