Feb 17, 2025; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Duke Blue Devils guard Cooper Flagg (2) drives to the basket as Virginia Cavaliers forward Blake Buchanan (0) defends in the first half at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Iowa State is nearly done with its portal cycle and there’s no shortage of things to talk about.
Let’s muse.
Men’s Basketball adds three in the portal
Iowa State secured three players in the past couple days in the portal:
- Mason Williams – a 3-point shooter that developed his inside game after an injury forced him to adjust his skillset.
- Eric Mulder – a forward out of Purdue Fort Wayne, originally from Oskaloosa, that finished as the most efficient player in the country this year.
- Blake Buchanan – a Virginia forward with old ties to Otzelberger that values defense and says that he felt he was held back last year.
I talked to each of these guys over the weekend (click on their names for the links) to find out more about them – each has some intricacies that contributed to Iowa State going after them.
From a macro perspective, Iowa State went out and got some depth and took guys that are eager to develop – and do the work that is required from Otzelberger and staff. They’re all blue collar guys.
This shouldn’t be overly surprising. Iowa State is not going to be the program that hands a multi-million dollar check to a Coleman Hawkins or a Hunter Dickinson.
It’s unrealistic, especially with costs soaring even higher for talent in the portal. And yet, some people around the internet are acting like Iowa State just signed a contract to go 2-22, again.
I can’t stand this era of NCAA Basketball, right now
I mulled over how I wanted to present these words here for the better part of this week. I don’t think it’s some unique take, but this week in the portal drove me crazy.
I think it sucks that any level of success at the mid-major level means the starters are likely to get picked up elsewhere and the coach’s name is going to be in circles everywhere. On the same lines, it sucks that Drake will have rostered over 50 players in three seasons with nearly, entire different staffs on the bench in Des Moines.
This year’s NCAA Tournament was the dullest I can ever remember. The entire tournament has lacked the magical moments, and anyone saying otherwise is lying through their teeth.
I cannot believe that in the eyes of some, Iowa State’s entire 2025-26 season hinges on if it gets one player who’s spent last season in the Summit League.
How did Dickinson and and Hawkins work out for the Kansas schools, by the way? Maybe I’m reading the comments too much, but I’m ready for football season.
Next year’s WBB roster
Audi Crooks and Addy Brown each announced on social media that they would be returning to Iowa State next season – throw that in the bag of this era of college hoops, we’ve got to have players announce they aren’t going to enter the portal.
And that kind of feels necessary.
Meanwhile, it feels like Iowa State will retain most of its roster, and is hunting for guards in the portal this off-season.
There are more specifics on the premium forum, but one name out there publicly that both Iowa State and Iowa are going after is former Arizona guard Jada Williams. She averaged 12.7 points per game for the Wildcats in her sophomore season, and if she doesn’t end up in Ames, there’s a good chance Iowa State will see her on its schedule next season.
I’ll have more on the women’s program later this week.
Quick hits
A pair of former Cyclones landed some big jobs in college basketball this week. Drake hired Eric Henderson away from South Dakota State, which opened the position for former Cyclone point guard Bryan Petersen to take on the role in Brookings. Daniyal Robinson then took the North Texas job after three 20-plus win seasons at Cleveland State, which each ended in trips to the CBI. Those will be fun to follow next year.
NCAA denies Colorado spring scrimmage with Syracuse. I’ve reported on this in recent weeks – the potential of teams setting up spring scrimmages in the future.
Colorado tried to set one up with Syracuse but got denied due to the quick turnaround, the belief it would give either program recruiting advantages, and somehow missed time to academics – even though it would take up the same time as a practice.
The 3 reasons the NCAA cited denying the chance for Colorado and Syracuse to scrimmage in the spring. The 1st I get, but 3, come on, kids are transferring mid semester nowadays, academics is a non issue in this era!!!!! pic.twitter.com/G77NWpA36f
— Joe Kenn (@bighousepower) March 29, 2025
Vintage NCAA. I’m old enough to remember when BYU and Coastal Carolina scheduled and played an on-campus game in 72 hours during the pandemic year. I wouldn’t be shocked to see this continue to gain some momentum in the coming weeks, we’ll see if it’s enough to create some down the road.
The Yankees’ bats – In peak Rob Manfred/MLB action, baseball seemed like it would be overlooked this weekend with opening day lining up directly against the Sweet 16, and it sort of was until they fell ass-backwards into the story of the year so far.
The New York Yankees showed up to play Milwaukee with custom bats they had built that put more wood around the barrel where contact happens most – they almost look cartoonish.
Michael Kay explains that the Yankees made new bats “where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball.”
Seems relevant today… pic.twitter.com/cpldzigdrT
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 29, 2025
New York preceded to beat Milwaukee 20-9 and 12-3 in the last two games of the series, with players crediting the bats.
They probably would have gone unnoticed if the team’s own broadcast pointed it out Saturday but by the rule book, there are no rules against it.
I thought that would be the whole of the story for the time being, but then I opened social media and saw a Twins player had the same thing. Apparently Cody Bellinger was approached about it during his time with the Cubs, but never used it in a game.
I don’t think there’s any chance these get outlawed. MLB tried juicing the balls before and these seem to be undoubtedly helping batters.
Iowa State Softball
I’ll leave y’all on a good note. Iowa State Softball is in the midst of its best start to Big 12 play in program history at 6-3 after taking a series against Arizona State, who was 23-10 coming into the weekend.
I went out to the game with some friends – admission is free – and got to see this group in person. Coach Jamie Pinkerton has got a good thing going on and pitcher Lauren Schurman can really spin it on the mound. They’ve got BYU this week in Ames.
