Hlas: Redemption two wins away for Hawkeyes, Cyclones

The way we view college basketball seasons is similar to how we view college itself.

What's remembered most isn't the grades of assignments or exams during the semester, though they certainly felt critical at the time.

No, the enduring result comes from the final paper or project or test, the final grade.

That's also college basketball. If you're in a major conference, what you do in the NCAA tournament almost always supersedes what you did in getting there.

Now, in Iowa's case a Big Ten regular-season championship this season would have been an outlier. That's only because the program hasn't had one of those since 1979. But in general, it's what happens this week and beyond that matters to the masses.

Indiana, for instance, won the Big Ten in 2013, then lost to Syracuse in the NCAA Sweet 16 as a No. 1 seed. That season is probably remembered just as much in Bloomington for the postseason failure as the regular-season success.

Localizing this, the sting of Iowa's regular-season collapse and first-game ouster from the Big Ten tourney will all fade fast if the Hawkeyes win twice in the NCAAs.

Iowa State's inability to contend for the Big 12 championship and its quarterfinal loss to Oklahoma in its conference tournament will be considered irrelevant if the Cyclones are still in the NCAAs by the end of next weekend.

Northern Iowa doesn't factor into this, because it wasn't expected to reach the big tournament this year. Anything good it does this week is gravy. Whomever it plays will be the team with the weight on its shoulders. Like Kansas was when it fell to the Panthers six years ago.

By the way, good luck finding any of Ali Farokhmanesh's regular-season baskets on the Internet. But his golden 3-pointer against Kansas in 2010? CBS showed it yet again last Sunday during its telecast of the Panthers' win in the Missouri Valley Conference tourney title game.

Go as far back as Iowa's last Big Ten regular-season crown. In 1979, the Hawkeyes made it into the NCAAs after sharing the league title, then promptly got bounced by Toledo.

The following year, Iowa tied for fourth in the Big Ten. It then won four games in the NCAAs and reached the Final Four.

Which of those two seasons has burned brightly in the memories of Hawkeye fans ever since? I think you know.

In 2006, the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten tourney. The glow from that was immediately snuffed when they were upset by Northwestern State in the first-round of the NCAAs.

Iowa State won its second-straight Big 12 conference championship last year. Will that be forever remembered more than its NCAA tourney loss to 14th-seeded UAB? Uh, no.

If the Cyclones win two or more games in this year's NCAAs, its Big 12 tourney one-and-done will be recalled with a shrug and nothing more.

The same applies for Iowa. Should the Hawkeyes shake off the bad juju that seems to be surrounding it and go to the Sweet 16 for the first time in this millennium, their loss to Illinois last Thursday will be no more haunting than a 4-year-old wearing a ghost costume at your front door on Halloween.

Besides offering a temporary thrill for some Stony Brooks and Holy Crosses, the NCAA tourney gives some of its better-known participants like Iowa and Iowa State a shot at changing their narratives for the better. Wouldn't we all like one 'Free Shot at Redemption' card?