Iowa did not accomplish all of its goals during the 2017-18 NCAA season, but when you're setting the bar at the nigh impossibly high level the Hawkeyes, very rarely is that even possible.

However, Iowa won the Midlands in late December, always an important tournament for the black and gold, and finished third in the NCAA team race in March. That was good enough for a team trophy and better than many pundits had the men from Iowa City pegged at the beginning of the season.

To get a better sense of the ups and downs of the Hawkeyes' season, we took each week's projected NCAA team tournament points based on our individual rankings from the entire season and plotted it on a graph. The annotated results are below.

To see those week-by-week projected point totals in table form, see below.

The expectations always run high for the Hawkeyes, but coming into the season the mood was tempered by the departure of a massive amount of graduating team points. Cory Clark, Thomas Gilman, and Sammy Brooks all graduated after the 2017 season, taking with them nine All-American honors and a shedload of team points.

There were also a lot of unanswered questions about the Hawkeyes in the fall of 2017. Would Edinboro transfer Pat Lugo redshirt this season? Would true frosh superstar Spencer Lee keep his redshirt on all year? Will redshirt freshman Alex Marinelli be healthy and effective this season? And finally, will the mercurial Pat Downey be eligible for the Hawkeyes? 

Cutting to the chase, the answer to those questions would be yes, no, yes, and no, respectively. So there were no bumps for Lugo or PDIII during the 2017-18 season, but there was a big simultaneously bump for when Lee tore his redshirt off and when Marinelli was inserted into the lineup and promptly began tearing up the 165-pound weight class. 

Those two hammers were enough to even out a lineup that also featured returning All-Americans Brandon Sorenson and Michael Kemerer at 149 and 157, respectively, and a healthy Sam Stoll anchoring the lineup. 

After an undefeated, if uneasy, dual meet season in the fall, things started to jell for the Hawkeyes at Midlands, which Iowa won for the 27th time with five champs. By February, Lee and Marinelli were both ranked in the top five, with eyes on NCAA tournament glory. 

A brutal Big Ten schedule caught up with the Hawkeyes though and dual meet loses to Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State but a damper on Iowa's emergent team title hopes. A fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships did little to pick those hopes back up.

The crucible is the NCAA tournament as always, and in Cleveland, the Hawkeyes acquitted themselves admirably. Though their team championship drought continued, they were able to outplace their conference finish, standing alone in third, and most importantly with another individual national champ in Lee. 

Lee's dominant run through a stacked 125-pound bracket—featuring two NCAA champs—did wonders to assuage concerns of Hawkeye nation. Lee's gifts to Iowa fans of four bonus-point wins in Cleveland had folks in Iowa already salivating about the next three years. 

Thanks to Spencer and friends, the future looks bright in Iowa City.