Hlas: Biggest city, biggest week for Hawkeyes

The new lease on life has begun. Now it's a question of how long the lease can be extended.

Iowa is a No. 7 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tourney. That's quite a comedown from where it was sitting a month ago. The seed is almost irrelevant now, though.

The way the Hawkeyes have played over their last several games, any first-round matchup was going to be tough. Playing 10th-seed Temple, the regular-season champion of the American Athletic Conference, is tough.

But, who's to also say the Hawkeyes can't give Fran McCaffery a double-knockout of teams from his Philadelphia hometown? Villanova almost surely awaits the Iowa-Temple winner, and the second-seeded, 29-5 Wildcats are plenty good. However, if the Hawkeyes get themselves right ...

OK, I hear your disdain. I was in a Cedar Rapids eatery Sunday afternoon and had two different strangers approach me to offer disgust for the way Iowa has played in the last few weeks. If Iowa falls to the Owls Friday, the off-season chorus will be a miniature version of what Hawkeye football fans uttered and muttered after the 2014 season.

But if Iowa can win Friday in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the dread would instantly turn into enthusiasm. A shot at the Hawkeyes' first Sweet 16 in 17 years would await.

It's too easy a trip from Philly to Gotham. But Iowa has a fan or two in New York.

No. 7-seeds, by the way, are 90-58 all-time against No. 10-seeds.

Iowa State and Northern Iowa exceeded all the bracketologists' projections, at least the ones I saw. The Cyclones are a 4-seed, the Panthers an 11.

Iowa State gets No. 13 Iona in Denver Thursday. That's no breeze. The Gaels of Long Island Sound began the season 4-6, but then started playing teams from their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Now Iona is 22-10, and champs of the MAAC tourney.

Iona has nine players who average double-digit minutes. The team plays fast. Given this game is a mile above sea level and the Cyclones lack depth, this spells 'challenge.'

Gaels 6-foot-4 senior guard A.J. English is a dynamo, averaging 22.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He has had games of 46 and 45 points this season.

But Iona hasn't defeated anyone as good as Iowa State, and Monte Morris has been known to play some pretty good point guard himself. No. 4-seeds are 99-25 all-time against No. 13s.

Should the Cyclones do what they didn't last year and overcome a low-seed, they'll likely run into Purdue in the second round. That would be a contrast of styles, to say the least.

While ISU had lost its last two games — at Kansas and against Oklahoma in Kansas City — they played with more cohesion and spirit than they did through some of the Big 12 season.

The Cyclones have their flaws, but their NCAA loss to UAB last year should make them keep their eyes on Iona, and Iona only. It's hard to see Morris and Georges Niang going quietly this time around.

Northern Iowa is returning to the scene of its greatest NCAA glory, Oklahoma City. That's where the Panthers stunned Kansas in 2010.

More: UNI back in familiar NCAA territory

The Panthers meet No. 6-seed Texas Friday. It would seem to be a virtual home game for the Longhorns. Except that fans of Oklahoma and Texas A&M, which also play at that site, will surely cheer against their sworn enemy from Austin.

The Horns beat West Virginia twice, and also have victories against Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma and North Carolina. They're good, and Shaka Smart is a tournament coach. Unless you consider taking Virginia Commonwealth to the Final Four five years ago no big whoop.

No. 6-seeds are 94-49 all-time against No. 11s. But UNI has won 12 of its last 13 games, and its players have done a ton of winning over the last two seasons, including an NCAA triumph a year ago. Ben Jacobson is a tournament coach, too.

For the second-straight year and third time ever, all three state schools from Iowa are in the big tournament. What will be the other team that joins them in the Final Four?