The No. 10 seeded Iowa men’s basketball team takes on No. 7 seed Michigan Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. However, UI students didn’t get the memo.
On many college campuses, the fever of March Madness struck nearly a couple of weeks ago. Just 90 miles away in Cedar Falls, Northern Iowa secured an NCAA Tournament bid with a frantic overtime win Sunday to seize the MVC Tournament.
In Iowa City students aren’t spending much time watching a 15-16 Iowa team, which is a five-point underdog in Thursday’s contest. Excitement appears to be very low.
“With people I’ve talked to it’s kind of low because they expect them to lose,” graduate student and teaching assistant John Goodlove said. “If they would’ve had a good season excitement would have been way higher.”
Sophomore Amanda Robertson agrees that many students just don’t care.
“Sadly to say, not very much at all,” Robertson said. “I wish it was more.”
Some students didn’t even realize that the Big Ten Tournament starts Thursday. Sophomore Brian Quijada will be attending 17th Century English Literature as the Hawks take the floor in Indianapolis.
“I didn’t know,” Quijada said. “I have a roommate that’s really into basketball, but he hasn’t talked about it.”
With spring break approaching for the UI—meaning lots of midterms--many students place school priorities well above Iowa basketball. Numerous Thursday tests will limit the student audience for Todd Lickliter’s squad.
Robertson has an exam in Introduction to Islam, junior Christine Kulig has a Spanish test and senior Ben Johnson has been swamped prepping for exams in Operations Management and Environmental Science.
Despite the lack of interest from most, freshman Derek Ambrose looks forward to watching the game, in which he says Iowa’s chances are “a little below 50-50.” He’s going to grab a sandwich from Jimmy John’s and mosey on over to a friend’s apartment.
His keys to the game?
“Definitely have to hit 3’s,” Ambrose said. “They have to contain (Michigan guard) Manny Harris and I think (Cyrus) Tate and (Jarryd) Cole have to stay out of foul trouble.”
Sources:
Derek Ambrose
John Goodlove
Ben Johnson
Christine Kulig
Brian Quijada
Amanda Robertson
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