That is what gets lost in translation. They weren't even that good, yet their fans were incessant about claiming the national championship. I think Jorbo even sarcastically or not sarcastically tweeted something along those lines. Too lazy to go check.
That was a pre-Murray team, but had a ton of upperclassmen on it. Garza, Kriener, Jorbo, and Nunge. Connor was also in his 3rd season as a RS SO, but was having statistically his worst season. Wieskamp and Frederick were decent to good players as sophomores. That may have been the year Frederick got hurt and then transferred to Kentucky. Where he now kind of sucks.
They were a classic Fran team with good old guys that knew how to play together but certainly had a low ceiling/high floor.
If you look back at how the field was projected (various analysts/sites/bracket people), Iowa would have been around 5 or 6 seed range. No way that was set up for a deep run, and UI might not have gotten out of first weekend.