Hilton Magic

Unfinished business

2005-04-29T18:35:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen one of those stores that you might visit sometimes or at least walk by a lot and then one day you notice it's closed? You walk by day after day and the lights are always off and you wonder what happened. Suddenly an "out of business" sign is on the front door and they're loading boxes into a U-Haul out front?

Well, today is that day for the Hilton Magic blog. My two readers may have noticed that I hadn't really posted anything since the UNC loss and even that was a pretty weak post. I guess running a business is a lot like creating a good blog. In order to succeed you really need to be dedicated to your craft. I had big plans when I started this project but soon found that I really didn't have to committment to writing and researching everything I wanted to do. I tried to keep up with my game reports but deep down I knew that it just wasn't going to be the product that I wanted to put out there. So, if I can't create a quality product I'm not going to put anything out at all. Well, that's probably not true. I may pop back in from time to time to post some thoughts since I think next year is shaping up to be a big time year for Cyclones basketball.

Well, maybe I should write something now just for old time's sake. Just about everyone is coming back from this year's team and it appears that Homan and Staple will be replaced by two top 50 ranked big men in Shawn Taggart and Theo Davis. Both of them are bigtime recruits and should be more than servicable for the guards who will be the leaders of the team. Should be an exciting year.

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. I enjoyed it.

Cyclones fall in 2nd round

2005-03-20T15:46:00.000-06:00

Just a few quick notes. I've never taken well to losing in the tournament so I don't really feel like writing too much.

Homan finished his season like an amazing player. He was a real man today and the guards didn't help him out much on the defensive end.

Billy Packer is a fucking idiot. I can't stand him. Seriously. Idiot. Almost everything he said today was wrong from his obsession with elbows acting like ISU was playing cheap when NC did that the entire game to saying that ISU was national wrestling champs. Everything says is usually followed with umm....ok.

UNC is a hell of a team. I really thought that ISU had a chance in this one but they are so good about getting their shots. I think that kind of got in our guys' heads a little bit in the late 1st and early 2nd half. UNC is just the most athletic team in the country and that pass that will work agaisnt Kansas doesn't work against them and they'll get their fingertips on that rebound to keep it alive. It's tough to beat a team like that especially when you miss some makeable shots like we did.

Why do I let Billy Packer get to me like that?

ISU really had one chance to get back in the game with Clark at the line shooting two with a chance to cut it to 11. Like most of our other free throws he missed them and UNC scores a bucket, Stinson turns it over, and UNC dunks to push it to 17. Of course as soon as we cut it to 11 Billy Packer was completely oblivious to the game situation and wanting Roy to sit Felton for the rest of the game. Nantz finally said something about the 11-4 run.

I just want to say that it was a hell of a season for Wayne Morgan and this team. They had some early struggles but they really came together and made it a season to remember. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next year.

Cyclones roll past Gophers

2005-03-18T18:05:00.000-06:00

A nearly dominant performance by the Cyclones today against Minnesota. Once ISU got the lead they kept it pretty much in check except for two or three moments where I got pretty nervous. When Stinson was hurt and Carr picked up his fourth I was starting to grip a little bit but they managed to survive that. The other moment was after the 12 point lead was cut to 7 and ISU was turning it over but they made a few key shots and hit their free throws.

My player of the game has to be Jared Homan. He absolutely destroyed Minny's seven footer picking up 14 poitns, 13 rebounds, and 7 blocks. The guy was afraid to shoot over Homan because it would be sent back into his face. You can tell that Jared is majorly pumped to play in the tourney.

Stinson was also nails as usual but everybody really seemed to be impressed by Clark's game. He's such an athlete that you can tell he has the potential to be a special player at ISU. His intesity really drives the defense.

Carolina is up next. It's going to take a great effort for ISU to win and they'll need UNC to miss some three pointers to have a chance but I think it's possible. The players are going to have to stay out of foul trouble because they're going to need the starting five on the floor as much as possible and Carr is going to need to provide a meaningful contribution off the bench.

A good SI writeup of some interesting things from the game including Aaron Agnew going Shaq on one of the goals and some glowing reviews of Clark and ISU's defense.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

2005-03-16T17:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I looked up some info on Minnesota but I won't go into too much detail about them.

Here's their team page on CBS Sportsline and their official basketball site if you want to look up some other stuff.

Looking at their schedule they are 2-7 against other NCAA tournament teams with the two wins coming at home against Wisconsin and Iowa State. They have losses against Alabama and Oklahoma in Alaska and against Illinois (twice), Iowa, and Michigan State (twice). They have a road win against Nebraska which is the only other common opponent besides OU and Iowa. They have a 6-4 record in their last 10 but won five of their last six.

Guard/Forward Vincent Grier is clearly their best player averaging 18.1 ppg (1st on team), 5.5 rpg (2nd), and 2.5 apg (2nd). Jeff Hagen, a 6-11 Center, should provide a formidable challenge to Jared Homan as the only other Gopher to average double figures in points (11.3 ppg) and also averages 5.5 rebounds. Although he has had some impressive games he seems to have a tendency to be forgotten about in games where he'll only take 2 or 3 field goal attempts in 30+ minutes. As a team they try to force some turnovers and are at the top of the Big 10 in field goal percentage defense. Offensively, they are at the bottom in turnovers so that has the potential to really help out if ISU gets their trap and press going.

Really, that was just a bare bones look at some of their stuff. Minnesota has the potential to play well but they haven't really shown me that they can beat the really good teams like ISU did during the conference season. ISU needs to come out fired up and ready to play. If their energy level is high they should be able to force Minnesota into a lot of turnovers leading to some fast break points and keeping Minnesota's defense from setting up. They do guard the three point line very well which might be a good thing if the guys know they can't settle for that shot all day. I don't mind shooting some open shots but if they aren't falling and our guys keep chucking it up there we'll get beat. This team loves to play on a big stage so I think they'll be ready for this. It should be a good game.

Also, here's a good article on Jared Homan ending up at ISU and talks about his parents driving to Charlotte listening to tapes of old Cyclones games. That sounds like the best way I could think of to pass 20 hours.

Another one from the Trib focusing on how excited he is to play in his first NCAA tourney when he grew up watching every Cyclone game he could.

Whoa, where have I been?

2005-03-15T19:24:00.000-06:00

Hey, sorry I kind of forgot to mention that I would be in Chicago from Thursday night until late Monday but that's where I was. I wanted to take a trip with my girlfriend to visit her sister and conference tournament weekend looked like the better option than opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. I was forced to keep my eye on the papers and catching a few glimpses of some games shown in bars. Unfortunately, most of my action was limited to the last minute or so of the Iowa-MSU game in a bar that had about 5 or 6 Hawkeye fans and 2 unhappy looking Spartan fans.

Anyway, ISU is in with a 9 seed against Minnesota in Charlotte. I'm working on some info on the Goofers but won't have that ready for a little while since I'm trying to get my own bracket together (priorites, right?). At first glance, I like the matchup. The press has the potential to force a lot of turnovers against a team that seems to be prone to committing them. Looking beyond that and Roy "Likes Boys" Williams and UNC loom in the second round. He's been known to choke before and ISU can beat good teams when they have to. But, I don't want to get ahead of myself yet. Take care of Minnesota first.

All Big 12 teams

2005-03-07T17:19:00.000-06:00

The official All Big 12 teams were announced today. These are voted on by the coaches.

First-Team All-Big 12
Wayne Simien, Kansas
Taj Gray, Oklahoma
Joey Graham, Oklahoma State
John Lucas, Oklahoma State
Ronald Ross, Texas Tech

Second-Team All-Big 12
Curtis Stinson, Iowa State
Keith Langford, Kansas
Jeremiah Massey, Kansas State
Brad Buckman, Texas
Antoine Wright, Texas A&M

Third-Team All-Big 12
Jared Homan, Iowa State
Aaron Miles, Kansas
Kevin Bookout, Oklahoma
Daniel Gibson, Texas
Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech

Honorable Mention
Aaron Bruce, Baylor
Richard Roby, Colorado
Linas Kleiza, Missouri
Joe McCray, Nebraska
Terrell Everett, Oklahoma
Ivan McFarlin, Oklahoma State
Joseph Jones, Texas A&M
Acie Law, Texas A&M

I think the selections are pretty good overall but I'm wondering how exactly Will Blalock is left off of the Honorable Mention team. I guess I'll cut them a little slack since they try to get every team with at least one player but I do think he is a better guard than any of the others on the list. The top three teams got three players, the next tier had two, and the rest had one. Blalock is a fantastic player and he has a legitimate shot at first team next year. In good news for Will, he was Big 12 player of the week after averaging 19.5 pts, 6 assists, and 2 steals in two wins.

