Longevity is the name of the game for high-profile Hawkeye coaches. Beth Goetz’s tenure as Iowa’s athletics director will be judged on how she replaces them after they have retired.
Unlikely as it may have seemed not many days ago, the bigger pregame story of Tuesday night’s Northwestern-Iowa men’s basketball game is the Wildcats, not the Hawkeyes.
Northwestern is the one of the two that is 3-0 and atop the Big Ten standings. It is the one that has two wins over Top 25 teams since last Sunday, triumphs over Michigan State and Ohio State at home that sandwiched a victory at Indiana.
It is the team that went 3-17 in the Big Ten last season and 8-23 overall. Monday, it moved into the rankings itself at No. 19, nine spots below the 7-2 Hawkeyes, who slipped to 1-1 in the conference after their 102-95 overtime loss at Minnesota last Friday.