Read through this article on ESPN and was surprised to learn just how much college coaches make compared to other state employees. Not saying they don’t deserve the money and not saying it should go to the players, but it is interesting that the highest paid employees are basketball or football coaches in 42 of the 50 states.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...d-state-employees&id=28261213&redirected=true

The three thoughts I had were:

1) College coaches are paid significantly more money over the last 10 years. For example, Saban was paid $3.1 million in 2009 compared to $8.9 million this year. He was the second highest paid coach in 2009 and 2019 in NCAA football. Is it conceivable to have $20 million a year contracts by 2029 at the current rate?

2) How much revenue does an elite college team generate vs a pro team on game days? I’m curious what the numbers look like with ticket sales, parking passes, concessions/apparel sales. I’m sure a coaching salary can be darn near covered after one home game.

3) How the hell can Purdue afford to pay Jeff Brohm $6.6 million per year?!?

...let the Campbell speculating begin.

Just saw this afternoon Tyrese Haliburton is pegged to go No. 10 overall to the New Orleans Pelicans in the ESPN mock draft. He's at No. 17 in the most recent one on Bleacher Report as well. Figured I would start a thread that can be updated as new mocks come out during the season.

From Bleacher Report late last week:

"Haliburton's playmaking efficiency and defensive playmaking have carried over from this summer's U19 World Cup. He's the nation's [early] assist leader, but he's also coming off a career-high 25 points against Michigan on Wednesday.

There is still debate surrounding his NBA upside as a point guard who lacks burst, advanced creation skills and a strong pull-up game. Regardless, the right team, one that could surround him with athletes and shot-makers, should be able to optimize his elite passing IQ, while a consistent three-ball could give him enough scoring purpose."

The NBA SEASON IS HEREEEEEEE and I am EXCITED. I saw a lot of former Cyclones on my timeline which makes the NBA season even better so I thought I’d drop a couple for you guys to see if you hadn’t!

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Alright, CF. I need some help from everyone in solving a murder which happened right in my backyard. Here is the photographic evidence from the crime scene in question (in spoiler tags for the faint of heart):


As you can see from the picture and the remaining feet, it used to be a rabbit. Whatever ate it, ripped up the top half of the torso (nowhere to be found nearby) and picked off the spine and leg bones pretty clean (except for the actual feet). What type of anymal would do this? Based on the remains, it appears to have been a fully grown/adult rabbit.

Some predators I have seen around my neighborhood (or neighbors have photographed): bobcats, coyotes, stray dogs, stray cats, snakes (copperheads, cottonmouths, rat snakes, an escaped ball python - all of these probably unlikely in the winter), racoons, and turkey vultures (pretty big ones).

What does CF think? I have added a poll with a few options as well.

AMES, Iowa -The Iowa State women's basketball team (7-2, 0-0, Big 12) continues its home stand Sunday as it takes on Northern Iowa (7-3, 0-0 MVC) on Sunday, Dec. 22 at 5 p.m. on Cyclones.tv. Iowa State is 36-9 against the Panthers. UNI claimed the last meeting in 2017, 57-53. Prior to that victory, Iowa State had won 13-straight. The Cyclones are also 17-1 all-time against UNI in Hilton Coliseum.

As a reminder, Hilton Coliseum has instituted a Clear Bag Policy for athletic events. The policy will enhance security while improving efficiency at the entry gates.

Where: Hilton Coliseum - Ames, Iowa
When: Sunday, Dec. 22 at 5 p.m.
Projected Starting Lineup: Rae Johnson, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, Ashley Joens, Inés Nezerwa, Kristin Scott
Radio: Cyclone Radio Network/Learfield
Talent:Dave Sprau, Molly Parrott
TV: Cyclones.tv

Here's links to my tweets with quotes from this morning:

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I'm at a game in person for the first time in a couple seasons.

North Alabama is not a pushover. 9-2, and they played Iowa close at CHA.

I heard this on the radio this morning in KC they were going over their top 5 memories of the last decade for Chiefs and Royals I thought it would be good for ISU football and basketball.

