S-N Editorial

Americans from sea to shining sea will be seeing plenty of Iowa when they fill out their March Madness brackets this week.

Both the men’s and women’s teams from Iowa and Iowa State are dancing. The women are at the top of the show bill, with the Hawkeyes earning a No. 2 seed and the Cyclones landing a No. 3 seed. The rivals have a chance to meet in the Sweet 16 if they win their first two games – what a great thing for our state.

Leading the Hawkeyes is guard Caitlin Clark, who has the ability to score at will. The Black and Gold enter the NCAA Tournament blazing hot after taking home the Big 10 Tournament trophy with wins over Northwestern, Nebraska and Indiana. The Hawkeyes have hit the stratosphere late in the season and it’s safe to say nobody wants to play them right now.

Over in Ames, the ISU women have had a spectacular season and placed second in the Big 12 standings while amassing 26 wins on the year. Ashley Joens is the star wearing Cardinal and Gold, as she has the ability to take over a game and dump buckets when she wants to. It’s special to have such top-notch teams and players representing this state, and we’re in for a treat this month.

The men’s side of things features an ISU team riding the coattails of a miraculous turnaround. The Cyclones didn’t even win a conference game last year, so the fact that first-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger has his team dancing is nothing short of a miracle. ISU comes in as a No. 11 seed in the Midwest region, so it no doubt has a tough row to hoe, but there’s a reason they call it March Madness – anything can happen.

Rounding out the list is the Iowa men’s team. The Hawkeyes are fresh off a thrilling Big 10 Tournament championship run, having won four games in four days against Northwestern, Rutgers, Indiana and Purdue. Many fans and pundits in January weren’t even sure if the Hawkeyes had it in them to make it to the Dance, but Fran McCaffery’s bunch did more than enough to silence the doubters. Iowa shot the daylights out of the ball during the final 10 games en route to landing a No. 5 seed in the tournament. Though competition will be stiff, many talking heads are saying this team could be a dark horse for the Final Four.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. It’s fun to ponder the what-ifs right now, but the games do indeed need to be played. In any case, we here in Iowa can be proud of our teams’ accomplishments to this point. The stage is set for an interesting month and we wouldn’t have it any other way!