He also made all-underrated team along with Jared Homan and Tasheed Carr made the all-reserve team. Major props to Tasheed as this list has some pretty solid players. I wasn't sure if his early season play would hurt him but the coaches still noticed his game during the conference season. Stinson was named to the all-defense team mainly on the strength of his second best in the Big 12 steals ranking and 6th overall in school history. Here are all the specialty lists if you are interested.

Big 12 All-Reserve
Tasheed Carr, Iowa State
Stephen Graham, Oklahoma State
Lance Harris, Kansas State
Bobby Leach, Texas A&M
Lawrence McKenzie, Oklahoma

Big 12 All-Underrated
Will Blalock, Iowa State
Brad Buckman, Texas
Devonne Giles, Texas Tech
Jared Homan, Iowa State
Christian Moody, Kansas

Big 12 All-Defense
Taj Gray, Oklahoma
Ivan McFarlin, Oklahoma State
Aaron Miles, Kansas
Ronald Ross, Texas Tech
Curtis Stinson, Iowa State

In tournament news the latest Bracketology on ESPN.com has ISU as an 8 seed facing Creighton and UNC in the second round. Speaking of Creighton, Cyclone fans should be cheering for them in the MVC tournament final. Creighton is most likely in the dance anyway but they'll take the MVC automatic bid with a win over Southwest Missouri State (soon to be Missouri State) opening up another at-large spot. I don't think the Cyclones will need it but why tempt fate?

Cyclones beat Buffs, earn 5th seed in KC

2005-03-06T17:46:00.000-06:00

I won't be writing up too much a recap on this game but Stinson, Blalock, and Carr all played fantastically and carried us to the win. I don't want to forget about Staple's 14 rebounds (6 offensive) and 4 steals either. The Cyclones did what they needed to do to get the win and it could have been large other than some timely three point shooting from CU.

A couple of interesting notes. This marked the first time since 1979 that the Cyclones lost three conference games in Hilton and beat those same three teams on the road (Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska).

The Big 12 bracket is setting up just about as good as it could be for the Cyclones. Missouri's win over Kansas gives the #1 seed to Oklahoma. This means that KU and OSU are on the other side of the bracket giving ISU a potential road to the finals of Baylor-Texas Tech-Oklahoma. Don't get me wrong, even beating these three teams in three days will be tough but they've beaten each of the teams in their half at least once and had a good shot at beating NU and Mizzou twice. First game is Thursday at 2 PM.

Most projections have ISU solidly in the dance with a 10 seed or better. Looking good for the Clones. Now, let's go make some noise in KC.

Cyclones pound Mizzou

2005-03-03T16:39:00.000-06:00

Not really much of a stretch given Quin Snyder's struggles in the Coliseum but the Cyclones really needed to come out playing well heading into their last game of the regular season. They certainly started off with a bang jumping out to an 8 point lead, including senior Dave Braet's layup and a nifty steal and pass from Blalock to Stinson for another layup. Things seemed to be going well until an old problem reared its ugly head as the Cyclones went 7+ minutes without scoring, missing 9 shots in the process. Blalock finally got a layup down and the Cyclones ended the half up 10. It was all ISU from then on.

Blalock was absolutely skying last night. He had one baseline drive where he gave Linas Kleiza the opportunity for some poster royalties in the future. He swung all the way under the basket and then out again to add some extra emphasis. His next dunk was a breakaway reverse jam that drew a slightly ridiculous "hanging on the rim" T. He gave it a little bit of a tug but it seemed like more of a cumulative effect from his earlier dunk and a nice one from Rahshon Clark. The team was definitely back in their fancy passing, powerful dunking mode.

The defense was really there last night as well. Mizzou was forced into 22 turnovers leading to 24 ISU points. The Tigers looked absolutely terrible. They couldn't hit anything from outside the arc until the end of the game when it was already decided. It looked like they pretty much quit for a lot of the game after they got smacked in the mouth which is never a good sign for a coach. Quin has certainly been embattled but he's had his good moments along with the bad. What I've noticed about Mizzou this year is that it doesn't seem like they have that much talent. Certainly not like in the Gilbert-Rush days when the teams had potential but underachieved in the conference season. Kleiza is a pretty solid post player and I like his game. Conley was supposed to be the monster scorer from VMI but he seems to be pretty hit and miss from game to game. Their offense has been brutal all season long and those are the only two players averaging in double figures. It will be interesting to see if Quin is still around next year with all of his troubles on and off the court.

Things are still looking like ISU needs to win three more games to get into the dance but it's pretty murky out there. Everyone seems at a loss what to do because of the new RPI. They were trying to give mid-majors a fairer shot which is admirable by weighting road wins more than home wins. Essentially a win on the road has a multiplier of 1.4 and a home game is at 0.6. So, winning a road game is worth twice as much as winning one at home. I like the idea, in principle, but the numbers are all out of whack. Kansas lost three games in a row and was still at #1. Plus there are some strange teams floating around. Will the committee view the RPI as they have in the past (slavishy, at the expense of other, more important factors, IMO) or will they push it aside a little bit to get a decent number of major conference bubble teams? My guess is that they will tend to ignore it to a certain degree considering how much money is spent on broadcasting these games. The tournament will have astronomical ratings either way but a significant number of fans still turn in to see teams they know from states with large populations.

That would stand to benefit ISU's chances. There are a lot of stats about how a team with an RPI inside of 34 has never missed the tournament and no one outside of sixty-something has never made it but my gut tells me that those will go out the window in favor of the usual criteria such as conference finish, quality wins, etc. ISU ranks third nationally with 5 wins over ranked teams which should offset some of the bad losses (Wake and Illinois each have 6 wins). Basically, I just think that ISU needs to win three more games and they will be in with relatively little sweating on Selection Sunday. Win two more and they have a shot but I wouldn't put much money on it.

Finally, a little tribute to the seniors.
Dave Braet, I didn't really know you but you did play well last night. Got a basket, had a steal, an assist, forced a tie up. Well done. Calamus, Iowa should be proud.

Damion Staple. You've really made great strides with your game. You came in an unpolished player but you'll leave as a valuble contributor to this team. We're going to need you to own the glass a little bit and play some defense down the stretch but I've seen you can do it.

Jared Homan. You want to talk about someone that really elevated his game, this is the guy. You came here and half the fans were wondering why we wasted a scholarship on a guy from Remsen. Each year you've added a little bit to your game and you were always tough as nails. No one was coming into the lane without expecting that you would be there with the body or to collect one of your many blocks. You certainly never backed down from anybody whether it was David Harrison going towards your coach or Aaron Miles punching you in the back of the head. Your intensity, nose for rebounds and blocks, and even your scoring ability from anywhere inside 17 feet are certainly going to be missed next year.

"I wanted to put on a little show for the crowd, just so they would remember me as a hard working guy. I don't have all the talent in the world, but I busted my butt and did what I could with what I had."
Jared Homan

That's exactly what I'll remember you for.

Goodbye NCAAs?

2005-02-27T15:26:00.000-06:00

The Cyclones' NCAA tournament chances certainly took a huge hit today with the home loss to Nebraska. I'm really not sure what this loss does exactly because losing at home was something I chose not to imagine. It's unbelievable to me that a team that can play so well would have home losses to Nebraska and Colorado in the same season. These are the teams that ISU should be beating by 10 or 15 points.

The team just looked bad all day. They were getting destroyed on the boards and for the second straight game let a freshman post player have his way down low. Maric's a decent player but he shouldn't have a double double in the first half. Staple played no defense all day and for some unknown reason felt the need to take running 15 foot jump shots in the closing minutes of the game. We need a basket and that's the shot we take?

Homan played a great game, everyone else didn't. When they started to make their run in the second half they had it cut to 3 or 4 but then couldn't get anything to drop. They were getting decent shots but it just wouldn't fall. The bottom line is that this team looked a lot like the 0-5 Big 12 team than the 7-0 one. Look at any of the problems from those games and they were there today. No three point shooting (1-11), no rebounding. It's just such a frustrating loss. This team probably needs 4 more wins to get into the tournament. Can they find that magic from earlier in the year or will it be NIT bound again?

Random basketball thoughts

2005-02-25T17:44:00.000-06:00

It's a long wait between those Tuesday and Sunday games. I want to see the Cyclones back on the court tomorrow. I'm not sure how Kansas does it playing Saturday-Monday all year long!

Speaking of Kansas, the players apparently voted to not talk to the media? Give me a break. They've lost 4 games all year and suddenly the media is just too tough to handle. Can anyone say soft? Personally, I think it's a shame that a talent like Simien has to be wasted playing with guys like Miles and Langford. Yes, they've put up great numbers but they're really not leading this team to much this year. Who did they lose last year? Fatass Graves? Miles is a little punk and Langford will disappear for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. I'm curious why Bill Self seems to refuse to sit J.R. Giddens? Do they really not have anyone else? I saw him put up probably ten or more WTF shots in three games last week. Anytime KU needed a basket he took that as a green light to launch a guarded three with 30 seconds left on the shot clock. Clank. He threw up one ridiculous shot like that and Self immediately pointed to someone on the bench. Finally, I thought, but Giddens stayed in the game.

