Hawkeyes never did control their own destiny

So Iowa got toppled at Penn State Wednesday night and lost its one-game lead in the Big Ten men's basketball standings.

Before the game tipped off, BTN analyst Shon Morris (who does a very good job, in my opinion) said the Hawkeyes controlled their own destiny. I'd heard other people say the same thing in the days leading up to the game, because if Iowa won its remaining five conference games it would be the outright conference champion.

What they should have said was something like 'If Iowa wins its remaining five conference games it will be the outright conference champion.'

You can control how hard and how well you play, how wisely you coach, how high you set the thermostat in the visitors' locker room. But you can't control destiny.

It is as true as anything can be true that if Iowa sweeps its final four conference games, it will do no worse than a tie for the Big Ten title. Uncomplicated math tells us that. First-graders can tell us that.

But do the Hawkeyes control their own destiny? No. Did they ever? No, no, a thousand times no. For one thing, destiny doesn't exist.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, destiny is something to which a person or thing is destined. Which makes it a predetermined course of events.

That would suggest the final Big Ten standings are predetermined. They are not. Why do I say that? Because it would be insane to suggest otherwise. Saying insane things may be a fast track toward getting a presidential nomination, but it's not really the best way to live.

Dictionary.com adds this definition for destiny: The power or agency that determines the course of events.

Such a power or agency doesn't exist. If it did, it would be more powerful than even Google or Wal-Mart. But let's say it did. Do you think, as powerful as the Big Ten Conference may be, that it can determine the course of events?

No. If it could, Michigan State wouldn't have been humbled by Alabama in the Cotton Bowl and Iowa wouldn't have pummeled by Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

If it could, Northwestern surely would have been allowed to go to at least one NCAA men's basketball tournament by now.

If it controlled its own destiny, wouldn't the Big Ten have annexed Notre Dame a long time ago?

Words have meaning. If they didn't, people would be running stop signs all day long.

By the way, it's always fun to hear someone misuse the word 'literally.' For instance, I saw someone on Twitter claim 'My phone case is literally the cutest thing ever.'

It's not even in the Top Ten!

So when some doofus pulls the 'Iowa controls its own destiny' line because it's tied for first-place with four games left to play, stop what you're doing and tell that person to stop using words they don't understand.

There is no preordained path in your life. You are your own boss.

OK, that previous sentence isn't actually true. But it's fun to pretend.