Hlas: One-and-done won’t cut it for Hawkeyes, Cyclones

It's often been said fear is a powerful motivator.

Maybe it is, but I'm too scared to find out.

However, fear may be the driving force for the men's basketball teams of Iowa State and Iowa in their NCAA men's basketball tournament first-round games Thursday and Friday, respectively.

If either loses its NCAA opener, its entire season will forever be judged harshly. Both were in the Top Five of the coaches' rankings at some point this season, but the Hawkeyes finished three games out of first place in the Big Ten standings and the Cyclones were five games behind Kansas in the Big 12.

Neither won a game at their conferences' tournaments.

To then go home one-and-done in the NCAAs? As Colonel Kurtz of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' cried in a whisper, 'The horror! The horror!'

It probably wouldn't be a whisper back in Iowa.

Last year, Iowa whomped Davidson in the NCAAs before getting whomped itself by Gonzaga. But just one win in the big tournament made the lasting image of the Hawkeyes' season a positive one, primarily because no Iowa team had won an NCAA game since 2001.

Meanwhile, Iowa State fell to 14th-seed UAB and undid the good work it had done just five days earlier when it beat Kansas for its second-straight Big 12 tournament title. When the story of the 2014-15 Cyclones is told, it always starts with those three letters. U. A. B.

By the way, Northern Iowa isn't part of this conversation because it wasn't expected to get to the NCAAs and has already written a happy story about this season. If the Panthers upset Texas Friday? To use a pet phrase from the late, great Al McGuire, it's more seashells and balloons.

Iowa and Iowa State need to win their NCAA openers against Temple and Iona to return some feel-good to their programs and fans. The Hawkeyes and Cyclones have a combined seven senior starters. Rebuilding isn't enticing in the first place, but rebuilding after a collapse is pure drudgery.

So that's the darker view. There is a brighter way of looking at this.

The NCAA tourney truly is a fresh start. Even if you've stalled or unraveled, there's something rejuvenating about being at an NCAA site.

There's freshness, because the first-round opponent is unfamiliar to you, and you to them. The excitement, even in a half-empty, opposite-of-intimate NBA arena on a weekday afternoon, is real and energizing. If you aren't one of the heavy favorites, great possibilities can suddenly sprout in the first week of the tourney.

We saw it with Iowa State two years ago when, despite not having Georges Niang because of a broken foot, the Cyclones beat North Carolina in San Antonio and found themselves in the Sweet 16.

We saw it with UNI in 2010 when it squeaked past UNLV in its first game in Oklahoma City. then beat Kansas two nights later in one of the tourney's all-time stunners.

We saw it last year with Iowa. Davidson turned out to be a forgettable foe, a team that could have used its most-famous former player. But Stephen Curry had moved on to some other sort of basketball endeavor, and the Hawkeyes crushed the Wildcats.

Winning that game lifted a dark cloud over Iowa's program. The Hawkeyes, like UNI, weren't just at the NCAA tourney, they hung around for a few days.

That's what everyone wants. Don't flame out and make the experience nothing but painful. Beat somebody. Have a chance to propel yourself into the second week and feel the joy and buzz that comes with that.

And remember this: At least one team starting with 'Io' will still be alive by Saturday, whether it's from Iowa City, Ames, or New Rochelle, N.Y.