I'm hoping the Shockers can get a big win against Southern Illinois tomorrow. It would be cool to see Wichita State back in the tournament but they've been struggling lately and played themselves out of the tournament barring some big wins. A tie for the MVC should get them in, IMO. Turgeon seems like a good coach and is always honest in his interviews.

Greg McDermott has been getting some run around here as Iowa's next head coach. I don't think it will happen since he is a Steve Alford Clone minus the Sweet Sixteen appearance. Seriously, all he's done is get UNI to the tournament once by winning Arch Madness and underachieve with what was supposed to be a really good Panther team. I think the guy's an ass based on what happened with Morgan in the game earlier this year. Of course the fact that it was a UNI-Iowa/Alford-McDermott lovefest was pretty disgusting. I seriously though the Register was going to run pictures of the two of them fellating each other and call it the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. Maybe I'm going to far with that one.

Moving on.

I like the Big 12 to get 6 teams into the dance. ISU and Texas are the big question marks but I still think ISU wins out to finish 5th and maybe 4th. Texas is a big question mark in my mind. I guess it depends on if they can beat OU at home assuming they beat Mizzou in Austin. A loss at OSU would then leave them at 9-7 in the conference. I think they're in with that mark.

Here is what needs to happen for the Cyclones to finish with the 4th seed in the Big 12 tournament. No, first, here is why they want this seed. There is some sentiment among Cyclone fans that a 5th seed and a first round matchup with Baylor would be preferable. The argument goes that another win would help their standing with the committee. My contention is that an extra day of rest enhances their chances of getting wins that matter (and Baylor isn't one of those). I believe that just stepping onto the court with Baylor would hurt ISU's RPI slightly. Conference standing is one of the most important factors for the committee and sitting in a tie with OU and TT would look a lot better than being a game back.

So, the Clones are two games back right now. They only need to get into a tie with any of the contending southern teams because they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with all of them. First, ISU needs to win out and finish 10-6. Then one of two things needs to happen. Texas Tech needs to lost two of their remaining games. The most likely being @A&M and to OU at home. The third game is @Baylor. It's not inconceivable that they could lose two of those three but that's a lot to ask. The other option is for OU to lose two of their next three. This is the more likely scenario as they play Baylor and then finish @Texas and @Tech. So, basically, we need the team that loses the OU-Tech game to lose another one too coupled with three Cyclone wins. Whew.

It's just my general perception but I think the Big 12 is a better conference this year than last year. It seems that ISU, A&M, Tech, and Kansas State are all better teams this year. Baylor is still struggling, Mizzou sucks this year, and CU is a lot worse but overall everybody has some decent wins. Despite that it looks like Wooldridge and Collier are both on the hot seat.

I think it's a shame what John Chaney did against St. Joe's. If you missed it he put in a "goon" (his words) to play rough and give up some hard fouls. The player fouled out in four minutes and ended a guy's season. Great. I understand you wanted to send a message about illegal screens but that's not the way to do it. You're too good of a coach to go out like that.

I think I'm really going to miss Steve Alford. He was always good for a laugh as he was completely out of touch with reality. There were some great stories about him expecting everything in Iowa City to be free for him and always blaming his players until it became too ridiculous for him to not take some of the blame himself. He had his success against ISU but the Hawkeye's inevitable collapse during the conference season was a sight to behold. We'll miss you, Steve. You'll always be December Champs in our mind.

Screech

2005-02-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

That's the sound of the bandwagon breaking down from all the weight. Anyway, there's still four minutes left but this is over and I pretty much know what I want to write about. After all the positive things that have happened over the last month or so ISU was just sort of due for a game like this. I was hoping that they could pull it out but they just look exhausted. They haven't made a field goal in 11 minutes or so but part of that is because the refs call 2 fouls on every possession. It's hard to say that ISU got screwed by the refs when they've shot more free throws for most of the game but there have been some serious phantom fouls called on ISU players and some muggings go unnoticed for the Aggies. ISU really let it get into their heads, I think.

A&M isn't a bad team and have played really well at home so this isn't a devastating loss but the margin of victory is certainly more than I thought it would be. It just seems like everything that could possibly go wrong has. THey're shooting close to 25% from the field, everyone has been in foul trouble limiting their effectiveness, they haven't been able to get into a rhythm at all offensively due to the whistles. It's just been an ugly game and the Cyclones certainly haven't played well or dealt well with it.

The good news is that they don't play again until Sunday and they can still finish the season by winning out. A&M whipped CU on the road and the home games should be winnable. This team will be ok.

Some love for the Cyclones

2005-02-21T15:22:00.000-06:00

A network TV win on the road against the number 2 team in the country will generally garner some attention. Add the fact that the win is the 7th in a row and the 4th against a ranked team and you're going to get a lot of attention.

Let's see, here's a partial list:
Curtis Stinson Big 12 Player of the Week, Andy Katz's national player of the week
ISU on the front pages of ESPN.com and SI.com and front sports page stories in the NY Times, Boston Globe, USA Today and just about everywhere else that matters
A spot in everybody's bracket projections and #26 in the AP poll

It's pretty strange that last week the Cyclones were barely making it onto a few of the bubble lists and one win lets them essentially skip all the way over the bubble and into the tournament. I've seen seeding projections everywhere from 8-12 seeds. An 8 seed puts them against a #1 seed if they win in the first round which is tough but there are some beatable top seeds this year. Boston College, UNC, UK and KU are all potential #1's that I could see being upset. A 12 seed sets up a decent run against a 5 and 4. Pretty much any seed sounds good at this point and there's a lot of basketball to play.

I'm a little worried about the upcoming game for the Cyclones. A&M isn't a bad team and the potential for a slipup is looming while everyone is busy patting them on the back. The team needs to stay focused and lock up a win in College Station to really make some ground in the NCAA and Big 12 seeding. A KU win over OU tonight would allow ISU to move into the 4th seed in the Big 12 tournament which would really help them out. It wouldn't surprise to see them make a run into Sunday in the tournament. It's going to help that the tournament in in Kansas City.

Back to the Aggie game there's a nice writeup on ISU's defense from A&M Coach Gillespie's perspective.

BOOM!

2005-02-19T14:27:00.000-06:00

I'm on my way out the door to Omaha but I had to put something up about this game. This team is really something special. To come back and win in overtime after coming so close to choking in away is something you don't see very often. That said, MAKE SOME FREAKING FREE THROWS!!! Holy crap.

Anyway, ISU is 3-3 in their last 6 in Lawrence and could move into the 4th seed in the conference tournament with an OU loss today. They're up 4 right now.

So many great performances today between Stinson and Homan and everyone really. They all did their part and this team is on its way to the dance baby!

Hilton Magic's guide to officiating

2005-02-18T17:47:00.000-06:00

I like to provide a little public service now and then and thought I would point out a few errors from last year's game in Allen Fieldhouse that the officials might like to correct before tomorrow.

Play cannot continue between free throws if a player is shooting two. This is absolutely critical. Although it may be tempting for a team to grab the rebound and run downcourt while the shooting team stands there, it is still a dead ball. It is crucial to know that there are two free throws and you must shoot both of them before play can continue.
Both feet must be behind the line for a three-point basket. Even if it is just a toe on the line the basket counts as two points. There was a problem with this at the end of the game last year allowing Kansas to win the game in overtime. Also, just in case the official isn't quite sure you are allowed to watch a replay of the shot to determine the correct call. They put the televisions on the sideline for just this purpose. It might seem like Max Falkentstein is using it to do the radio broadcast for another game but he's just really old and can't see the game in front of him.
The home team is called for the same fouls as the visiting team. Just because 16,000 people are cheering for one team does not allow them to grab the visiting guards as they dribble at the top of the key while they are called for hand checks on the opposite end. Either they're both fouls or they both aren't. "The Phog" isn't a code word for a different set of rules for each team.
Just because Kansas fans are whining about the officiating at the end of the Texas Tech game doesn't mean they deserve make up calls for the rest of the season. They always get those calls anyway so there's really no need to go overboard because the most visible team in the conference thinks they got jobbed.
This isn't really from the Kansas game last year but how can you call a charge and a block on the same play? And how can you not count that basket? Yes, I still hate Michigan State and I'm still bitter.

So, hopefully this will help create a fair game for both teams this Saturday.

And to the Cyclones, remember the words of Jamaal Tinsley before the 2001 Kansas game where he scored 18 points, dished 6 assists, and had three steals leading Iowa State to its fourth straight over the hawks.

