Entranced by Iowa Hawkeyes

Gabbie Marshall

Is there a positive distraction on this Easter weekend of 2024? Something that would blot out the endless stream of news/commentary on the Donald Trump legal matters? But Trump has thrust himself into our religious matters as well. Can we get some relief? 

Our best hope for relief may come from college women's basketball. I don't think anyone associated with Iowa women's basketball has made a foray into politics with comments. Iowa women's basketball? Who could have foreseen that this would become such a magnet for national attention? Only in America? Where freedom always encourages the best to rise to the surface? 

I wonder how the Iowa men's team feels about this. I couldn't tell you how the Hawkeye men did this season. I looked up how the U of Minnesota women did but I only did that because of my interest in the Iowa women. 

I was able to find livestream of the Iowa women's game yesterday (Saturday). Yes, the Saturday of Easter weekend, when the Hawkeyes took to the court to play Colorado. Could they give us their particular magic again? Such a sensitive thing, to try to make those long 3-pointers. Imagine being under pressure to make such shots. And could the Iowa women sustain their incredible talents while being in focus for such growing nationwide attention? 

Could they keep their cool, their humility and just take care of business again? Their uniforms look so terrific with just the four letters on the front: "Iowa." And how dramatic, when one considers that this is a pretty obscure state in our union. We have heard of Iowa natives breaking into the big-time before. But not actual Iowa teams so much. Alas, no big league teams in the corn state, at all. 

Culturally it is an extension of our Minnesota, wouldn't you say? I guess it does not have the economic "juice" to support big-time teams. U of Iowa being in the Big 10 isn't bad of course. They have had some football teams come through pretty well. But starting last year, my what an emergence by an unlikely athletic program: women's basketball. 

Surely you'd concede that the women have historically been second-fiddle to the men. To say otherwise would have been an attempt to just be polite. I have done that myself, as someone who was skeptical way back when the 3-point line was created, about whether girls and women could even make the shot. I am being honest by confessing. 

My eyes were opened as I saw our UMM women begin to make those shots. And then of course the high school girls showed they were up to the task too. 

I was a junior in high school when interscholastic girls basketball got started. How amazing to think back to when such things were not offered to girls. Just think of the girls who would have had potential for major impact: How did they develop instead? 

Look at the sheer fame of the Iowa women's players now. Doesn't it almost make you want to cry with joy? And so Caitlin Clark leads the way of course. We might expect one primary catalyst for this and it's Caitlin. But now I'm getting familiar with other members of the roster. I have become rather a Kate Martin fan. 

Kate Martin

There is no sense of "novelty" left in girls/women's sports. Those days are over. The Iowa women carry themselves in press conferences and interviews as well as any men. So mature and steady. And the challenge grows for them as their fame gets magnified. I'm sure there is a circle of people around them advising them on dealing with fame. The players I'm sure have gotten the sound advice on how so many interests, some unscrupulous, are going to descend on them. 

The players are holding up 100 percent up to now. They need to be advised that no matter what doors of opportunity are going to open up for them, "it doesn't get any better than this." 

We hope no internal jealousies start developing. Jealousy of Caitlin Clark? One might think there's potential for that, the potential for a teammate like Gabby Marshall to maybe think "I can make 3's just as good as Caitlin." 

Well, Gabbie was quite proficient Saturday when the Hawkeyes got past Colorado 89-68 in the Sweet 16. The team has to know that Clark has been the undisputed "money player" when a last-second success is needed. So please Hawkeyes, continue to be the cohesive unit that you've been. The party will end soon. Maybe it will be as national champion but I think that will be a tough mountain to climb. They've done enough up until bow. If only we could put it in a bottle. 

But the end will arrive and then we'll have video highlights. 

Iowa women's basketball? Who would have thunk it? This team absolutely, totally obliterated our U of Minnesota Gophers this past season. Iowa over Minnesota? Well of course it can happen. We are the state of the Minnesota Twins. Iowa? Well, their Hawkeyes are tops on the marquee now. 

And on Easter weekend of 2024, as Donald Trump hawks his Bible and compares himself to Jesus, it appears the Hawkeyes are "America's team." Only in America? I guess so. 

God bless and I am invoking the God of Abraham, not the God of Donald Trump. 

 

Hmmm. . .

I had an interesting thought last night: look for a senior on the Iowa roster, someone set to complete her studies soon, and get that person to come to Morris to coach our MACA girls basketball team! The Tigers failed to win a game in the post-season tournament. I thought we had more talent than that. 

That kind of comment has gotten me in trouble through the years. We in Morris are not supposed to make judgments on wins and losses. But I guess I do. Seems to me the whole nature of sports is to acknowledge the winners. 

The Iowa women will play LSU next on Monday. The end could well come. There were times in the Hawkeyes' first three games when they looked beatable. But they have summoned what it takes. 

Hail to the 2023-24 Iowa women's basketball team, the "Hawkeyes." They've helped me forget to a certain extent anyway the nightmare of the Trump continued popularity, his potential still to become an autocratic leader. I won't use the word "dictator" because some people might think I'm being drastic. 

I wonder if there are any suckers in our Stevens County for buying the "Trump Bible." Could well be.

 

Faith Lutheran Church, Morris

Addendum: Just got home from Easter morning doings, attending the wonderful 7 a.m. service at Faith Lutheran, having breakfast there and later going to the DeToy's buffet. 

I heard some talk there was a buffet somewhere this morning that cost $55. Very discouraging to hear that. Such prices, I fear, might stoke some class divisions or consciousness locally. Up to now we've been pretty passive with this. 

We always acknowledge of course that there are haves and have-nots. A given part of life in America, n'est-ce pas? 

I don't exactly have holes in my shoes but I wouldn't pay $55 for a buffet. Many people would consider it simply out of their reach. We read about food inflation being so bad. Hearing about a local $55 buffet ought to make worse our fears about what might be coming. 

I am so happy for Faith Lutheran Church now. Their minister Emmy is a real gem, hope she can stay here a long time. First Lutheran is totally adrift by comparison. That hits me hard: my parents began taking me to services at First Lutheran in 1960. So now I'm at the church "on the other side of the tracks." Well, that would seem to mean nothing.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com