The Newest URL for The Hlog

http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/the-hlog/

Hlas Column on Jake Kelly Departing Hawkeyes Basketball Program

Oh dear. Oh no. Oh brother.

Pick your reaction or reactions, Hawkeye basketball fans. They all fit. When your best player is transferring out — and you could argue this is the third-straight year it’s happening if you were a Tony Freeman fan — you have a program that’s running on ice.

For the rest of this post, go to the Hlog’s new home at the URL listed above. (It’s http://hlog.iowa.com) Thanks for bookmarking it and using it in the future.

Ames and Iowa City are the Lands of Milk and Honey, Hope and Dreams

Ames - No ghost (down)town for business

If you’re like me, you run from news stories that use the word “unemployment.” How many times can you hear or see the wordit, even if you’re one of the lucky ones to still be employed?

Well, here’s some good news:

Two of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the lowest unemployment rates in January were Ames and Iowa City, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Larry Eustachy Compares Himself to AIG – But Makes an Un-AIG Move

Larry Eustachy, trying to earn his salary

It hasn’t been an altogether-successful ride for Larry Eustachy as the men’s basketball coach at Southern Mississippi, but the folks in Hattiesburg can’t say Eustachy is tone-deaf.

 

While Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun defiantly said “Not a dime back” when asked if he’d peel off any of the king’s ransom of a salary he makes to give it back to his cash-strapped state, Eustachy is refusing a $25,000 bonus owed to him because of an attendance incentive in his contract.

Vote for Your “Favorite” Recession Photo

(AP photo)

This is 1/35th of what I think is an amazing collection of recession-related photos from around the world.

They were recently posted on the Boston Globe’s site, www.boston.com. Most of the photos were shot within the last month.

Photo No. 30 hurts me, a newspaper guy since I was three months old, as much as any. I’m guessing you can find a couple (or 35) that get to you.

Share your thoughts about any or all of the photos in the comments box. In fact, share your thoughts about anything.

Another First Round Knockout for UNI

No "Oh baby!" from Gary Rima after this one

PORTLAND, Ore. — Here I sit on a bus at Flightcraft Aviation, waiting to be taken to the tarmac where the members of the Northern Iowa traveling party will be screened before boarding a plane (that isn’t here yet) that will take us to Waterloo tonight.

My golly, that was a long sentence.

It’s a long ride, but it was a short road for the Panthers in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Their 61-56 loss to Purdue was tantalizing enough to make them wonder what might have been. They know it was on them, and they just didn’t do enough to get it done.

Will Zags Zap Zips, or Can Zips Zap Zags?

How many kangaroos are in Akron?

 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Getting my bearings in downtown Portland, which doesn’t roll up its sidewalk at 5 p.m.

Less than a block from my hotel, a line of people waited to get into Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to attend a lecture from NPR “Weekend Edition Saturday” host Scott Simon.

Simon, according to The Oregonian newspaper, is an acclaimed author, appreciator of music and all-round gentleman of letters. Nice work if you can get it.

In NCAA, Might Makes Right, Which is Wrong

Indeed.

Bad enough that the six BCS conferences have a stranglehold on college football. They’ve also somehow seen to it that they dominate the NCAA basketball tournament.

I don’t know what the mission of the NCAA tournament selection committee may be, but the criteria obviously tips things in favor of the power conferences.

Look, if you live in the Midwest you cannot tell me the Big Ten deserves seven teams in the NCAAs. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are all in the tournament? Hooray for mediocrity!

Time After Time, It’s Overtime

Something very strange has been happening to me lately. Nothing seems to end when it should.

This began a week ago Saturday when the Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Penn State in double-overtime. After I filed my column from that game in Iowa City, I drove to St. Louis, where Northern Iowa would play Illinois State the next day in the Missouri Valley Conference final.

On the way down while tooling around the dial on my trusty XM Satellite Radio, I saw the Ohio Valley Conference title game was winding down. Austin Peay and Morehead State.

Video from the End of the UNI-Illinois State Game

I don’t remember it being this chaotic at Sunday’s Missouri Valley Conference championship game in St. Louis, and I sat at courtside.

I don’t know who put this on YouTube, but if you do, please give the person credit here.