"It's just another gym."

Cyclones get revenge over KSU

2005-02-16T17:10:00.000-06:00

Iowa State rolled to a 15 point win against the Cats last night in Ames. The defense was really outstanding and held K-State to 19 first half points. The second half was pretty much a walk-through for both teams. It's nice to see that Carr is still hot from beyond the arc shooting 3 for 5 and John Neal even hit two.

One amazing thing about the game is that it was such a dominating performance with only 6 total points from Blalock and Homan. They only combined for 7 shots as well. You'd get laughed out of the gym if you told somebody a few weeks ago that ISU would get those numbers from them and still win going away. Both played within their game and got their assists or rebounds while playing some solid defense. Stinson played another great game with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. The team shot over 57% in the first half for the second best half of the year. Another interesting number to note, 42 points is the fewest scored against Iowa State since the '99-00 team held UNI to 41.

The team is well on its way to finishing the year with more assists than turnovers which hasn't happened in a while. They're also doing a fantastic job of forcing turnovers and scoring points off them. KSU had 19 last night and the Cyclones scored 17 points off them, most in the first half. Earlier in the year I said that ISU has to be the worst layup shooting team in the nation but they've even figured that out lately. They can finish around the glass thanks to better spacing and more confidence. It's nice to see guys take it up strong instead of trying to avoid any contact.

I've really been impressed with Damion Staple's progression on offense. At times this year he's looked like I did back in my 5th grade YMCA games. His confidence is soaring and he'll actually hit a few jump shots which is pretty rare for him. One thing I really like about what he is doing is drawing contact on his shots. He's a horrible free throw shooter so it isn't always a good thing but he's had several three point play opportunities. I didn't expect to ever say this but we might actually miss him some next year.

The Kansas game is coming up on Saturday and I'll be back later this week with my referee's guide. There have been some problems in the past in Lawrence so I thought I'd do my part to get things straightened out.

Day after thoughts

2005-02-13T15:25:00.000-06:00

The atmosphere in Hilton was great yesterday. It's always fun to see a full house and the crowd was really energized by the great plays. It seemed like every few minutes Stinson or Blalock was throwing a ridiculous pass for a dunk or a layup. The whole game may have been a highlight film. A few of my favorites would be Stinson's halfcourt bounce pass and his alley oop to Homan.

Speaking of Jared, he played great tonight. There were about 150 fans from Remsen that made the trip from the game and he really put on a show for them. He's been facing a lot of double teams in the post and he's gotten better about passing out them. He still won't be confused with Yao Ming passing from the post but he is doing pretty well. I like that the guards will work to get him the ball when they can. It was nice to see them go right into him after Tech's post went out with his 4th foul. He was abusing one of their guys (44, I think) and Knight sat him on the bench for the rest of the game. Jared is so much fun to watch because he always plays with so much passion. He came out of the game for a second and was pretty upset about it. #50 got a tip-in bucket and Morgan sent him right back into the game. Homan was visibly pissed that he wasn't in there to get that rebound while he was waiting to go back in there.

ISU 81 Texas Tech 68

2005-02-12T18:34:00.000-06:00

Hilton Magic strikes again! So, let's look at the numbers. A five game winning streak, three of those wins against ranked teams. The team stays in a tie with Texas for 5th in the conference and moves up to .500 in conference play.

Tech was on fire early but ISU weathered the storm. Ronald Ross is a hell of a player for them and he really hit his shots today. The highlights of the game have to be the great passes. Blalock and Stinson looked like Tinsley out there today. Behind the back, over the shoulder, no-look, anything you could think of. Homan was the biggest beneficiary scoring 23 points to break out of his mini-slump. It seemed like everybody put up great lines today. Stinson 13-6-7, Blalock, 15-6-6-4 steals, Tasheed Carr 17-8-5-3.

Once again they played some great defense and forced a lot steals, holding Tech to 13 below their season average. 13 steals today and 18 total turnover for Tech. They did a good job of keeping the tempo up and hitting shots when they needed them. Things are looking a lot better for the Cyclones' tournament chances.

A road winning streak?

2005-02-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

Did anyone think that would even be possible a few weeks ago?

I really think this team is finding its stride and playing with so much confidence. When Nebraska pulled ahead by 5 late in the second half the old Cyclones would have packed it in and lost by 10 or so but this team seems like it decided it's not going to lose those games anymore. Carr and Clark continue to provide some much needed three point shooting at critical times. Both of them made major, major shots.

Another story was the return of Stinson. He played a great game tonight and cast off some of the doubters from early in the year. I knew he had it in him and there isn't anyone else I'd rather have with the ball when we need a basket. I thought he got fouled on a couple of his missed layups. I thought the refs were pretty bad all game. They were inconsistant on their calls and blew the whistles on the Cyclones at some bad times while letting the Huskers get away with a lot. It's about what I expect from Big XII officials.

I'll have more thoughts later after I look at the stats and think about the game for a while. This week's game with Texas Tech is shaping up to be huge. ISU's currently in a tie for 6th pending the outcome of the Texas game tonight.

The morning after

2005-02-06T13:49:00.000-06:00

The team woke up this morning with a conference road winning streak for the first in a long, long time. It must feel great to get this win. For those that aren't Iowa State fans it must seem a little strange to be this happy about one win when we're still way back in the standings but this streak has been an albatross on the necks of these teams. So many close losses that just kept mounting and mounting to make a ridiculous streak that I never thought I would see.

"I can't put it into words. There isn't a better feeling for me right now. I just give it up for my teammates." Jared Homan

"This is pure joy. Fortunately, we got this one, and hopefully we're fortunate enough to get some more." Wayne Morgan

So, it might be kind of easy to forget about what's coming up for this team. The standings right now look like this.

Kansas 8-0
Okie State 7-2
OU 6-2
Texas Tech 6-2
Texas 4-4
A&M 4-5
KSU 3-5
ISU 3-5
Nebraska 3-5
CU 3-6
Mizzou 2-7
Baylor 1-7

I would guess that the Big 12 would only get five teams in the tourney with an outside chance at six if someone really steps up. I would guess that there is a chance that only 4 teams get in if several teams finish at 9-7. The margin of error for Iowa State is razor thin but I'm all about speculation and wild-eyed optimism so let's take a look at the Cyclone's remaining schedule. The upcoming week is absolutely crucial. If they drop one of these games I would guess they would essentially be eliminated outside of a Big 12 Tournament championship. These are disguised as predictions but it's going to be what I think they need to do to at least put themselves on the bubble with a good chance to get into the dance.

At Nebraska A 2 game road winning streak? It's possible. They have home losses to Creighton, Minnesota, Texas, and Kansas but they have beaten K-State and A&M there. KU didn't have much trouble there on Saturday and Texas won by 10 but I believe they still had Tucker for that game.

Texas Tech Easily the biggest surprise of the conference this year. The game is already a sellout and if ISU wins at Nebraska the crowd will be insane for that one. Johnny Orr will be back in the house along with the '84 team. There are a lot of things lining up for this game. A bunch of my friends are coming back for this game and the last time we were together along with Johnny Orr in the house? A win over Oklahoma State to all but clinch the first of our Big 12 championships. Tech is good but I expect Iowa State to beat everyone at home.

Kansas State ISU should have beaten them in Manhattan. I think they can win this one going away.

At Kansas On paper it looks like a sure loss, and it probably is, but the game last year was a lot closer than anyone expected. I'm sure we can count on the usual home cooking refs that throw our coaches out and give KU three pointers between our free throws.... Yes, I'm bitter.

At Texas A&M Probably a very key game if they keep winning since we'll be fighting them for that 5th spot but winnable.

Nebraska At home, should be a win.

Missouri Will they be playing for Quin's job or have given up on the season? My guess is they'll be dead outside of the KU game but that's what I thought about the football game this year. Ugh, the potential parallels to that game are eerie.

At Colorado Going to be a tough game but with the bad blood the last couple of years and the potential for some revenge it's another winnable game.

So, it looks like they could finish 10-6 in the conference which would put them around 5th in the league. Texas needs to keep losing and some other teams will have to drop a few games but we have a game left with everybody except the teams we probably can't catch or won't need to and Texas.

Ding dong the streak is dead!!

2005-02-05T17:39:00.000-06:00

For the first time since my sophomore year in college and Jamaal Tinsley was running the show Iowa State went on the road in a conference game and came home with the win! It's been an unbelievably frustrating couple of years with so many lost opportunities mixed in with some horrible performances. I think back to some of those games where it seemed like ISU was screwed by some fluke play or horrible call late in the game but they didn't leave too much doubt in this one. Well, except for the whole overtime part, but you know what I mean. Speaking of overtime, not only did The Streak end but a few other streaks ended as well. They hadn't won a conference game in overtime since the late 90's, hadn't beat a ranked team on the road in a long time, hadn't ever won at Texas (which was the first loss of The Streak).

