Skycam goes down, Hawkeye basketball goes up

Well, yes. My first post of 2012 is a look back at the last two days of 2011. Hey, a lot has happened in the last two days.

Skycam fell and the Iowa men's basketball team leaped upward. Iowa and Iowa State combined to produce the worst bowl day in our state's history. That's kind of a lot.

Let's start with Skycam. I was in the Sun Devil Stadium press box not paying attention to the last minutes of the Insight Bowl since I was on a tight deadline writing a lousy column for the Gazette newspaper. It was so bad I didn't assault my Hlog readers' senses with it, which is saying something. I make no apologies for its quality. It had to be done at 12:15 a.m., Iowa time, and the game wasn't over by then. Things weren't helped by an expensive camera falling from above the field and fortunately, not hurting anyone.

My Gawd, the tragedy that could have been. I don't want to go all worrywart on you here, but I've seen that Skycam at a lot of games now, and always wondered what if that thing, you know, suddenly came down.

I'm a fan of ESPN announcer Sean McDonough and still am, but was a little surprised with how cavalier he was about this whole deal. Obviously, he would have shown plenty of concern had someone gotten injured.

Are you kidding me? Iowa, a 20-point underdog, won at Wisconsin in men's basketball, 72-65? I need a Hawkeyes media guide to figure out when the program has last had a win this big, let alone one on the road.

I know one of Todd Lickliter's Iowa teams beat No. 6 Michigan State 43-36 at home four years ago in a fairly dreadful slogfest, but this was a road win over a No. 11 team that loses at home almost as rarely as Iowa's wrestling squad.

Iowa hadn't won at Kohl Center since 2000. Wisconsin had been 160-12 at home under Bo Ryan.

It's a king-sized win for the Hawkeyes, one that flushes memories of nonconference disappointments. Iowa is at Minnesota Wednesday night. I haven't been overly tempted to watch a lot of Hawkeye basketball on television the last few years. This game, I won't hesitate to check out. And on Saturday afternoon, Ohio State comes to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

I'm not going to spend time rehashing the Pinstripe and Insight bowls. They weren't good at all from an ISU/Iowa standpoint. But their fans got to go to New York and Phoenix, which beats the heck out of a whole bunch of other bowl sites.

I'd take either in a heartbeat over Orlando, Jacksonville, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, Charlotte, Boise, Albuquerque, Dallas, Nashville, Shreveport, Birmingham, Mobile and Detroit.

And I'm very fond of some of those cities. Not Orlando, mind you. But some.

One of my favorite sports days of the year is normally today (Jan. 1), but this year it's Jan. 2. Lots of bowls that actually have good teams. How's this for a Monday lineup: Michigan State-Georgia, Nebraska-South Carolina, Penn State-Houston, Wisconsin-Oregon and Oklahoma State-Stanford. Love it.

Oh, and then there's the battle of 6-6 teams in Jacksonville, Florida and Ohio State. Skip it.

Happy New Year, everybody. I appreciate your visits here over the last few years, and I hope to give you more and better reasons to return here in 2012. Your input is always welcomed. I encourage you to follow me on Twitter at @Hlas. Beyond a fair amount of silliness, I try to retweet comments and links that I think people might find interesting.