RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

I'm Picking Iowa State To Win the National Championship


By RON MALY

Nice going, Iowa State and Iowa. 

It's good to have both of you among the 68 teams chosen today to play in the NCAA's Big Dance basketball extravaganza.

The Cyclones are a No. 3 seed, Iowa faces a play-in game Wednesday night against Tennessee just to become a No. 11 seed.

No surprise there.

Iowa State is a much better team than Iowa.

The Cyclones defeated the Hawkeyes at Ames in December, and there's a much wider separation  between the strength of the teams now. 

Indeed, the Cyclones [who just won the tournament championship in the Big 12, the toughest collegiate conference in America] are much better than a lot of teams now. 

In fact, I'm so sold on coach Fred Hoiberg and his players that I'm picking them to win the national championship. 

[I'm writing that partially because I just saw Dick Vitale and several other non-stop talkers on ESPN predict that Michigan State will win the title, and beat Iowa State en route to the Final Four]. 

I'll take Iowa State in a matchup with the Spartans anytime. 

Hoiberg is my choice for national coach of the year, and I think his team will continue to improve through the NCAA tournament.

Some teams get better as the season moves along,  and Iowa State is one of them.

I covered Hoiberg in his days as a Cyclone player, and I was sold on him then, just as I'm sold on him now. 

The man is a winner, and his coaching has made Iowa State a huge winner. 

I think his Cyclones can now beat any team in the nation. 

As for Iowa, it has lost six of its last seven games and everyone is looking for answers to questions about what has gone wrong with a team that was very good early at the start and middle of the season to very bad at the end of the season. 

I hope the team shrink or somebody can figure out what's happened to the offense and the defense because March would be a lot more fun for the fans who keep wondering how players who were supposed to have all that talent can keep losing.

But the way the Hawkeyes have been playing, it's difficult to expect them to beat Tennessee in Wednesday's play-in game. 

They couldn't survive against Big Ten also-rans Illinois and Northwestern in their last two games, so I can see no logical reason why they should be able to make a magical recovery now.