Going Bowling, Da Bulls, Plays Of The Year

(Zach Borg)

I'll be taking a couple of days off before heading out to Tempe for the Insight Bowl on Thursday.  I was looking forward to wearing shorts in the desert, but turns out I could wear them now since it's in the 50's in Iowa.

Prior to Marcus Coker's suspension I thought Iowa would win this game.  With all the players OU is missing plus the disappointment of this season I thought Iowa would come in more focused and prepared to win.  Without Coker I just don't think they have the weapons, though I do think Jordan Canzeri might surprise us.

Kirk Ferentz still won't let us know what Coker did.  Unless the Hawkeyes win I doubt we'll find out this week.  I'm frankly wondering if we ever will find out what led to this.  Coker's not exactly media friendly, though in my opinion some of that comes from the fact he took a lot of heat for his early season fumbles.  Assuming Coker returns for 2012 I don't think he'll say much about whatever happened.

The Cyclones flew into New York and held their first practice at Hofstra University today.  I really think Rutgers could play perfectly into ISU's hands.  After two months of playing the dynamic and difficult offenses of the Big 12 the Cyclones will see a Rutgers team that's more akin to Iowa or UCONN.  The Scarlet Knights are also 115th in the nation in rushing offense, so if the Clone defense could make them one-dimensional.

Derrick Rose's bid for back-to-back MVP's got off to a good start.  Rose hit the game winning bucket, and Luol Deng came up big in the final minutes, as Chicago rallied from down 11 with four minutes left to win 88-87 in Laker land.  Great win for Chicago, bad loss for the Lakers.  The Clippers (yes, really) are on the rise, Kobe and Co. are old and really, Mike Brown is the head coach?  Woof.

Now that the NBA is back, it will be tough to care about it much until we get close to playoff time.  But promos like these almost make me want to.....

We rolled out the 2011 Plays Of The Year for Christmas Day here at WHO.  Lots of great stuff to choose from, and I apologize if your favorite moment didn't make the cut.  My personal favorite (granted I missed a bit since I started in mid-March) was the CyHawk football game.  In hindsight, it's not even the biggest win of the Cyclones season, or the worst loss of 2011 for Iowa.  But for the passion of the fans during and leading up to the game as we toured in RVTV, to a game itself that (finally) lived up to the rivalry billing, it remains probably the best game I've ever watched in person.

Enjoy the Hazzle Dazzle Christmas special (Because if Chris ticks off the FCC it might be our final SoundOFF ever)!