Hilton Magic

A couple of lines I'd like to point out. First, is Rashon Clark. 10 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 1 turnover in 27 minutes. He was phenomonal and this is exactly what we need out of our role players. Stinson went 23-6-4 and Blalock was 11-6-5 on points, rebounds, and assists. They both played pretty solid games and, for the most part, didn't try to force too much. Still missed a few layups and took it in when nothing was there but much less than normal. One example that sticks out in my mind is when Stinson had the ball in what was essentially a 3-5 break. In other games he might have tried to take it in but he held back for a second and found his man get behind the OU players for the easy lay-in.

This was a nice win but it is so frustrating because effort like this could have led to wins against Xavier, Mizzou, Kansas State, and Colorado just to name a few. It wasn't even like ISU played that great either. Free throw shooting was horrible at 22-39, 56%. The defense has been there most of the year but the offense looked a lot better today as they were the ones controlling the tempo. When they were forced to go into their halfcourt offense they had crisp passes and worked it inside to the bigs. ESPN said they didnt have a single basket outside of 10 feet. That's a pretty amazing stat.

Baylor comes into town on Tuesday. It's certainly a winnable game but Baylor is a lot better and it could be loseable if they play like they did against CU. I feel a lot better about the team now that Staple has played well in the last two games and some of the freshman are stepping up more often. The question is, what took so long?

Well, it's just about right that just when I write this team off they find a way to get a big win. OU certainly had to be one of the hottest teams coming off their crushing win over OSU on Big Monday last week. The Cyclones? Well, things were headed south.

So, how can the same team that loses to Colorado at home beat a top 15 ballclub? Well, it had to do with effort. The first 2 minutes I thought I was looking forward to another lackluster performance out of the team after the Sooners scored 2 easy baskets but the big men, especially Damion Staple, weren't going to let that happen today. Staple scored the first 6 points and Homan scored the next four. Both tightened up their defense and grabbed some boards in the stretch too.

Much has been made about the lack of production outside of the Big Three of Stinson, Blalock, and Homan. That certainly wasn't the case today. After the Staple/Homan stretch Carr and Clark combined to score the next 7 points and ISU is ahead 17-11 before Stinson or Blalock even get inthe scoring column with just over 7 minutes left in the half. This is exactly what the team has been missing.

I'll put some more up when the official box score with rebounds and assists comes up but there will be some guys with some very nice box scores today.

Hey, I'm sure if you're one of my two loyal readers you noticed I didn't post about the KSU game. Pretty much because it was the same stuff that's happened all year and it's getting harder for me to justify making time to write about this stuff. It's been a disappointing and frustrating season for the Cyclones. They have too much talent to be this bad. They do have a lot of holes that need to be filled but the "Big Three" all had the potential for all-Big 12 seasons and haven't met up with expectations, especially in the win column. I'll admit that I don't understand what is happening with this team. I'd like to believe that Morgan can be a good coach but it's difficult to defend him when looking at this team. No one seems concerned about doing the little things that need to be done to be successful. Rumors have been circulating about team chemistry which is probably having a big effect if true. My question is, where is the leadership to stop that stuff? A senior with as much experience as Homan should be in that role. Two sophomore guards with as much talent as Stinson and Blalock should be able to demand respect from younger players. Maybe they are the problem, who knows? What I do know is that I really miss Jake Sullivan and Jackson Vroman. They may not have made an NCAA tourney together but they were going to play hard every night and were guys that could be leaders on and off the court.

I'll watch the OU game today but I'm not holding out much hope, I guess. The team has had chances to step it up but I'm not really going to believe it until I see it. There's still a chance to end that road losing streak this year but it's really going to take a better effort than we've seen from this team in a long time.

That was one of the worst losses I've ever seen as an ISU fan. It didn't reach Hamptom standards but it was close as far as sheer improbability of it. Going into the game Colorado had won in Ames exactly one time in the last two decades and they are a horrible team. So, the Cyclones come out flat and manage to score 20 points in the first half (including 2 free throws from a technical foul before the game even started). The team acted like all they had to do was show up and they would win this game. Do they not realize that they started 0-3 in the conference? Do they not realize that they have zero quality wins at this point so they might want to pick up a few wins in general if they want to go to the NCAA tournament? This was pathetic. There is no excuse to lose to Colorado in Ames this year. The problems were the same they have been all year. Let's go through them even though it's a broken record.

No outside shooting
2-15 from three point land. Curtis Stinson 0-5, John Neal 0-4. Neither one of these guys can shoot. Gary Thompson was saying that Neal can hit them all day in practice but other than two times in his career its never shown up in a game.