My thoughts on a couple of players:
Curtis Stinson- Played well at times and was terrible at times. I was really getting frustrated with him at times when he would make a lazy pass and then jog down the court trying to pick up a basket cherry picking. I guess Wayne Morgan felt the same because Curtis was on the bench for about 4 minutes towards the end of the 2nd half until Clark fouled out with less than a minute. I have to give him credit for fighting back to have a good finish in OT. He ended up with a double-double 17 points, 11 rebounds.

The Man off the bench was obviously Tasheed Carr. He carried this team in overtime scoring 8 of our first 10 in the first half of the overtime including two huge threes. He finished with 22 points in 26 minutes. He and Clark are playing fantastically lately and it's no coincidence that ISU is winning. Carr outscored the entire Texas team in the overtime.

Will Blalock can really take over games when he needs to. He's so quick ionto the lane and is beginning to finish more often. He's really what keeps this team getting quick baskets like they do.

This team showed so much poise today. They were down 6 or 7 fairly late in the game but they didn't panic and played their game. The defense was what they needed again today and kept Texas on their heels for much of the game. The schedule sets up nicely for ISU to make a late season charge to finish 6th or maybe even 5th with some luck. It sure would be nice to have that Colorado game back, let alone Missouri. But, those are in the past and I'm just going to enjoy the heck out of this one.

They are on the road against Nebraska this week and should have a good chance to get a road winning streak started. Let's get it done.

Robert Faulkner dismissed from team

2005-02-02T22:13:00.001-06:00

ISU Media RelationsIowa State sophomore forward Robert Faulkner has been
dismissed from the basketball team for failure to comply with team requirements,
Iowa State head coach Wayne Morgan announced today. "It is very unfortunate and
painful to have to separate a student-athlete from our program," Morgan said. "I
feel it is important to make it clear that his dismissal has nothing to do with
Robert's academic situation."Faulkner averaged 3.7 ppg and 3.0 rpg in 12 games
this season for the Cyclones.Morgan will have no further comment.

Looks like Faulkner is gone which will further deplete what was already looking like a thin frontcourt next year. Agnew didn't look ready in the few minutes he's played over the last few games so it will be interesting to see if Taggart will be ready to contribute or not. He's the 48th ranked player and claims he wants to make Ames a short stop on his way to the NBA. He'll need to prove it.

I really liked Faulkner's game when he was able to play if he would have been able to stay out of foul trouble. Dissappointing.

ISU rolls the Bears

2005-02-02T16:55:00.000-06:00

ISU finally put a couple of good games together and looked like the team many thought they could be. I don't have time to go too in depth but a few factors are really making a difference.

Once again, the players outside of the big three. Rashon Clark has been playing brilliantly the last few games. He put up 15 points in the 19-1 run to finish the first half and pull away from Baylor. He was all over the court. Making steals, hitting the offensive glass, running the break, knocking down threes, throwing down monster dunks. This is the play we have needed form him and the other guys. Staple looked good again grabbing some boards and hitting a few shots, including a nice jumper from the free throw line. The team was having a blast last night and were playing with a confidence I haven't seen this year. Having these guys scoring means that guys like Stinson will start to trust them with the ball. Stinson hasn't been shooting well but he really let the game come to him and was 5-6 from the field for 15 points. It's hard to imagine him only taking 6 shots based on earlier games but this will really help him get better shots.

Some stats I picked up courtesy of FarmerClone at CycloneReport.com really tell some impressive things about this team. During conference play the Cyclones are averaging 11 steals and 10.8 turnovers. It's not very often that a team will average more steals than they do total turnovers. The team is +8.0 per game and leading the Big 12 by nearly three per game. They are one of only five teams that force more turnovers than they commit. Obviously, the pressure defense and long, athletic players are having an effect.

Unfortunately, these haven't translated into too many conference wins yet but I think that can start to change, too late to make the tourney, but still a chance to improve. Texas is struggling a little bit without P.J. Tucker so maybe a road win isn't totally out of the question? Heh, maybe I shouldn't get too much ahead of myself.

More info on OU game

2005-01-29T18:38:00.000-06:00

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?

ISU upsets #15 OU 74-66

2005-01-29T17:18:00.000-06:00

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.

2005-01-29T13:54:00.000-06:00

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.

What can I say?

2005-01-23T13:56:00.000-06:00

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.

Big Surprise

2005-01-17T17:02:00.000-06:00

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.

Hilton Magic not enough against KU

2005-01-14T17:20:00.000-06:00

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.

Unbelievable

2005-01-08T15:24:00.000-06:00

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 goes down at Xavier

2005-01-04T22:23:00.000-06:00

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.

Cyclones 69 Aztecs 59

2004-12-29T19:23:00.000-06:00

In a game played in front of 9,000 fans tuned into their radios the Cyclones were victorious. I wasn't one of them as I was watching the football team come up victorious in the Independence Bowl. Because I only saw a few minutes here or there I won't be offering up much insight (although that's a lot like me other posts).

One interesting thing I noticed about last night is that I think the team is starting to get locked into its rotation for the conference season. John Neal, Anthony Davis, and Reggie George all logged 4 minutes, all in the first half. SDSU made a run with some of these guys on the floor and Morgan was quoted as saying that Tasheed Carr was playing so well and the team didn't play as well with the others in there. It wouldn't surprise me to see Davis and George only play significant minutes when foul trouble becomes an issue. Neal, on the other hand, should remain in his current role to come in as a defensive stopper when the team needs it and as an outside shooter.

Loss to Iowa, win against Howard

2004-12-13T17:57:00.000-06:00

Once again, sorry for the lack of updates but I've had a lot of things going on this weekend. A little bit of a disappointing loss against Iowa but it's tough to get too down about a tough loss on the road against a ranked team. I can manage to be objective some of the time and Iowa looks to be a pretty solid team. I really like Horner's game and Haluska can be good at times. (I still need to see him perform for an entire season before I'm totally sold on him.) The Nerd from Road Trip is a pretty good shot blocker for weighing 150 pounds or so.

Now, onto the play of ISU. It was still frustrating at times watching them not value the ball when they needed to and putting up some ill-advised shots. Homan was a man among Iowa's boys on the offensive end and should be on his way to a great conference season. It seems like he has an outside shot at first-team but it's going to be tough to displace some of the KU and OSU guys. Hopefully he performs well enough to at least make the 2nd team because he's really worked his butt off during his four years at ISU. Many questioned why we were "wasting a scholarship" on a kid from Remsen who would never play more than 5 minutes a game in mop-up duty. Good to see him prove the doubters wrong.

Stinson continued to put up a few bad shots and played lackluster defense at times. He finished with 14 points but still managed to earn Big 12 PotW honors due, in large part, to his game against UVA. Some very questionable calls went against him and earned him a seat on the bench for the final 8 minutes. It's tough for me to complain too loudly about that because ISU did go on a run to cut the game to 1 with him out. The biggest reason for this was Blalock looking for his shot. He really took over the game and scored some big buckets for ISU. He can get to the rim just about anytime he wants to but he struggles to finish a lot of the time. Unfortunately he had a big turnover at the end trying to do too much. It frustrated me that ISU put Horner on the line twice when they had chances to foul Pierce, who statistically has a much better chance at missing them.

I still think that ISU showed some good things along with the bad in this game. They'll snap the Big 12 road losing streak early in the season if they can bring that kind of effort. One thing I'd like to see is Clark or Neal starting over Carr. Clark brings a lot more athleticism and Neal brings a lot more defense. My personal lineup would be Blalock, Stinson, Clark, Faulkner, Homan. That lineup should bring a lot of energy to the court and still be able to bring in some "change of pace" guys like Neal. I like Neal coming in for some defensive stops when we need them.

Hawkeye week

2004-12-09T17:26:00.000-06:00

Rivalries always tend to bring out the idiots or the worst of otherwise normal people. Add in the anonymous nature of message boards and you get some classic moments. These can usually be summed up in a few standard arguments that are repeated ad nauseum year after year. Here's the rundown on a few of these and how they are playing out this year.

Rip on the other teams arena
Cy: Did you hear what they said about Hilton during the Virginia game? Carver-Hawkeye is a tomb compared to it.
Herky: Yeah, well we have legendary Kinnick stadium and Jack Trice is empty.
Cy: This is basketball why are you talking football?
Herky: Well, we kicked your ass in football.

Rip on the other team's players
Herky: ISU is a bunch of streetball thugs.
Cy: At least our team doesn't have a rapist.
Herky: Is that Sam Mack heading to Burger King?
Cy: I can't tell. Sam Aiello just jammed a pool cue in my eye.

