Purdue 67, Iowa 56

I’m pretty sure there wasn’t 12,468 in attendance tonight at Carver (there were a lot of empty seats behind the baskets), but it certainly felt like old times.

Sure the Hawks lost, but it was an awesome and fun game to see, nonetheless. I went with Tom of Churchill’s Cigar and cheered my head off without embarrassment. We were almost surrounded by Purdue fans, which made it that much more fun to scream in someone’s ear. The Boilermaker sitting to my right in the first half gave me a one seat birth in the second half. I guess I was just a little too much for him to handle.

Maybe it was because we were in one of the filled sections, but the fans were really into it tonight. I was proud of my fellow Hawkeyes. It reminded me of the rip-roaring big games of my youth, when the arena was far from family-friendly, and no one needed the Panchero’s burrito bounce (or whatever the fuck that’s called) to get pumped. The Hawks played tough in the first half, and had a one-point lead at halftime, so we were really into it. Our fortunes changed in the second half as the fourth ranked Boilermakers clamped down on defense and put on a shooting clinic (not quite, and Cole’s foul trouble really helped them, too), but we were jeering the refs (the infamous Ed Hightower among them) and cheering the Hawks the entire time no matter how far the Hawks trailed. Carver erupted when John Lickliter, son of coach Todd Lickliter, stole the ball and drove to the basket for a hard-earned lay-up. People went fucking crazy. I loved it.

The Hawks fought a hell of a hard game, and I was proud of them. I love being the underdog and spoiler, which will be the Hawks’ only role this season.

Go Hawks!