No halfcourt offense
We only had 8 fast break points last night. CU did a good job of stopping the break and not letting the ball inside. We had to shoot jump shots all game and we obviously can't do that.

Poor effort on defensive end
CU couldn't hit anything but they were open plenty of times and especially at key moments. We couldn't finish the game in regulation or overtime because we couldn't get a stop when we needed one.

No rebounding
CU 52 ISU 31 It's unconscionable that we would be outrebounded by over 20. It seemed like CU was getting 2 or 3 shots every trip down the court. It's tough to rebound in a zone but that is just an excuse for poor effort.

Horrible shot selection
The big three shot a combined 15-44. Homan shot another three (1-8 on the year...just stop). We have the ball with 8 seconds left and need a bucket. After the timeout Stinson pulls up and shoots a three. First of all, he can't hit them. Second, please, please, please tell me that wasn't the play that Wayne Morgan called. Please. Twice we had the ball with a chance to win or tie and we blew both of them.

I want to believe that Morgan is a good coach but I'm just not seeing it. Getting to the NCAA's was probably pretty tough for this team but there's no excuse for how they've played.

Well, the big surprise of the weekend was that the Cyclones went down in defeat to the Cowboys in Stillwater. They've got something like a twenty-some game home winning streak and well, we all know about ISU on the road. Anyway, despite the seemingly inevitable outcome the team actually played pretty well. They fought hard and, in my opinion, outplayed OSU for a majority of the game. The last minute of the first half and the first part of the second half is where OSU really made there run.

My biggest complaint about the game was the officiating. I know that the better team will get the majority of the calls, especially at home, but OSU got away with murder while the Cyclones had fouls called just for looking at a guy. ISU's favorite referree managed to make his presence known. Curtis Shaw managed to throw out his third Cyclone coach in the last five years. Considering how rare it is that coaches are actually tossed and this is quite a feat. Shaw was the same referee that tossed Eustachy in the Michigan State game in 2000 and was suspended from the SEC tournament for flipping off a group of Auburn fans in the regular season finale. Not only did he throw Morgan out but threatened to throw the radio announcers out!

They came back from commercial break and were describing what Morgan did to get tossed and mentioned some of the questionable calls that led up to that moment. Shaw turns to them and says "you'd better find something else to talk about or you'll be joining him." John Walters responded that maybe he should pay a little more attention to what was in front of him on the court. It's just unconscionable that someone like him can't keep his head in the game enough to block out what the announcers were saying about him. I guess when you're as terrible as he is you tend to have some thin skin.

ISU's athletic department needs to make it clear to the Big 12 that this idiot better not be stepping foot onto the court in any other games that the Cyclones are playing. He obviously has some bias against ISU and is essentially starting any ISU coach off with one T.

I'm a little late in my update but I don't like writing right after the game is over and I was dealing with some stuff all day yesterday so, here it is.

This game was one of the most anticipated in Ames in recent years as everything was setting up beautifully for an upset. #2 Kansas coming into Hilton just a few days after winning an emotional game against Kentucky in a game that potentially cost them a few of their key players when they were already playing without Wayne Simien. ISU has been a team that plays the role of world-beaters at home and doormats on the road. The Coliseum was packed to the rafter with thousands of fans braving single digit temperatures and a potential ice/snowstorm to cheer the Cyclones to victory.

Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way. The opening tip went to Kansas and that possession would be an unfortunate precursor to what was to come as an easy backdoor alley-oop to Giles gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Any hope of KU exhibiting a similar shooting performance they displayed a few days earlier in Kentucky went out the window as they hit a blistering 11 out of their first 14 shots, including 5 three pointers. Curtis Stinson was the exact opposite of this missing 11 of his first 12 and finishing 6-20. I've got a post waiting to happen on Stinson and what his problems have been.

Anyway, now it's on to Oklahoma State game. Gallagher-Iba has been absolutely brutal to the Clones and I think they've lost 11 in a row there or something so I'm not expecting much.

Do you ever get the feeling that this conference road losing streak will never end? How many close calls have they endured in the last few years? Much like the Kansas game last year ISU gave up a late run to lose a close one. And much like the Kansas and Nebraska games there were some pretty bad calls down the stretch that really hurt the Clones.

The first half was shaping up to be a lot like the Xavier game. The team looked tired, they weren't playing very tough defense, they were giving up too many offensive rebounds, etc. But, in the second half, for a 13 or 14 minute stretch they really turned it on like I know they are capable of doing. The halfcourt defense was stifling and forced a lot of turnovers which is really what turned the game around. The team got some momentum going which led to some offensive rhythm. Guys like Staple actually started making some layups.

