Saw this trailer tonight during the Lakers-Warriors game. Looks like it could be really good
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My recovery day starts with a Bloody Mary, and then I’m out of ideas...HELP!!!

So many times last night and this season, Wigginton would gut out a tough drive to the basket. I'm not talking about the drives where he would bounce the ball off his foot, or lose control of the ball before getting to the hoop. I'm talking about the drives where he would literally beat his primary defender, cut through 1-2 more, and get right to the rim for a tough contested layup/dunk. There would always seem to be a lot of contact. Bodies (always Lindell's, sometimes others) would end up on the floor. I have no stat to back this up, but I feel as though a foul was called <25% of the time. What was this all about? Wigginton try to sell something that wasn't there, and just being a wild, high-flying athlete flopping, hoping to get a whistle? He would normally cry out, fall to the ground etc. Normally they wouldn't show a replay, so I never went back to see how many times he was actually fouled. I feel as though he got more calls on 3's than he did on 2's.

This happened a lot to NWB too

Blurb from our local paper. I guess there are only 2 reasons to go to a library anymore - public porn surfing and shooting smack in the crapper.

Just want to thank you guys for the great season. I'm sure that that the grind of being a student-athlete in a pressure filled spotlight isn't easy, but a lot of us fanatics really appreciate it. Countless hours in the gym and on the road can't be easy.

This season was filled with highs and lows, but so is life. If your career is over at Iowa State, good luck in whatever you do. Nothing you have shown us this year would make us assume that you will have nothing but success in whatever you do. If you are coming back, we will be right back here bleeding cardinal and gold for you next year.

Loyal Sons, Forever True.

Thanks so much to @cyclones500 for another great OT idea! He had read this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/entertainment/books/best-last-lines/

What are your favorite last and first lines in all of literature?

The first paragraph of Catcher In the Rye is iconic, and pretty hard to beat, IMO:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

As much as it's too well-known, Tale of Two Cities is pretty timeless. Not sure it's even in my top 5, but good.

Some of my other favorites - combined with Catcher, they also round out some of my favorite books:

Pride & Prejudice:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Fahrenheit 451:
"It was a pleasure to burn."

Slaughterhouse-Five:
"All this happened, more or less."

The Great Gatsby:
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'"


What are yours?

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Message boards are a cess pool and being a fan was much more fun when they weren't around. But it's not like I can blame anyone for being on them since I think they are awful and here I am.

But my main question is why is there so much anger this year? The absolute hatred towards the team and the coaches is sickening. We were picked to finish 6th. We finished 5th. Like plenty of good teams we lost in the first round of the tournament. It happens.

The argument that a lot will make is that this team is a lot more talented than the season indicated. That could be true. But I tend to think that was very talented but also had limitations. And when you have specific limitations, you lose games.

It will be a cold day in hell when I will be disappointing in a 23 win season, with a Big 12 tourney championship, and an NCAA bid. Was it the best thing ever? Of course not. But was it a good season? Yes. And, as a fan, I am allowed to think that. I expect the coaches and players are disappointed and will work to fix what happened. I think a lot of you seem to think that success is measured only as "the greatest season that ever was" or "the worst of the worst, they did nothing right". It's not a binary thing. It's a good season with plenty of great things that happened and plenty of bad things that happened (and two really ******* awful things!).

I hope that Prohm is our coach next year. But one could hardly blame him for leaving because I bet a large portion of you idiots are tweeting and emailing him that same ******** that you are spewing on here and the Iowa State basketball facebook page.

If you are one of the fans that is so ******* angry that they think we should change coaches, then I invite you to go be a Nebraska fan or a SDSU fan or an Iowa fan. Why subject yourself to be as miserable as you apparently are?

not sure Chris posted this on here but he had posted it on Twitter. Good insight into the players and this team. I’m just exhausted from the negativity here so it’s good to get perspective and be excited about the future.

https://cyclonefanatic.com/podcasts/podcast-putting-a-bow-on-2018-19-iowa-state-hoops/

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Please allow me to remind you:

“I did not see anywhere, nor do I believe, that we were thought of to be anything other than a victim”

Always,

Bill Self

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...-ferentz-matt-campbell-iowa-state/3135056002/

If he ever tries to sell me seed, chemicals, or fertilizer, I will laugh in his face.

1) Prohm could have done more. I like Prohm as our HC and support him, but c'mon man. Show us some emotion, some urgency. How do we expect the players to act poised when our HC is lost? He's a great recruiter and I think he can still be a great HC here, but overall was disappointed with his demeanor tonight.

2) Why not give Talley a chance? Babb played 40mins and did he really earn all of those minutes? Did he play bad? No. But neither has Talley in the mins he has played this year.

3) I do respect Prohm sitting THT for most of the second half/ Just wasn't his night.

4) Gonna miss Shayock. Dude played a great game and wouldn't have had a chance if he wasn't on the floor.

5) Impressed with how Lard and Wigginton played. Gave us energy and made some big plays down the stretch.

6) The future is still bright. I like our recruits coming in next year. Obviously gonna have to wait and see what kind of attrition we experience but Prohm can recruit and we are going to have some big time B12 players return next year

I recently acquired a 4-wheeler. Last weekend, after riding it a little, I put it back on a trickle charger like its always on since it doesn't get used much. But, I left the switch and key on. Now it does nothing when I turn the key. Sometimes the speedo will come on but doesn't turn over or even click. Volt meter says battery has 7 volts. What else could it be?

I went ahead and created a pool on WrestleStat for the tournament.

Group Name: Cyclone Fanatic
Password: dresser

Would like to bring my daughter (who is 6) to the women’s game on Monday. Will I be able to walk up and just buy tix from the box office on Monday or would it be best to make arrangements before hand? We will have a two hour drive to Ames and probably won’t head that way until after work at 4:30 or so.

