Hlas: My Thursday manifesto on Hawkeyes, Cyclones, life

The clock is ticking. As I type this, it's only six hours until Iowa plays Rutgers.

The suspense is almost unmanageable.

But I kid. The truth is, I've been overhearing people discuss Hawkeyes basketball in public places I'm not sure I've heard people discuss Hawkeyes basketball before. When you're 5-0 in the Big Ten and about to go 6-0, even casual fans become intrigued.

Unless pigs start flying — and that's one of those problems that never seems to come to fruition — Iowa will take a 6-0 Big Ten record into its Sunday afternoon home game against Purdue. Then things get real, again.

The Boilermakers blew their home game against Iowa on Jan. 2. But they're 4-2 in the conference, and should be 5-2 after their home game against Ohio State tonight. They were ahead of the Hawkeyes in all the preseason Big Ten rankings, if you recall, and they're ranked 22nd in the latest coaches' poll.

Getting even further ahead of ourselves, if the Hawkeyes beat the Boilermakers they'll be 7-0 when they go to Maryland a week from tonight. And an Iowa-Maryland game will be the national game of the night, perhaps the national game of the week.

Maryland limped to an overtime home win over Northwestern Wednesday night, a game in which Northwestern played the style it wanted. The Terrapins are 17-2 overall, 6-1 in the Big Ten. They play at Michigan State Saturday.

At some point, Michigan State has to beat somebody, right? The Spartans are 3-4 in the Big Ten after their third straight loss, at home against Nebraska last night. Tom Izzo has looked like Todd Lickliter the way he's been holding his head in his hands lately.

MSU point guard Tum Tum Nairn is sitting out because of plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and his loss is felt.

We all assume the Spartans will be their solid selves come March like they always are, but they just lost at home to Nebraska, folks.

Speaking of which, the Cornhuskers were a mess before they got to Iowa. They had lost at home to Samford on Dec. 20. Since then, Samford has lost to Mercer, Wofford, Furman and East Tennessee State.

Then the Huskers fell by nine points at home to Northwestern and by 10 at home to Indiana before their 77-66 loss at Iowa on Jan. 5.

So what happens next? They peel off four straight wins, the first three by double digits. They won at Rutgers, 90-56, so that's what Iowa's up against tonight.

Meanwhile, Indiana is 6-0 with a home game against Northwestern Saturday. You hear the Big Ten's Player of the Year race is between Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff, Michigan State's Denzel Valentine and Maryland's Melo Trimble. Uh, have you noticed Indiana point guard Yogi Ferrell?

Yogi became the Hoosiers' all-time assists leader Tuesday night while his team steamrollered Illinois, 103-69. He had nine assists in that game and also made five 3-pointers. Yowsah. In conference games, he averages 19.2 points and 6.3 assists. Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah!

The Big Ten is probably every bit as good as the Big 12 from top to bottom, but Big 12 games are more fun to watch as a rule. I think the venues are better in general, which helps. When you watch a telecast from Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State or West Virginia, the crowd noise and intimacy jumps through the TV screen.

I'm not willing to declare he's the best player I've seen in person this season, but Oklahoma's Buddy Hield is as good as any. The guy scores 26 points a night and makes it look easy. He had 27 Monday at Iowa State, and the Cyclones did a good defensive job on him. With his deadly 3-point shot and his creative slashing, it's not unfair to call him the college game's version of Stephen Curry.

No, I'm not saying Hield or anyone else is as good as Curry. That would be clinically insane. The way Curry and the Golden State Warriors carved up Cleveland and Chicago on the road this week ... neither game was a contest.

As for Iowa State, it's not a truly great team, but it is a truly captivating team. And I still maintain that it's a team that could do serious damage in this year's NCAA tourney if its current group of active players stay healthy.

Georges Niang and Monte Morris are treats to watch. Their skill sets are like few players who pass through this state's way, and include Iowa's Uthoff when you say that. I think Niang and Morris will come into this year's NCAA tourney hardened and hungry after the Cyclones' first-round flameout against UAB last year. I also think Steve Prohm is gradually starting to assert himself as their coach, and they seem to be getting more in tune with him.

But it's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately life, and ISU better take care of business Saturday and leave TCU with a win.

Those are the kinds of losses — like Kansas had at Oklahoma State Tuesday — that make your life more complicated in March when it comes to seedings in conference and NCAA tourneys.

I'll be surprised if the Cyclones don't take care of business Saturday in Fort Worth, though. Then comes a second straight Big Monday in Ames, this one against Kansas. If Iowa State wins that to go 5-3 in the conference after that game? Things could set up for the most-interesting February of college basketball this state has seen in eons with Iowa State pushing to re-enter the Big 12's title discussion and Iowa trying to stay in the hunt for the Big Ten crown.

Kansas got humiliated at Oklahoma State Tuesday night. Michigan State has been humbled twice by Iowa. Maryland was fortunate to beat Northwestern Tuesday. These are the teams — the ones that lost, I mean — that were supposed to be the kingpins of college basketball. The national-title is truly up for grabs this season. Who's to say Iowa or Iowa State can't be players before this thing is over?

Oh, about the NCAA tourney. It's January.

USA TODAY.com had brackets Thursday with Iowa the No. 1 seed in the Midwest. Like all of this week's bracketologists, it had the Hawkeyes playing at the NCAA tournament site in Des Moines.

It's Jan. 21. Get back to me on March 13. We still have a monster blizzard on the Eastern Seaboard to survive, and I'll need CNN to give me round-the-clock coverage on people cross-country skiing on city streets.

ESPN's Andy Lunardi had Iowa unseeded when he put out his preseason brackets on Nov. 11. Then he had the Hawkeyes an eighth-seed on Dec. 8. Now he has them a 2. If his previous brackets meant nothing, why wouldn't his current one?

So about the Hawkeyes playing in Des Moines: Uh, Iowa has two-thirds of the Big Ten season left, kids. Two-thirds!

Enjoy Iowa-Rutgers.