Soil Compilation

Music
Gin Blossoms Live at Hy-Vee Ampitheater

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On a cool night, somewhere in between the last days of summer and first days of fall, the finale to the Hy-Vee Ampitheater’s inaugural season took place. Starring Arizona’s Gin Blossoms, hundreds turned out on their feet for the band in North Liberty’s newest venue.

Sports
Around the Big Ten – Week Three

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Week two of college football gave us a pair of early Game of the Year candidates. Unfortunately for the Big Ten, those games came at their expense. This week, we’ll take a look at Iowa’s cathartic win over Iowa State, Oregon’s early-season struggles, and Ohio State’s meltdown against Texas.

Sports
Around the Big Ten – Week Two

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Week one of college football is in the rearview, but it feels like we’ve somehow already experienced a full season’s worth of drama. This week, we’ll dive into the (lack of) updates about Iowa’s quarterback battle, the “Bail Mary” in Ann Arbor, and the stakes of this weekend’s Ohio State-Texas game.

Sports
Quinn Douglas

First To The Punch: Iowa’s offensive line aims for quicker starts in 2019

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A phrase heard often among the Iowa offensive lineman on Friday was “First to the punch”. The phrase came about from the group’s desire to start games faster in 2019 than in 2018. Iowa’s stalwart offensive tackles, Tristan Wirfs and Alaric Jackson, echoed that sentiment while talking to the media. “A big thing for us is just starting fast, coming out here to practice we want to set the tempo and set the tempo in the game,” Wirfs said. “Coming off the ball, hitting people in the mouth is gonna be a big stepping stone in getting our run game … Continued

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Switch in defenses shows no problem for veteran Iowa group

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Halfway through the 2018 season, Phil Parker and Kirk Ferentz made the executive decision to switch Iowa’s long-standing, trademark 4-3 defense to a 4-2-5 defense, similar to what teams in pass-happy Big 12 run. But, as history shows anywhere, a major change in philosophy usually results in growing pains. The initial runs went well against Minnesota, Indiana and Maryland, as they were teams who didn’t possess the firepower to exploit the new look. That all changed in the Hawkeyes loss to Penn State, which was the first of 3 consecutive losses that dashed Iowa’s hopes of getting to Indianapolis in … Continued

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Nurse, Iowans celebrate Carroll native’s first NBA Championship

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JEFFERSON, Iowa – A small, yet spirited crowd of friends, family, locals and proud Iowans filed into the Wild Rose Casino outside of Jefferson to celebrate the accomplishments of Carroll native and Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. Prior to the event, Nurse met with a handful of reporters to discuss life after winning an NBA Championship for not just a franchise, but for an entire country, as the Raptors became the first team outside the United States to win an NBA Championship when they defeated the Golden State Warriors 4-2 in the 2019 NBA Finals. “The last two weeks … Continued

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Definitive Douglas Draft Board: 2019 NFL Draft 1st Round Mock 2.0 (UPDATED)

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The NFL Draft is coming up on Thursday Night and the mock drafts are running rampant throughout the football social media world. I, unfortunately, do not have the time nor knowledge to put together a multiple round mock draft, but the first-round should be plenty. So without further adieu, the Definitive Douglas Draft Board: 1) Arizona Cardinals: Kyler Murray, QB, Oklahoma Despite reports coming out of the Cardinals camp that the organization is moving on from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, we have seen smokescreens like this before. Kliff Kingsbury’s offensive philosophy matched with Kyler Murray’s dual-threat prowess is just … Continued

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Iowa silences noisy Illini in tournament opener, 83-62

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Many weren’t sure what to expect from the Hawkeyes in their opening game of the 2019 Big Ten Tournament. Since Fran McCaffery took over, the Hawkeyes had a record of only 3-8 in Big Ten tournament play and had been the only team in the conference that had failed to reach the quarterfinals since 2014. Iowa was also on a four-game losing skid. For 40 minutes, the Hawkeyes beat Illinois like they stole something. Iowa scored their first win since their overtime victory against Illinois back on February 22 in Carver. The Hawkeyes had four players in double figures and … Continued

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Hawkeyes dominate 5th-ranked Michigan, 74-59.

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Iowa’s season was at another crossroads: They had just had a bad loss up at Minnesota, giving up 92 points and were still reeling off a huge, 2nd half collapse against Michigan State at home. The foe was #5 Michigan, and very few gave Iowa a chance. So what did, Iowa do? They went out and beat the Wolverines by 15 points. The win was as dominant as the score indicated, as Iowa led for 30:44 of the game’s 40 minutes against a Michigan team that prides themselves on controlling the tempo. The Hawkeyes forced the Wolverines to shoot 33 … Continued

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Iowa barrage buries Illinois in the 2nd half, 95-71

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Iowa’s offense had struggled in the first half, outside of Joe Wieskamp knocking down four threes on four attempts, the Iowa offense had been pretty quiet. The Hawkeyes held for the final shot where Connor McCaffery found Isaiah Moss wide open for a three, which Moss nailed as the buzzer sounded on the first half. That was only the beginning. For the next three minutes of game play, the Hawkeyes nailed SIX three pointers and took their lead from 43-31 to 58-42. Isaiah Moss buried four threes in the second half, five in all as he finished with 21 points … Continued

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All are involved in Hawkeyes demolition of Savannah State

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It’s not very often in Division I college basketball that you get the chance to empty your bench the way Iowa did on Saturday afternoon. It’s even more rare when everyone scores, including all of the walk-ons. But, that’s exactly what happened in Iowa’s 110-64 win against the Savannah State Tigers. In the win Iowa set a new school record with 19 made threes, ironically the previous record, 18, was set in 2016 against the same Savannah State team. “It depends on the style you do it in” Fran McCaffery said of the 42 threes Iowa took as a team. … Continued

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Gustafson wills Hawkeyes to in-state sweep over Drake

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I don’t know how many times it has to be reiterated, but Megan Gustafson is arguably the best player in all of women’s college basketball and she supported that argument Thursday night with another All-American performance. She finished with 44 points (19 in the fourth quarter) and 14 rebounds in Iowa’s 91-82 win over Drake in the Knapp Center. “The best I can do is to set myself up so my teammates can get me a good pass” Gustafson said of her herculean fourth quarter. “It’s really important for me to have good footwork and to seal myself and be … Continued

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