***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

That's a hell of a year. The year is determined by how you finish. Unless you win the regular season conference title and have some "forever hardware" to say otherwise your year is defined by how you finish.
High level, sure, I agree with you. Twenty years from now, all most casual fans will know is that there is an Elite Eight banner hanging. But I’m in this for the entertainment, and there’s no way I’d suggest Iowa’s total body of work this year was remotely close to as interesting or entertaining as Iowa State’s. We had substantially more entertaining games and big wins to enjoy. Would I have traded many of those wins for one more win (Elite Eight)? No, probably not. Would I have traded those for two more wins (Final Four)? Yeah, definitely.