Roy Devyn Marble

When I started watching Iowa basketball I was pretty young, probably four or five-years-old. Don't remember much about those teams, but I do remember watching B.J. Armstrong and Roy Marble a few years later. B.J. was and still is my favorite Hawkeye of all-time. Roy Marble was a lot of fun to watch as well, and now his son, Roy Devyn Marble Jr. is a Junior for the Hawkeyes and he's carrying the team to New York City for the NIT Final Four. Marble hit somewhat of a slump at the beginning of the conference season, but has busted out and has become one of the premier players in the NIT tournament. He's been running the point for Iowa, even though he's not a true point guard. Their other two point guards are true freshmen, Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons. Both players will be solid, but still have a lot of work to do and turn the ball over quite a bit.

Marble has scored 20+ points in each of the three NIT games this year, in fact he lit up Oregon in last year's NIT, but the Hawkeyes ended up losing. Here are Marble's stats in his last four NIT games, pretty impressive.

MIN: 142 35.5/G
FG: 34-64 53%
FT: 27-32 84%
3PT: 12-24 50% (hit 7-8 vs Oregon)
REB: 15
AST: 21 5.3/G
STL: 9 2.3/G
PTS: 107 26.8/G

I'm looking for Marble to have a huge senior year next season, and the Hawkeyes should be able to make to the big dance. I think they'll contend for a Big 10 title as well, but there will be a lot of talent returning and the Big 10 should be solid once again.

Iowa beats Virginia to advance to NIT Final Four

The Hawkeyes (24-12)won at Virginia and will head to New York City for a matchup with future conference foe, Maryland next Tuesday night. Virginia's home winning streak was snapped at 19 games. Iowa was once again lead by junior Roy Devyn Marble, who scored 24 points, including 7-7 from the free throw line. It was Marble's third straight 20-point game in the tournament. The team hit all 15 of their free throw teams en route to a 75-64 victory.

The Hawks held Akil Mitchell to only nine points, but Justin Anderson scored 24, including five three's. Aaron White didn't score until late in the game, he ended with six, but hit some clutch free throws. Adam Woodbury scored 10 and grabbed eight boards, he was 5-7 from the field. Iowa outrebounded Virginia 34-26 and hit 8-17 from downtown.

Iowa Hoops at Virginia

March Madness is alive and well in the state of Iowa, it's not the Big Dance, but it's a little dance, and at least they got asked. And if they're lucky, they'll go all the way!

Tonight the Hawkeyes have to travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, to take on Virginia (23-11.) Iowa is currently 23-12 and have looked solid in the last part of the season, especially Devyn Marble, who has been tearing it up after a mid-season slump. The Hawkeyes have won six of their last eight, the only two losses were to Indiana and Michigan State, who will both be competing in the sweet 16 later this week.

The winner tonight will head to New York for the NIT Final Four. Ritchie McKay, an assistant coach at Virginia, was formerly the head coach at New Mexico. I ran into him one evening at Chili's and talked to him briefly, couldn't have been a nicer guy. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very successful head coach and had to move on.

Tonight's match up will be a tough one for Iowa, they lost earlier this year at Virginia Tech, and the road hasn't been that kind to them. Virginia, however, has been great at home suffering only one loss on November 13th to Delaware. Since then they knocked off North Carolina, NC State, and Duke. Hopefully the Hawkeyes can stop the 19-game home winning streak. To do so they'll have to shut down Akil Mitchell a 6-8 Jr forward and 6-6 G Joe Harris. Mitchell has scored 26 points and pulled down 20 boards in their two previous NIT wins. If Marble and Aaron White both get hot the Hawkeyes could be headed to New York. Should be a fun game.

2013 Iowa Hawkeyes Spring 2-Deeps

Spring practice is starting today for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team! Last year was pretty rough, a 4-8 record overall and 2-6 in the Big 10, including six straight losses to close out the season. It was the worst record since 2000, Kirk Ferentz' second season on campus. Here's a look at the two deeps.

QB: Jake Rudock SO, Cody Sokol JR/CJ Beathard FR
RB: Mark Weisman JR/Damon Bullock JR, Jordan Canzeri SO
YB: Jake Duzey SO, Henry Krieger-Coble SO
WR: Tevaun Smith SO, Jacob Hillyer SO
WR: Kevonte Martin-Manley JR, Jordan Cotton SR
TE: CJ Fiedorowicz SR, Ray Hamilton JR
LT: Brandon Scherff JR, Ryan Ward FR
LG: Connor Boffeli SR, Eric Simmons SO/Drew Clark SR
C: Austin Blythe SO, Tommy Gaul/Simmons SO
RG: Andrew Donnal JR, Jordan Walsh SO
RT: Brett Van Sloten SR, Cole Croston FR/Mitch Keppy FR

