If You Build It, They Will Come

 Its been a couple of months now, and I am still Wander-less.  I have purchased 3 blasters, 1 hanger and 1 jumbo pack and have not had the pleasure of pulling his rookie card.  Yes, I have found his Home Run Challenge card and a couple of the cards with Vlad, but no base.   Prices on his base rookie have dropped a bit as supply has started to fill up.  We all knew that would keep value down, but I really would like to have one of his flagship rookies.  A Heritage or Bowman would be neat, but I'm a basic guy so I'd like the one with a pretty cool photo. Now, I could just buy it.  Nothing is stopping me.  I'm pretty much done with sorting 2022 Topps at this point, there is no insert set that is really grabbing me that I need to get.  So it make sense to just buy the single card.  But.....gosh it is way more fun to pull one out of a pack. That why I'm here.  I love this hobby, and I want to have fun with it.  I want to collect the players I want and bust packs and share th

By now you've probably heard the news that Twitter is about to be bought out by Elon Musk.  Regardless of your feeling about him, this has the potential to upend how Twitter is used in the hobby, and this has many people scared.  With Elon in charge, we don't know if the man child will decide to add 69 to the end of everyone's handles for fun, or if the man who built Tesla will have some good ideas for the platform.  I have opinions, mostly centered around the idea that being incredibly successful in one realm doesn't always translate to other realms (see Steve Balmer's Clippers, Oprah's TV channel, Isaiah Thomas as a coach, etc.)  There is a conversation to be had about the balance between free speech within a private companies digital space vs. the safety of those effected by said free speech, but I won't start that here. For now I will remain hopeful. I've had this post percolating in my head for a bit, and the Twitter news made me want to get it down

   Now, the NBA will tell you that the playoffs actually start after the play-in games, but this is Blog Town and I set the rules here.  NBA playoffs start now, and we can determine the teams that should win. Now let's recap the Iowa Connections from the start of the season.   Nick Nurse 3 - Toronto :               Nick Nurs e (UNI),  Trevor Gleeson  (Iowa Energy),  Nate Bjorkgren  (Buena Vista) 2 - Chicago :      Tyler Cook  (Iowa)   ,  Matt Thomas (ISU) 2 - San Antonio:        Joe Wieskamp (Iowa),    Doug McDermott (Ames) 2 - Denver :           Monte Morris (ISU),  Ryan Bowen  (Iowa) 2 - Sacramento :        Harrison Barnes  (Ames),  Tyrese Haliburton (ISU) 1 - Philadelphia :       Georges Niang (ISU) 1 - Detroit :                Luka Garza  (Iowa) 1 - Los Angeles Lakers :     Talen Horton-Tucker (ISU) 1 - Phoenix :      Abdel Nader (ISU) 1 - Houston :             Jeff Hornacek  (ISU)

 We have new champions in both the Men's and Women's tournaments (Congrats Kansas and South Carolina).  What began with such hope and excitement for the Iowa teams led to disappointment...but hope for next year.   Across the Iowa Connections we have 10 potential collections in the future (including 2 that already have cards on TCDB: Caitlin Clark and Keegan Murray)   Before moving on to next year, lets take a moment to celebrate this year.  We have an Iowa Connection on the National Champion Kansas team, and an Iowa Connection on the NIT Champion Xavier.  Let's start with the Women's teams. Iowa State Cyclones 28-7 (14-4) finishing 2nd in the Big 12 #3 Seed in the tournament making it to the Sweet Sixteen Potential Cards in the Future: Ashley Joens (1st Round Mock 2023 Draft) Emily Ryan (1st Round Mock 2024 Draft) Lexi Donarski (1st Round Mock 2024 Draft) Aubrey Joens (3rd Round Mock 2024 Draft) Iowa Hawkeyes 25-7 (14-4) finishing 1st in the Big 10 and winning Big 1