Wisconsin 74, Iowa 70

Today’s CRG featured a story with this headline: “Study: More heart attacks in winter.” Sifting through 1.7 million death certificates filed between 2005 and 2008, researchers found “a 26 to 36 percent greater death rate for heart attacks in winter than summer ‘despite different locations and climates…’”

The researchers theorized that a lack of light may be a factor, but I want to propose another explanation: basketball season.

The Hawks’ physical, double-overtime loss to Wisconsin tonight was a second straight heartbreaker. I watched the end of the first half, the entire second half, and both extra periods. At times I was cheering. At others I was on my knees, pounding the floor in frustration. At one point I threw a pen across the room. I held my breath at every possession. My heart raced. In the last seconds, when the game was all but over, I was slumped against the couch in resignation. I was emotionally destroyed.

Ah, but life goes on. The sun will rise (though will probably be obscured by clouds) tomorrow. Nonetheless, my blood pressure, which has been compared to that of a corpse, skyrockets during these close and pivotal games. Frankly, I wonder if Iowa men’s basketball is detrimental to my health.

That does not sound good, especially since I am such a diehard fan, but games like this just wreck me — before the final buzzer, that is. After that I move on.

Time to go to bed.