The QB position is up for grabs as of right now, and there are three candidates fighting for the spot. Whoever does emerge as the number 1 guy will hopefully have a better season than James Vandenberg last season. He only threw seven touchdown passes despite taking every single snap. The WR group didn't do him many favors, dropping several passes. Don Shumpert was high on the depth chart at the beginning of last year, but disappeared after the Iowa State game. Tevaun Smith and Jacob Hillyer are two sophomores who could blossom into solid WR's, and Juco transfer Damond Powell will add some much needed speed to the group. Mark Weisman and Damon Bullock will most likely share the bulk of carries in the backfield, but watch for Jordan Canzeri and Barkley Hill to step in and spell them at times. The TE position should be as solid as ever with CJ Fed back. He came on really strong last season, and it he can figure out how to start strong, the offense could be headed int he right direction early on. Several capable backups as well. The OL looks to be a solid experienced unit. Scherff will be the anchor like he was last season before injury took him out. Van Sloten will hold up the right side with Donnal, and Blythe was a freshmen AA, he'll scoot over to C. Nice to see walk-on, Cole Croston, crack the early two-deep, his dad was a star at Iowa in the 80s. I think the offense will be a lot better this season. Hope to see them change it up and not be so predictable.

DE: Drew Ott SO, Mike Hardy JR/Riley McMinn SO
DE: Dom Alvis SR, McMinn SO/Damauntus Venckus-Cucchiara FR
DT: Darian Cooper SO, Jaleel Johnson FR
DT: Carl Davis JR, Faith Ekakitie FR
OLB: Christian Kirskey SR, Travis Perry SO
MLB: James Morris SR, Quinton Alston JR
WLB: Anthony Hitchens SR, Cole Fisher SO
LCB: BJ Lowery SR, Maurice Fleming FR
RCB: Jordan Lomax SO, Sean Draper SO
SS: Nico Law JR, Johnny Lowdermilk JR/Anthony Gair FR
FS: Tanner Miller SR, Lowdermilk JR/Gair FR

The DL will be much better than last season even after losing two seniors. Lou Trinca-Pasat is injured as of right now, but will be one of the key guys at DT. Dom Alvis should have a solid SR year and several underclassmen will step up. I'm excited to see Darian Cooper, Faith Ekakitie and Jaleel Johnson, all of them were highly touted players out of high school. The LB crew returns to form one of the most experienced in the Big 10, not the deepest though. I'm hoping Alston will have a solid year, he hasn't really shown much. The secondary returns three starters, but they're still pretty young. It'll be exciting to see Jordan Lomax and Nico Law though, Lomax missed last year due to injury. I think Fleming could be a star, he's extremely fast. Overall, the defense won't be the best in the conference and could struggle, but I think they'll have their moments like they do every year.

K: Mike Meyer SR, Marshall Koehn SO
P: Connor Kornbrath SO, Johnny Mullings JR
LS: Casey Kreiter

Iowa vs Indiana State NIT

The Hawkeyes second half collapse against Michigan State Friday night knocked them out of the NCAA tournament. The Hawkeyes, who haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2006, will compete in their second consecutive NIT tournament. The three-seed Hawkeyes will host the sixth-seeded Indiana State Sycamores from the Missouri Valley Conference. Indiana State's coach, Greg Lansing, was an assistant at Iowa for seven years, including the final NCAA tournament season. Lansing is no stranger to the state of Iowa, he was the head coach at Des Moines Roosevelt. His father, Dave, coached high school ball in Iowa for 33 years, in fact, Greg still has plenty of family in the Des Moines area.

Beating Indiana State will be no easy task for the Hawkeyes. The Sycamores are led by three juniors, Jake Odum 6-4 G, Manny Arop 6-6 F and RJ Mahurin 6-9 F. They all average double-digits in scoring. Indiana State had victories against NCAA tournament qualifiers, Ole Miss, Miami, Wichita State and Creighton. They also went to overtime with New Mexico before letting the game slip away.

The Hawkeyes have had their best season since 2006, going 9-9 in the Big 10, the best conference in the country. Iowa lost five games by five points or less, including games against Indiana, Wisconsin and two against Michigan State, one in the Big Ten tournament. The Hawkeyes, like Indiana State aren't heavy on seniors. Eric May is the only senior that plays valuable minutes for either of the two teams. This should be a great game and both teams could be dancing next year.

Conference Tournament Predictions

Conference tournaments are underway, and some of the smaller conferences have already crowned their champions. It's always fun to see a team with a losing record run the table in their conference tourney to make it to the dance. Liberty at 15-20 will be playing next week hoping to pull off a an upset or two. I'm going to predict my winners for the bigger conferences. Winners in bold.

ACC Title game: Miami vs Duke

ATLANTIC 10 Title game: St. Louis vs Temple

BIG 12 Title game: Kansas vs Oklahoma State

BIG EAST Title game: Pittsburgh vs Louisville

BIG 10 Title game: Indiana vs Ohio State

MOUNTAIN WEST Title game: New Mexico vs UNLV

PAC 12 Title game: Arizona vs Oregon

SEC Title game: Florida vs Kentucky