Football
5. Beating Texas this year. Only because ISU always looses that type of game and to win on a last second field goal like that was the only time I can remember.
4. Getting to the Alamo bowl and the crowd that went down there. I know it wasn't a win but it is the biggest bowl ISU has been to and I was just so impressed with how the fans traveled.
3. Beating OSU in OT.
2. Beating OU in Norman.
1. Hiring Matt Campbell and changing the culture of ISU football

Basketball
5. Playing in the Maui tournament and having a great showing of ISU fans making that tournament shows ISU has made it back to the national stage. Also big for me since I got to go to Maui for the tournament.
4. The win over West Virginia in the Big 12 tournament to win it Monte's senior year finally beating them after struggling to beat them.
3. The win in Lawrence on Jackson's shot.
2. The run in 2015 to win the Big 12 tournament being down big in every game by a large margin and coming back to win
1. Beating UNC to go to the sweet sixteen - just the effort to grid out a win after Niang goes down

What are other people top moments or memories?

Some of us have been discussing accidents involving sharp things (nails & staples, to be exact) in a thread, and it occurred to me that many folks aren't really up for reading those kinds of discussions.

So, since @Angie is probably indisposed today, I thought I'd start a thread where we can talk about gross things that have happened to us.

I'm taking about protruding bones, triple-digit stitches, people fainting dead away type stuff.

Tell us your story.

Was chatting in the Prohm thread, and the subject came up of what is the biggest shot in ISU history. Thought it would be a fun topic to debate and wanted to decouple it from the toxic sludge that is that thread.

Some big games in the past that likely had some big shots that I was either not alive for or too young to remember (so you old guys will have to help us out ):

1986 second round win vs Michigan
1996 Big 8 championship vs KU
1997 second round win vs Cincinnati

I’d probably consider Kanes layup vs UNC as the biggest of my lifetime that I can remember.

Go!

Too bad football ended so badly after the Texas game. Basketball (m & w) and wrestling look like long years ahead. Football coaches really under performed this year. Too much Brock Purdy hype and STUPID play calling in short yardage especially. With 6" to go, why snap the ball 7 yards deep? We need to line up under center some of the time all season. I am so tired of the shotgun only and one back offense. There is no deception at all and the running back always takes the hand off standing still instead of forward momentum like I-formation plays. Also tired of needing whole month of September to experiment. What is preseason practice for? We all pretty much knew we would get waxed after the way we finished season in Nov. Was JGJ actually hurt or was it smoking pot as has been suggested on CF.? Also tired of hearing how close we were to 10-2. We were just as close to 5-7 and no bowl game.
We had a senior transfer QB & a Redshirt Freshman QB as backups. Why not give them a shot if Purdy was injured. His chance to be the started happened when he got a chance. But if you take away his scrabbling he isn't as effective. Why have backups if they don't get a chance in the game?

Ridiculous question- but I’ve noticed the last 2 seasons, particularly in the big ten championship and this years playoff that the Ohio State coaching staff rocks fantastic pairs of pants. Now they look like pretty standard grey dress pants but does anyone know of a way I can find the exact pair online or something? Seriously such a look.

Maddie Frederick has a boot on her left leg and won't play tonight. No info right now as to what happened.

North Alabama comes in at 9-2 from the Atlantic Sun Conference. Tipoff at 6:30 coming in a few minutes.

Link:

https://cyclonefanatic.com/podcasts/football-and-random-things-episode-57/

Just passing along what we are hearing in the ND boards...

ND has looked absolutely awful in practices leading up to the game. I expect the defense to play well, but the loss of OC Chip Long seems like it may very well come into play.

After everything that I’ve learned about Iowa State over the past couple of weeks or so, I do not feel particularly good about the game. If the Iowa State OL can protect Purdy, and I think that that they’ll do enough, it does not bode well for ND.

I think that this is a game that ND should win, but I don’t see any evidence right now that ND is going to play well. I picked Iowa State to win 27-24 on the ND boards. I hope that I’m wrong.

As we finish out 2019 and take the first step this weekend in the run-up to the Olympic Trials, I wanted to let you know that the Cyclone Regional Training Center has had a very good year.

Besides adding former Cyclone Willie Miklus to our small arsenal of post-graduate athletes, we also added new volunteer assistant, Joey Palmer. Willie, Joey and Kyven will be accompanied by Coach Carr on the first leg of the Olympic Trials this weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. You can follow the results of the competition starting Friday on FLO or on social media.

Willie will compete at 86 kg FS and Kyven at 96 kg FS. Joey was slated to compete at 57 kg FS, but it was just too big of a cut. So he will compete at 60 kg GR. They have been training hard and WE wish them all well.