Cy: Haluska is a traitor.
Herky: You're just jealous.
Cy: He sucked anyway.
Herky: Yeah right, when he was at ISU he was a more athletic Hoiberg.
Cy: Just wait until his game disappears as soon as the conference games start. And his haircut sucks.

Rip on the other team's uniforms
Herky: ISU looks like ketchup and mustard out there.
Cy: Black and gold look like crap too.

Herky: ISU stole our gold uniforms.
Cy: You're an idiot. We've had gold uniforms for years.

Rip on the other team's fans
Cy: Iowa's fans are all 80 years old and wearing the same polyester jacket they bought before the 1980 Rose Bowl.
Herky: Your fans are hicks/ISU girls are ugly/You don't have any fans.

Rip on idiots that think their players are better
Herky: Pierce and Horner are better than Stinson and Blalock.
Cy: You're an idiot. Remember when Iowa always had a player better than an ISU superstar? How many of them are playing in the NBA?

Herky: ISU might have one player that would start for Iowa.
Cy: Seriously, you're an idiot.

Rip on stereotypes
Herky: You go to a cow college. Moo U.
Cy: What a typical arrogant Hawkeye jackass.
Herky: There's nothing to do in Lames.
Cy: Yeah, we really miss out on smoking all that dope and playing hacky sack on the Ped Mall. Time to cut your dreadlocks, hippie.
Herky: Shut up, hick. I think there are some fat girls on campus that need some loving.
Cy: Hey, I'm pretty sure your dad wants you take his Lexus back to Chicago this weekend.

There are many more including arguing about conferences, calling coaches names, etc. but I think you get the idea. It's always nice to just finally play the game so the loser can bitch about the refs or anything else that clearly cost them the game. Until then, enjoy your ranking while it lasts Squawk fan. And your coach looks like Eddie Munster.

ISU 81 Virginia 79

2004-12-07T14:44:00.000-06:00

"I love the people of Ames, but I don’t know if I’d want to come back here every other year. This is one of the toughest places to play. It’s comparable to a Maryland or Duke in the ACC." - Virginia Coach Pete Gillen.

Somebody should let Dukie V know since he refuses to come to Hilton.

Anyway, a few other thoughts from last night. Faulkner looks like he could become a version of Vroman soon. Right now he looks a lot like Vroman and Tyray Pearson in their first year out of JC when he puts up some really great numbers but his minutes will be limited unless he gets his fouls under control. He has a motor that just won't stop and his tenacity down low kept ISU in the game for a little while. He was all over the floor tipping balls and grabbing buckets when we needed them. I'd say he's probably our only post player that can consistantly create his own shot. I trust Homan shooting the 15 footers and banging down low and Davis has shown some flashes from time to time but they haven't shown that creativity that Pearson or Vroman had. A disappointment has been Damion Staple. He looked completely lost whenever he was in the game (whch wasn't much) and brought nothing to the court. That was sort of his M.O. for a lot of last year but I was hoping that he had found his comfort level after he played a few solid games toward the end of the year. Reggie George played hard and made a few decent plays but I'm not sure he will play more than 20 minutes a game unless Faulkner has more fould problems.

I liked the new starting lineup even though Carr didn't play much and didn't make much of an impact. Faulkner should start the rest of the year, IMO, as long as he continues to bust his ass like he does. I feel bad for John Neal because of his shooting woes but his defense won the game for us yesterday. Once we went to the box-and-one Devin Smith could barely get a shot off. It's nice to have somewhat of a defensive stopper to bring in when we need him and I think his shot will come back. He's not nearly the shooter that Sullivan was but we need someone to sit up top and knock down the kick outs from Stinson and Blalock.

Of course many Hawkeye fans have been ripping into ISU. Specifically the "thugs", both the streeball and farmboy types. If you're going to play in the Big 12 you need to have a little bit of an attitude. Homan knocked the shit out of that guy but that's what's going to happen to you if you want to dunk on somebody in this league. It probably was a flagrant foul but Homan isn't a thug in the Jacob Jaacks mold where he just wants to hurt somebody for the hell of it. Then the thinly veiled racism leveled at guys like Stinson and Blalock gets really old. And some of the comments from ISU fans and TV announcers are the same. The TV guys are always looking for a story and love to refer to Stinson's game using words like "playground" and "straight from the streets". The guy's a basketball player and just because he comes from NYC and doesn't have the background of a Duke player doesn't mean he's a thug or has no discipline. Yes, he does talk some trash but that goes both ways and I've seen white guys from Iowa talk just as much shit but are never referred to in those terms. At least he's never plead guilty to a sex crime like those on some other teams in the state, right?

It's the same crap when the media hassles Morgan for the confrontation during the UNI game while giving their coach a free pass. Whether intentional or not I think there is a little bit of a double standard with race in college basketball.

Hilton Magic strikes again

2004-12-06T20:32:00.000-06:00

A potential game-tyer (tier?) rolled in and out about 3 times in the last few seconds just moments after a a solid free throw shooter bricks one to tie it in the face of a deafening roar. Sounds a lot like last year's Texas game but Hilton but the same thing happened tonight against #19 Virginia. The game was really a lot of fun to watch as both teams played balls out for 40 minutes. I think they were maybe a little too jacked up as both teams missed quite a few shots early and ISU missed free throws all game. Holy crap, that was ugly. It really could have been a lot easier win without those misses but a win is a win.

It was nice to see them finally play with heart and emotion, 2 things missing from the UNI game. They talked some shit, were cocky and tough but I'll take a team that people love to hate over one that won't get up for anything.

Stinson's over the shoulder flip to Blalock followed by the no look behind the back pass to Carr followed by a monster tomahawk jam had to be one the best ISU plays I've seen. This team is just amazingly athletic and fun to watch. Watching the student section go so crazy over that reminded me of some of those moments where you're just jumping around making a total ass out of yourself and don't even remember what you were doing. I feel like I should be Billy Madison telling those kids to never leave college or something.

Big win for the Cyclones and the Hawks are up next this Friday. Time to get a road win this year.

More on UNI game

2004-12-03T16:56:00.000-06:00

Trib article on continuing the home and home series with UNI and Drake. Sounds like it will continue in the near future at least. ISU and Iowa are two of very few high major schools who have home and home deals with two in-state mid-major teams. Teams like Colorado may play Colorado State home and home but KU and K-State won't play Wichita State without a 2-1 or even 3-1 deal, Mizzou won't play SW Missouri State at all, Oklahoma State and OU don't have these deals with Tulsa, etc. I'm a fan of good mid-major teams and wish that more teams would play them, especially at home, but I'm an ISU fan first and these deals do hurt financially. Some people say that giving up a Northern Colorado game would make more sense but we're never going to need to go there so that's great for the minimum number of home games needed to make it financially. In the current state of college basketball a game at another Big 10 or SEC school on ESPN helps your program a lot more than playing in Cedar Falls or at the Knapp Center. It's a tough call because fans in Iowa do have a unique opportunity to see all four D1 schools matchup against each other every year while at the same time Iowa and ISU are making concessions to do this that other schools aren't willing to do and UNI and Drake shouldn't assume that this is their right just because it's been that way for so long.

Also, the confrontation between Morgan and McDermott apparently began when McD yelled "Get that son-of-a-bitch out of the game" to Morgan after Homan's foul. Morgan said "What? Fuck you." McD responded by saying something to the effect of "I'll punch you in the face" and Morgan dropped a few more f-bombs. I find it a little odd that Morgan is getting most of the heat from the media but I guess it is usually the second guy that gets caught. Usually he's such a calm guy but he will stand up for his players when he feels they're being wronged. He dropped a few curses (justifiably) at the refs at the KU game last year after we were jobbed on a couple of plays there which was nice to see.

Speaking of cursing at refs, the same ref that ejected Larry Eustachy during the Michigan State game T'd him up again in his home opener at USM. There was always some talk that Curtis Shaw and Larry had some problems from his days at Idaho so I find it kind of funny that they would get the same ref for his home opener. I'll bet LE was really excited to see him. I still cant believe there were refs that bad in at elite 8 game though. How is it possible to be a charge and a block at the same time? What a joke. Curtis Shaw, Frank Basone, and Lonnie Dixon...you suck.

One more thing

2004-12-02T18:14:00.000-06:00

Larry Eustachy is returning to Iowa for their tournament there. They play on Friday and will most likely play Iowa on Saturday. Good luck to Coach Eustachy in his quest to avenge the loss to Iowa in his last game as ISU's coach during the NIT tournament.

Hear that?

2004-12-02T17:49:00.000-06:00

I think I hear ISU's wakeup call in the background. Obviously, losing to UNI by 17 last night isn't what I, or the team, expected. Their seeming lack of interest against teams like Northern Colorado and Bucknell finally caught up with them.

