In Iowa City, success for the Iowa basketball team has been defined many different ways over the years. The definition is of course a derivative of expectations. Expectations are set by past success. Or failure.
The 2020-2021 basketball season has been a perfect microcosm of that phenomenon. In most years, a top-5 finish with the Big Ten’s Player of the Year, likely the nation’s Player of the Year and an entire season spent inside the top-15 nationally would be considered a raging success. But this year’s perception is likely to come down to the finish. Expectations entering this season were sky high with visions of a Big Ten regular season championship and a trip to the Final Four.