None of this would be possible -- including Coach Carr's position -- without the hundreds of donors who have contributed to our non-profit organization in 2019. All three post-graduate athletes plus Coach Carr are fully supported by the Cyclone Regional Training Center.

Just to be very clear, it is our goal moving forward to fill the C-RTC pool of post-graduate athletes with former ISU wrestlers. Coach Palmer currently is the exception, however the fact that he was such a tough light-weight AND we were looking for a volunteer coach made Joey a great choice for us. He really is our kind of guy in the practice room and brings a toughness that will pay big dividends moving forward.

Probably our biggest win in 2019 was the acquisition of the C-RTC House in West Ames. The 4-unit complex currently houses all three post-graduate athletes, Kyven's family (his wife and two daughters), and six current student athletes who are on our roster. We yielded more than a half-million dollars of donated materials and labor to the C-RTC House project. We look to be finalizing permanent financing next month, and the amount of equity we captured on this project is most impressive. A special shout out to HCS Builders in Ames and specifically to Chuck Winkleblack for bringing this opportunity to us.

The other thing that really took off this year was our C-RTC Tree. To date, we have 474 donors on our tree! Supporters from $100 to $100,000 have populated our tree to a current total of $571,846 donated to the Cyclone Regional Training Center. This doesn't include the dozens of you who bought live or silent auction items at various events throughout the year. I just want to say THANK YOU to all who supported us financially in 2019.

My goal when we kicked off this campaign last June was to capture 500 donors and to raise $750,000! Of course, being the goal-oriented guy that I am, I now want to put out one LAST CHALLENGE to all to see if we can hit those numbers.

If you are reading this and you are NOT currently on our RTC TREE, NOW is your chance. WE have two weeks left in 2019! We need 26 more donors to reach 500! I think we can do that together. We also are not that far from $750k! So as we finish off 2019, help me reach these numbers.

You can go here to see all 474 donors AND also hopefully add your name to that board.

IN closing, again THANK YOU to all of you who have supported our non-profit organization! The Cyclone Regional Training Center is making a big difference in so many ways. And as always, it's gonna continue to take all of us!

Happy Holidays to ALL!



Coach Dresser

It is becoming pretty clear that Race Thompson has become a priority target for Prohm and the staff in 2018. He deserves his own thread to follow ISU's recruitment over the next year.

http://247sports.com/Player/Race-Thompson-90026

@AlexHalsted 2018 PF @RaceThompson1, who is the No. 62 overall player in 2018, says he's still scheduled to visit for Saturday's game vs. Baylor.

@AlexHalsted Thompson is Iowa State's top 2018 target and the staff has been in to see him often since last year.

https://cyclonefanatic.com/2019/12/wrestling-preview-no-11-cyclones-to-compete-at-southern-scuffle/

Here is link to my preview. Good quote in there about Gremmel.

Here's the full interviews from this week.

https://cyclonefanatic.com/2019/12/cftv-media-availability-with-kevin-dresser-and-todd-small/

Felt like time for a thread.

JUCO DT Latrell Bankston was offered by Iowa State on August 15th. He took his official for the ULM game the weekend of September 21st. His profile shows him warm to ISU, Kansas State, Oregon State, Boise State and Houston.

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We had a pretty good time in Orlando. Stayed on International Drive, which was a pretty nice venue, easy to walk and do some people watching. The pep rally was great despite the brief rain shower. The Cyclone Unplugged event was a ton of fun, despite the long lines for beer. That convention center complex was really incredible.

The fan fest was a lot of fun before the game, with a great turnout. I even drank some Bush Light, as some friends bought me some and I didn't want to be a **** and say no thanks. My opinion on that stuff hasn't changed. The stadium was just as advertised, in a not so nice part of town, thank you Uber, it was worth the price to get out of there after the game.

As for eats, the fish and chips at the Pub at Pointe Orlando gets my five forks rating. Along with the dinner and ambiance of Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant. Great food and service in a classic setting. Everything except Michael Corleone putting a couple of bullets into the head of Solozzo.

Made a side trip to Cocoa Beach on Sunday. Even found some Cyclones there as well.

P.S. Is there going to be a spring game? If not, I'd propose CF sponsor a tailgate party regardless.

Overall, a great turnout, we'll look forward to next year's destination.

Me too.

http://theslaughterhouse.freeforums.net/

I assume that's what this means

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