Finally, the Iowa men's basketball team had a double-digit lead in the second-half of a game that meant something, and didn't let it get away.
Thursday night's 62-60 win over Michigan State was critical for the Hawkeyes in more than one way. Not the least important, they didn't do what they did against Arizona State and Northern Iowa when they let leads of 12 or 13 points completely dwindle away as they groped down the stretch. MSU pared a 13-point deficit to two, but this time the Hawkeyes were the car salesmen who didn't let the customer leave the lot until a sale had been made, a deal closed.
OK, that metaphor is kind of ridiculous.
But this was a game Iowa absolutely, positively had to have. That may sound a bit like overkill since it was only Game 1 of a 16-game Big Ten season. But everyone in Iowa knew what really was at stake. If the Hawkeyes lost this one, on top of dropping six nonconference games to teams that include UNI and Drake, their image would be one of a team not especially worthy of our attention.
That's sort of been the case, anyway. Over 4,000 tickets went unsold for this game, for the game, for the game that began Big Ten play for the Hawkeyes. Michigan State isn't Penn State or Northwestern. It's a time-proven national college basketball power. It's a drawing card, even if it lacks much resemblance to Tom Izzo's many fine teams of the last decade. For one thing, these Spartans don't run. Shannon Brown and Maurice Ager are gone, long gone.
Never mind that, though, this was Michigan State-Iowa at Carver, and 4,000 tickets weren't bought. Even though that hasn't happened since, well, certainly not since Carver-Hawkeye Arena opened 23 Januarys ago. What would have happened had Iowa not won this home game, and fallen to 8-7 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten? What kind of gate would Iowa have had for its next two home contests, against (yawn) Minnesota and Penn State? Not good, that's what.
The many who are pessimistic or apathetic about Steve Alford's program would have written off the conference season as a lost cause with a homecourt defeat in the opener, especially when the first four in-league games were all won by home teams. Those fans who no longer see the need to pay the $25 price for an Iowa ticket as it is would have been further alienated by a loss.
Defending your homecourt against Michigan State doesn't make you a Big Ten contender. It doesn't even make you a good team. But it was something positive, something tangible. It's just one game, and it was just holding serve at home. But it beat the bejeebers out of the alternative.
"Ohhh, needed that,'' Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said in a CHA hallway after the game. Ohhh, yes he and his men's basketball program did.
Meanwhile, I look forward to Saturday in the UNI-Dome when Southern Illinois meets Northern Iowa, the two teams tied for the Missouri Valley Conference lead at 3-0. Now that's a big game.