So, it seems that the saying that a team is never as good as their best game and never as bad as their worse applies to ISU this year. I may have been a little excited after the Drake game and things can't be as bad as getting hammered by a Valley team (even if UNI is fairly solid). They were just unconscious last night from everywhere and they really helped themselves by playing smart basketball. I hesitate to apply that term because that seems to be the conventional reasoning whenever a mostly white team beats a mostly black team. However, UNI did a great job of finding open spots against ISU's sometimes lackluster zone.

Let's look at some negatives. My biggest problem was how horribly selfish the team was last night. I think they ended the game with a total of 4 assists. Seriously, how is that even possible in a game where they score 82 points? Add into that fact that two of those assists were from our starting post players and you have a team that's either launching threes or trying to take everyone off the dribble and definitely not moving around. They finished 4-9 from three so it must be the latter. I can't stand it when teams don't move at all on offense and that was a huge problem last night. Due to my girlfriend Veronica's birthday I was forced to watch most of the game over her shoulder with no sound so I did miss a few things but how could Homan make 8 of his 17 shots without anyone else getting some assists? I think we'd be better off getting him the ball down low instead of working him so much at the top of the key.

Other than that the team didn't rebound, didn't move on defense, didn't shoot very well, and didn't look too interested in the game in general. I also felt like we started to whine to the refs when calls didn't go our way (and there were a few of those). I think this team needs to take the advice of my old junior high basketball coach, Jeff Friesen. "Play hard and don't be a jerk." This would solve a lot of their problems.

The good news is that the team can fix these things but they're going to need to do it soon as they face two ranked teams next week when Virginia comes into Hilton on Monday and they travel to Iowa City of Friday. The phone is ringing, will they answer it?

humiliating loss

2004-12-01T22:45:00.000-06:00

OK, first I only got to see bits and pieces of the game but wow, that sucked. UNI was absolutely unconscious from three but we didn't exactly show tons of heart in the first half.

I'm going to have a lot to say on this game and what it means for the team in general but I think it would be prudent to let myself calm down and reflect a little first.

2004-11-30T21:21:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm back just in time for the Cyclones game against UNI tomorrow. The Panthers are 1-1 with a win over Wayne State and a tough double OT loss at Cincinnati. They have quite a few of the same guys that made the NCAA tourney and nearly ended Georgia Tech's final four run in the first round. All five starters scored in double figures against Cincy. I still think ISU wins this by 10 or so as long as Stinson and Blalock come to play. It sounds like they turned in a bit of a lackluster performance in the Cyclone Challenge last week against some inferior competition. ISU holds a 33-6 edge in the all-time series but it always seems to be tough to go into the Dome and play well.

Jared Homan was Big 12 Player of the week after averaging 13.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks. He's 11 away from taking ISU's all-time block record from Kelvin Cato. Like Homan, Cato was a monster down low and set the record in his 2 years at ISU.

A few scores of interest tonight. Iowa won at Drake by 16 and scored 91 points. I watched the game on and off and Iowa looked pretty solid. I still think that will be ISU's toughest nonconference game but still very winnable. Benedict Haluska led Iowa with 21. Creighton squeaked by Xavier by 1 after blasting Mizzou earlier this year and the game against the Musketeers should be a tough one as well.

2004-11-24T13:44:00.000-06:00

Pressing Issue

Curtis Stinson 17 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 turnover
Yet, somehow taken off the Wooden preseason list because of an error in voting. What a joke.

I'm back in Kansas for Thanksgiving so there won't be any updates for a while. Have a good holiday.

More thoughts

2004-11-24T01:06:00.000-06:00

Looking at what they did tonight and during the exhibiton games I really have to think that this guard group of Stinson, Blalock, and Carr is definitely comparable to the elite eight group of Tinsley, Nurse, and Horton. Stinson absolutley controlled the game. He scored any time he wanted to and dished out a lot of assists. Basically, the team will be running two point guards for most of the game which is a big advantage. I'm also really happy about the range that Homan showed. He wasn't afraid to knock down any shots from outside whether he had somebody close or not. We still got outrebounded which is a little bit of a concern for me but I think it's something that can be taken care of. This wasn't a bad Drake team and the Cyclones never let them in the game which is exactly what a tournament team should do. My player of the game has to be Stinson with his 17 points and 12 assists but I feel great about everybody that played tonight.

One of the things that I'm most pleased about it our defensive intensity. It was exactly the level we needed throughout the first half and most of the second. Morgan's zone can really help this team out in the conference if everyone is active and knows their role. They looked in midseason form already. With Mizzou getting their ass kicked by Creighton tonight and some other scores from recent weeks I think that the Cyclones have a great shot at 4th in the league or maybe even better. I'd feel ok with 5th but it seems like this team will improve so much over the next few months. Things are looking good.

Cyclones 73 Bulldogs 46

2004-11-23T20:57:00.000-06:00

Cyclones absolutley dominated Drake tonight. The press was a nonfactor throughout most of the night which was a good sign without Blalock. Stinson was even better than last year as he dropped 12 assists and at least 17 points. He was finding guys all over the place and you could tell that anytime he felt like scoring he had no problem doing just that. His outside shot looked better, as did Homan's. Most of the new guys looked pretty good too. Neal played some solid defense but missed a few open threes. Overall, we look really quick and played hard all game. I felt pretty good coming out of the game.

These are just my initial thoughts and I'll try to post some more before I head home for Thanksgiving.

Drake game tomorrow night

2004-11-22T17:11:00.000-06:00

Preview from Cyclones.com

Injury report from the Trib. Basically, Stinson's shoulder still hurting a little bit but he'll play. Davis' shoulder is still acting up and will be out 2 weeks or so. Tasheed Carr's groin is really bothering him and he was pretty sore after the EA Sports game. He'll be needed tomorrow so hopefully he can go. Faulkner and George are both still battling their injuries. It sucks to be so banged up this early and especially since they seem to be the kind of injuries that can nag you for a season.

Tipoff is 7 and on TV across most of the state.

Finals

2004-11-19T21:47:00.000-06:00

Kansas 68 Vermont 61
Davidson 84 Mizzou 81

Is there any reason for me to not believe that ISU can really surprise some people in the conference this year?

More love for Stinson

2004-11-19T14:55:00.000-06:00

Love for Stinson from Seth Davis at SI. However, I think it's pretty dumb to say that J.R. Giddens proved himself last year while Stinson didn't. It seems pretty obvious considering Stinson is first team all Big 12 and Giddens is not (although plenty of his teammates are) but let's look at the stats.

Giddens 25.9 mpg, 11.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.8 apg, 0.6 bpg, 0.7 spg, .475 FG%
Stinson 35.1 mpg, 16.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.3 apg, 0.2 bpg, 1.7 spg, .479 FG%

Yeah, obviously Stinson is the one that still needs to prove himself this season. Give me a break. The KU bias really, really gets old.

Daily article on missing Blalock and possibly Stinson against the Bulldogs next week. Other than a few quotes from coaches and players there isn't much new info. Also, I typed Carr before but I meant Anthony Davis. Sorry for the confusion.

Whoa, where have I been?

2004-11-18T18:32:00.000-06:00

Sorry about the lack of updates but my internet has been down and I've been busy with other stupid crap. Anyway, a few things have happened. First, ISU rolled EA Sports without Stinson and Carr playing due to injuries. Stinson should be back by Drake but Carr might be out a few weeks. We'll also be without Blalock due to a one-game suspension for playing in an unsanctioned tournament in Boston over the summer. Pretty lame if you ask me but when do I expect anything the NCAA does to make any sense?

So, Drake is up on Tuesday. Dr. Tom Davis is going into his second year and there's a decent amount of optimism going into the season for them. They should try to press but ISU should be used to running against it assuming they're working on their own press in practice. I'd feel a lot better with Blalock running the point but, assuming Stinson plays, I still don't think ISU should lose this game in Hilton. That said, there seems to be a decent amount of feeling or fear among ISU fans and certain fat radio hosts in Des Moines that Drake will win this. Given Deace's history of making dumb predictions and saying anything to cause a little controversy I'm not too worried about it.

The Cyclones announced the signing of four members of next year's class. The link includes capsules on all four. There's definitely some size with 7 footer Kellen Lee, 6'10" Ross Mardsen out of Ames, and top 50 6'9" recruit Shawn Taggart out of prep school powerhouse Mt. Zion. Farnold Degand is a 6'3" guard out of Boston also sounds like a good talent. All four guys picked ISU over some fairly big name schools. It's nice to see that Morgan can really use his east coast connections to get these guys.

2004-11-15T17:27:00.000-06:00

Joe Lunardi's Bracketology has ISU as one of the last four teams in the tournament as an 11 seed. Xavier is also one of the last four in and Texas Tech is one of the last four out. Both could be important games if ISU is on the bubble at the end of the year.

