If You Build It, They Will Come

 I made a post recently about one of my non-Iowa collections.  It was my Minnesota Vikings Schedule collection, where I try to find a card with a photo from each game of the season.  It's probably never going to be a complete collection for reasons, but fun to collect non the less. I've been mildly working on that collection since Covid, and it took until today for me to have the most obvious of epiphanies.  "I can also collect the Iowa teams schedules!"   Probably I didn't think about this is because it is much harder to collect.  I'll use Iowa Hawkeyes Football for reference.  Each year there are about 0-4 players drafted which make up a majority of the college cards.  Each set does not use college uniforms, mostly early release sets or the SAGE types.  So the pool I have to pull from is much smaller. Who cares!  I'm going to see what I have! I'll start with Iowa Hawkeyes football, and rummage through my duplicates.  Let's see what we can find.

Little late getting this out, but we are still in the first round.   In determining who to root for in the 2022-23 NBA Playoffs, we need to review who the Iowa Connections are for the playoff teams.  Congrats to Milwaukee!  You are this blog's choice to win it all! 1 - Denver - Ryan Bowen, Coach (Fort Madison) 1 - Minnesota - Luka Garza (Iowa) 2 - Sacramento - Keegan Murray (Iowa), Harrison Barnes (Ames) 1 - Golden State - Klint Carlson, Coach (Waverly) 0 - Los Angeles Lakers 1 - Memphis - Brad Jones, Coach (Iowa Wolves) 0 - Los Angeles Clippers 2 - Phoenix - Al McCoy, Announcer (Williams), Kevin Young, Coach (Iowa Energy) 3 - Milwaukee - Mike Dunlap, Coach (Iowa), A.J. Green (Northern Iowa), Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State) 0 - Miami 0 - Boston 2 - Atlanta - Paul Jesperson, Coach (Northern Iowa), Kyle Korver, Front Office (Pella) 2 - Philadelphia - Dave Joerger, Coach (Cedar Rapids), Georges Niang (Iowa State) 0 - Brooklyn 1 - Cleveland - Josh Broghamer, Coach (Iowa City) 0 - New Yo

 What wonders a collector's brain can come up with when left with boxes of commons and nothing but time.  That's what happened to me during the years of Covid home work time and boxes of commons that I went through over and over again. I grew up rooting for the Vikings since my dad grew up in Minnesota, and my brother started collecting Buffalo Bills because Thurman Thomas was awesome when we were kids.  We still collect these teams today, maybe a little less so, but still have decent collections.   Decent collections lead to lots of duplicates.  Decent collections lead to look at weird things like other players on cards.  Even on other team cards.  This Mike Singletary card seems to have him tackling Darrin Nelson, do I add this card to the Darrin Nelson collection? Then one day, you look at a card and think, "I wonder what game this was?"  Then the trouble question crosses your mind.  "I wonder if I can a card with a photo from EVERY game?"

 Its been a few weeks now, but 2023 Topps Series I is out and its time to find the Iowa Connections.  Connections include players born in Iowa, played semi-pro ball in Iowa, played for a club team in Iowa, or played in the Field of Dreams game.  #95 Jonah Bride - Waterloo Bucks #97 Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #128 Alec Bohm - Iowa Select Black #T88-92 Ryne Sandberg - Iowa Cubs Manager BSA-AP A.J. Puk - Cedar Rapids BSA-DD Dane Dunning - Waterloo Bucks #97 SSP Brandon Hughes - Field of Dreams Game #120 SSP Patrick Wisdom - Field of Dreams Game #54 SSP Marcus Stroman - Field of Dreams Game #183 SSP Seiya Suzuki - Field of Dreams Game #308 SSP Christopher Morel - Field of Dreams Game #33 SSP Kyle Farmer - Field of Dreams Game

 I sat down today ready to dive into 2022-23 Bowman University.  I wanted to review last years set, look into the numbers and see if I could guess who might be on the checklist this year.  But the more I dug, the more I realized it just isn't feasible.   This is what I'm thinking.  Since the checklists are comprised of college students not being represented by a single entity, each player has to make their own deal with Topps.  I think that some NIL groups make it easier to get a team as a whole, but don't quote me on that.  Regardless, it does shape how Topps can build their checklist. Last years set was interesting to review as it had future NBA players such as Chet Holmgren, Keegan Murray and Walker Kessler, but missed out on 4 of the top 6 draft picks (Paulo Banchero, Jabari Smith, Jaden Ivey and Bennedict Mathurin).   I don't know the reasons, so I can only speculate.  Topps was not owned by Fanatics at the time, thus was not the future of basketball cards (Panini)