If You Build It, They Will Come

 Congrats to Kiah Stokes (Cedar Rapids) on winning her 2nd consecutive WNBA title with the Las Vegas Aces!  

 We are down to our final two baseball teams this year, and just as expected it will be Houston vs. Atlanta ..... wait its actually Texas vs. Arizona?  Crazy year, the Twins won a playoff game and Max Scherzer is in the World Series with Texas instead of the Mets. As far as Iowa Connections go, we have 1 connection between the two teams, and its Dane Dunning of the Texas Rangers.  Dane pitched for the Waterloo Bucks back in 2014.   However, lets dig deeper and see who on these teams has those secondary connections.  By that, I mean players who played minor league ball for one of the Iowa minor league teams.  They include teams from Cedar Rapids, Burlington, Quad Cities, Clinton and of course Iowa (Cubs).   Note: I used Baseball reference to pull the list of players who played for each team this season Note: Italics for coaches, bold for current active roster/staff

   Here's my updated list for Iowa Connections on NBA teams.  There are 27 connections at the start of the 2023-24 season.  Connections are sparser than the NFL, so I will only list teams with connections.  Looks like we are cheering for a Milwaukee/ Phoenix Finals this year! (Shout out to Sacramento, Utah, Golden State, Dallas, Indiana and Atlanta)  Note: Coaches/Staff in  italics . Note: These players/coaches/staff are not with NBA teams this after they were last year:  Nate Bjorkgren  (Buena Vista),  Paul Jesperson  (UNI),  Mike Dunlap  (Iowa),  Dave Joerger  (Cedar Rapids River Raiders), Al McCoy (Drake), Aaron Nelson (ISU) Note: This will change as players get added throughout the season and as I discover assistant gms that went to Iowa colleges.  Some names to watch include: Tyger Campbell, Terry Stotts, and  Joe Wieskamp