Short ISU Daily and Ames Trib previews. EA Sports, featuring Ed O'Bannon among others, beat K-State by 12 and took Virginia Tech to OT. Not a bad team and should provide a decent benchmark for where ISU is right now.

A couple of future opponents had some fairly close calls as Iowa beat Laval by 8 and KU beat the mighty Ichabods of Washburn University by 9. Of course Washburn was immediately elevated to national title contender by KU fans. Well, maybe they're not quite that bad but I did read claims that WU is better than half the teams KU will play this year and even better than ISU. I don't know about that and I'd still take ISU over Washburn by double digits no matter how they played KU and Purdue.

Gametime is 7 tonight against EA Sports All-Stars. It's in the game...

Eustachy and other stuff

2004-11-12T19:25:00.000-06:00

There's been a lot of talk on the Cyclone Report board about Eustachy and I guess I fall in the group that still respects everything he did for ISU and is going to follow him wherever he goes. I'm not an IU fan that becomes a Texas Tech fan when Bobby Knight goes there but Eustachy will always be one of my all-time favorite coaches. He pulled a couple of classic moves in his first exhibition game at Southern Miss when he didn't play a player that missed two layups in pregame because he wasn't focused and subbed five for five when the team was losing. They went on a 17-2 run to take control of the game after that and those are the types of move that make his team win. Early season was always tough under him (see Drake 48-ISU 44 during the Elite 8 year) but he could get his teams tough, tough, tough when it came time for the conference (see a total of 2 conference losses on the road in overtime that same year).

A good piece from the Trib on Stinson's choice to come to Ames and the adjustment once he got here. It can't be easy for some of these guys to come to Ames but it really can help them like it did Tinsley, etc.

Coach Eustachy update

2004-11-11T17:36:00.000-06:00

Andy Katz wrote a great piece about Coach Eustachy at his new job coaching Southern Miss. It sounds like things are going well for him and I think things are working out well for everyone involved. At the time I was really opposed to his firing and felt that ISU was making a big mistake. Looking back I think it may have been the only thing to do and it would be so tough for him to continue there. That said, I still feel like he is the best coach that ISU has ever had and will have success wherever he goes but I feel great about having Coach Morgan lead the team. Considering what LE did while he was drinking I can only think that he will be that much better now that he can place more of his focus on basketball.

It's easy to put coaches on a pedastal and not imagine them having lives outside of basketball but he always seemed so down to earth. He seemed like a great guy and someone that you'd love to sit down with to talk basketball and whatever for a few hours. The only time I ever saw him off the basketball court he was at HyVee talking to his kids about what kind of cereal he wanted. Just a normal dad shopping on a Sunday afternoon. I wish him the best of luck at Southern Miss and I'll keep my eye on how they're doing.

Dickie V, baby!

2004-11-11T16:59:00.000-06:00

As obnoxious as Dick Vitale is, he sometimes manages to pull his lips from Coach K's ass for a few moments to recognize someone outside of the ACC. ISU was mentioned as a team to watch that is capable of pulling an upset at any time. Curtis Stinson deserves more love, baby! Oddly enough ISU has changed their logo to a green O and Oregon is now using Iowa State Cyclones in their logo. I obviously missed the announcement. My loyal reader(s) deserve better and I'll try harder.

Color scheme

2004-11-10T18:29:00.000-06:00

I'm still playing around with the color scheme on this since I get the feeling it's a little hard to read. Don't fret.

Cyclones Pound Beavers

2004-11-10T18:12:00.000-06:00

If you're expecting something classier than an obvious sexual innuendo you've come to the wrong place, heh.

Final score was 80-57. The starting lineup was Blalock, Stinson, Neal, Staple, and Homan.

ISU Daily recap
Register writeup
Cyclones.com story
Boxscore

I couldn't go to the game but listened to most of it on the radio. It sounds like the team can really get up the floor and I'd be surprised if many teams will be more athletic than ISU this year. Stinson led the team in scoring for the first of many times with 14. He also led with 9 boards, 8 assists and 5 steals. Not a bad game, eh? The newcomers looked good for the most part. Faulkner has been compared to Vroman athletically and put up solid numbers in just 12 minutes of play. It would be great if he could help out down low, especially if Reggie George's back continues to give him trouble. Clark and Carr should both provide a lot of minutes at the other guard spots and it wouldn't surprise me too much to see one of them starting over Neal at some point this season. It will be fun to see Clark unleash some monster dunks on some people this year (Haluska, please?).

Next game is Monday against EA Sports.

Oh, here's a story about Morgan recruiting prep school athletes. Today was signing day and ISU has a class of four led by top 50 recruit Shawn Taggart out of basketball factory Mt. Zion in North Carolina.

Catching up on some links

2004-11-08T19:54:00.000-06:00

We'll start with catching up on a few links.

First from the Register:
Interview with Coach Morgan touching on his east coast roots, Jimi Hendrix, and two of my favorite Hilton Magic moments. The first is the end of the Texas game when the crowd got into Boddicker's head and helped him miss those two free throws. Definitely one of the loudest moments I remember.

The second was watching Colorado completely melt under the pressure of 14,000 screaming fans. They were throwing the ball into the fifth row just about every other trip down the floor during our big run. Good times.

The article from Big 12 media day. This raises the questions, "will Jared Homan actually shoot some threes this year?" and "do we want him to?" He was 1-1 in the Shootout so maybe we do. From all accounts he has really worked hard this offseason and should be a force. Picking up a few points from him will really help offset the loss of Vroman and you know he's still going to be a monster on the boards and playing D.

Preaseason All-Big 12 First Teamer Curtis Stinson. Plan on him dominating the league this year.

Here are the Big 12 preseason selections.
2004-05 BIG 12 PRESEASON MEDIA SELECTIONS
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Preseason Player of the Year Wayne Simien, Kansas, G, 6-9, 255, Sr., Leavenworth, Kan./Leavenworth
Preseason Newcomer of the Year Taj Gray, Oklahoma, F, 6-8, 235, Jr., Wichita, Kan./Redlands (Okla.) Community College**
Preseason Freshman of the Year Daniel Gibson, Texas, G, 6-2, 190, Fr., Houston, Texas/Jones
Preseason All-Big 12 Media Team
Name, School Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl-Exp PPG RPG Hometown/Previous School(s)
Keith Langford, Kansas G 6-4 215 Sr.-3L 15.5 5.0 Fort Worth, Texas/North Crowley
Wayne Simien, Kansas F 6-9 255 Sr.-3L 17.8 9.3 Leavenworth, Kan./Leavenworth
Curtis Stinson, Iowa State G 6-3 215 So.-1L 16.2 6.0 Bronx, N.Y./Winchendon (Mass.) Prep
Joey Graham, OSU G 6-7 217 Sr.-1L 12.4 5.2 Brandon, Fla./Brandon/UCF
John Lucas, OSU G 5-11 152 Sr.-1L 15.1 2.8 Houston, Texas/Bellaire/Baylor Univ.
** - unanimous selection
Honorable Mention (listed alphabetically by school):Kansas: J.R. Giddens, Aaron Miles; Missouri: Linas Kleiza; Oklahoma: Kevin Bookout; Texas: P.J. Tucker; Texas A&M: Antoine Wright; Texas Tech: Jarrius Jackson.

Obviously a very solid team and it speaks well to Stinson's talent and performance last year that he is the only non-senior on the team and the only player not on the two heavy favorites in the league.

Media Day info and quotes from the Big 12 site. Coach Mogan, Jared Homan, and Curtis Stinson all attended.

Predictions from the KC Star. ISU picked 6th at 9-7 in the conference. Stinson first team. Will Blaylock listed as one of the top three point shooters in the league this year. Jake Sullivan listed as one of the three all-time best in the Big 12. He is the only player to be in the top five in both three pointers made and percentage. His 44.3 career percent is amazing to me considering the struggles he had on the road during his last two years. I still feel that a lot of this perception comes from his unbelievable shooting at home which I had the pleasure to witness for four years.

ISU capsule from the Star.

That's about all I have to start out with but I'll see if I can get going on some more later. The exhibition season tips off tomorrow against Bemidji State.

Hilton Magic is back!

2004-11-08T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hey, I decided to go ahead and go for it with this blog designed to follow Cyclone basketball this year. I'm not sure exactly what my plans are for it yet but I hope to post links to articles about the team and some of my thoughts. Feel free to email me with suggestions or comments.

My Cyclone Hoops Blog

2004-11-07T18:15:00.000-06:00

My good friend "Sellout" Ryan motivated me to start up a Cyclone basketball blog since he is doing the same for the Hawkeyes right now. We'll see if I get going on this thing.