Speaking of layups, I think I'm going to rant for a second. How is it possible that this team misses as many layups as they do? They're probably shooting about 50% on them for the year! So many times I just want to scream at them to grab the ball and dunk it instead of trying to take a few dribbles or tip in the ball. Is there a way to teach that? Get them stronger? Practice them? I don't know.

ANyway, Staple played tough during this stretch and got a few buckets and boards. Where has he been this season? I'm not sure. But, he had 6 points during the 28-4 run and Stinson had 9 to go from 12 down to ahead by 12. Unfortunately (there's always an unfortunately coming when ISU plays on the road), this is where things went wrong. The key moment seems to come right after Mizzou hits a three to cut it to 9 and the TV timeout at 3:53. ISU obviously slowed the game down to run some clock which seems like a smart choice except that the Cyclones have essentially no half-court offense. That said, I still like the call because we were putting teams away like that at the end of last year when Stinson would absolutely take over the game. Whenever he tried to do that today he would get mugged and stripped of the ball. The team's collective sphincter tightened up and reverted to their ole' defense and giving Mizzou three point play opportunities. Some of these were horrible calls (Clark's foul on Horton at 1:53) and others were just poor defense (Staple's on Kleiza). So, the story ends with ISU down by three and John Neal getting an open look to tie that bounces long.

I don't know what's going on with Neal's shot but he doesn't even look like he's setting up when he shoots. His first two three attempts looked like he just threw them up hoping it would find the bucket somehow. There are no outside shooters on the team which is really hurting them because there's no one for Stinson and Blalock to kick out to and keep defenses honest. That's where Sullivan's absence is really killing them. Just putting him out on the court meant that defenses had to stay out near the line.

When it comes down to it it's another road loss and the gorilla on their back keeps getting larger and larger. This game really would have helped them get the Big 12 season started right with two top ten teams up next. There's still time to get things going but this road thing is getting pretty old. The questions about Wayne Morgan are getting louder. Somewhat unfairly, in my opinion, but I'll save that for another post.

ISU's road woes continued with a loss to Xavier. I'm not sure what the exact record is but I can only think of two road wins over a major conference team in the last three years, Iowa and Florida State. Pretty bad.

It played out like so many of those other road games during that stretch. I'm settling into my chair to watch the Cyclones get going on the road. Usually the game is following some big win at home and I'm thinking a road win can really get things going for them. Then the game starts and the other team jumps out early. Well, in this case it was really early because they led 1-0 before the game even started due to a technical foul for not turning the starting lineups in early enough. Things look great so far.

The game continues and I start to get concerned because the same things that always plague them are happening again. Missed layups, lazy defense, NO blocking out, poor rebounding. I keep hoping that they'll wake up and make a run. Sometimes they do and it turns out to be a single digit loss and other times it goes in the opposite direction. Tonight was a little of both because they tried to make a run but every single basket to cut it to 7 or 9 was immediately followed up with a possession allowing 3 or 4 offensive rebounds or a wide-open three or a fast break layup. It's getting so old. I really feel like I could just tape one of the games and watch it over and over. Boston College, Kansas State, Baylor, Nebraska, Iowa, Northern Iowa, Xavier, it doesn't matter who it is. They have been capable of putting up a good, solid effort against a good team like Kansas last year or Iowa this year but the norm is still a lazy effort with sloppy basketball.

The team really needed this win for a potential NCAA bid but with the way they lost that is more of a pipe dream than anything else. There's still a lot of basketball to play but the team has looked inspired in two, maybe three games. I thought they really played well against Drake, Iowa, and Virginia. In all of the other games they were coasting against a nobody or getting their asses handed to them. Where is the emotional leader on the team? Curtis wears his emotions on his sleeve on the court but he can look like one of the worst offenders when it comes to playing below your potential.

Obviously the team is missing Vroman and Sullivan a lot. Rebounding and outside shooting have been atrocious so far. Stinson seems content to jack up fall-away threes when he doesn't feel like driving in, Neal either never sees the floor or can't hit when he does play, Homan still thinks he can shoot from downtown despite his 1-6 performance so far, Blalock's shooting a decent 39%, Davis is hitting 56% but has only attempted 9. Obviously there are no serious deep threats on the team which can kill you in the college game.

The team seems to have no concept of blocking your man out when the shot goes up. I understand that it's difficult in a zone but Cage was all over the boards yesterday and Xavier had a ton of 2nd and 3rd chance points. Honestly they remind me of a junior high team when 3 guys (usually the two guards are looking for the fast break) stand there with their arms up when somebody slices through for an easy putback.

If the team doesn't find some heart it's going to be another season of thrilling home victories, frustrating road losses, and a date in the NIT.