Just didn’t know if ticket situation was very different since it’s ncaa

After seeing a replay of the out of bounds timeout call, I’m beyond frustrated. The ref clearly counts out 5 before the timeout. That’s not just a usual college ref mistake. That’s intentional. That is a ref deciding on his own he is not letting ISU have a reasonable shot at the winning bucket. I realize mistakes get made and that they are human, but this was no mistake.

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Blue means was in the system and will likely be on roster

Red means off the roster

Green means resign/FA/trade

vs



IOWA STATE (23-11, 9-9 BIG 12)
VS. OHIO STATE (19-14, 8-12 BIG TEN)
FRIDAY, MARCH 22 | APPROX. 8:50 P.M. CST
TULSA, OKLA. | BOK CENTER (17,996)


Radio: Cyclone Radio Network
Talent: John Walters (pxp); Eric Heft (analyst)
TV: TBS
Talent: Brad Nessler (pxp); Steve Lavin (analyst); Jim Jackson (analyst), Evan Washburn (reporter)

It seems from reading the cesspool tht has been posted since the game ends, that there is a vocal group that believes ISU is a top 10-15 program nationally and the results should reflect that.

While I hope that we get to that point, we aren’t there yet. But let’s take a look at the other programs that are in that conversation over the past 5 or so years.

Duke, UNC, Villanova, Gonzaga, Virginia, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Kentucky, Purdue, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Maryland, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisville, Arizona, etc.

What do these teams have in common? Head coaches that have been there for a significant period of time. Look at the couple that have the most recent coaching changes from that list: Wisconsin and Louisville. Both have struggled to maintain their prior level since the coaching change.

Some of you all need to learn what patience is and most of all, trust and support the team, coaches, and people in charge to do what is best for the program. If we want to be a top 10-15 program, we need to act like one. And right now, that means giving Prohm time to continue building on the great foundation he has. The grass is greenest where you water it.

**knocking on wood** I'm more interested in scouting the Cancun Tech matchup because, frankly, I don't think North South East West Central State stands much of a chance outside of a pineapples shooting day in this preseason tournament.

I wanted to be convinced that Cancun Tech was overrated. The stats do not support that notion, mostly.

Cancun Tech's strength of schedule according to TeamRankings is 69th; Iowa State's is 22nd.

Cancun Tech has defeated 7 DIII teams in program history.

They have lost to every other team.

Final regular season record of 3-31.

Good news is we have seven months to prepare to prevent this jinx from ruining the first game of the season.

**knocking on wood** I'm more interested in scouting the Houston matchup because, frankly, I don't think Ohio State stands much of a chance outside of a bananas shooting day.

I wanted to be convinced that Houston was overrated. The stats do not support that notion, mostly.

Houston's strength of schedule according to TeamRankings is 69th; Iowa State's is 22nd.

Houston has beaten 7 tournament teams: Oregon, LSU, Saint Louis, Utah State,Temple, UCF, Cincinnati.

They have lost to 3 tournament teams: Temple, UCF and Cincinnati.

Final regular season record of 31-3.

Guards/offense:
The vast majority of Houston's offensive damage is done by their guards. It is a fairly average group from inside the arc, but outside of it can really do some damage. The team's top five scorers are all guards:




The group above combined to go 326/686 on twos, 47.5% with the attempts being spread fairly evenly between the five (ISU's top five guards went 406/798, 50.87%). It’s fair to assume that 47.5% would drop a percentage point or so in a better conference against better competition. So they’re not great inside the arc.

One thing that does transfer from game to game regardless of SOS: three point shooting. The guard group above combined to go 280/738 (37.94%). The two highest volume guys were even better than the group's average - Brooks (112/285, 39.2%) and Davis (100/263, 38.02%). (ISU's group of aforementioned guards went 251/670, 37.4%). It will be critical to get a hand up not just for the high volume duo, but for this whole guard group that can really shoot lights out from land.

Houston LOVES the three ball, and they’re great at driving into the paint to suck in defenders. 43% of its field goal attempts are from three, compared to ISU at 39.6%....and ISU led the Big12 in threes. Jarneau, Robinson and Davis in very good at finding the paint and making smart passes out to open shooters, or taking a good paint shot themselves. Davis is elite at it.

Both teams are reliant on the three ball - 25 attempted/gm compared to ISU's 23. Houston and ISU are also similar in that they don’t take many mid-range twos. Below is an example shot chart from a Houston game earlier this year.




Interestingly for a three-and-D type, they are a slow-paced team at 66.1 possessions per game (247th). Iowa State doesn't play with the tempo it did in the days of Hoiberg, only slightly quicker than Houston at 67.6 possessions per game (161st). Houston's pace surprises me, and it wouldn't be surprising to see them try to slow things down even more against ISU considering our guards' efficiency and talent.

Both teams do like to push the ball when it’s available, but Houston is likely to have less opportunities as they do focus more on grabbing offensive rebounds. Which leads us to…

Big men: offense/rebounding:
Houston is 20th in the country on offensive rebounding percentage at 34.7% (for comparison, Baylor is #2 at 38.2%), driven by active bigs who don’t give up on misses. It’s crucial for Iowa State to box out and team-rebound from the guard spot. Interestingly, Houston’s leading rebounder is 6'3" guard Armoni Brooks at 6.5/game. Outside of Brooks, their big men really spread the minutes and go hard while in the game. The group consists of:

- Brison Gresham (6'8", 13.7 minutes/game, 3.2 points and 3.6 rebounds, 67.6% shooting)

- Breaon Brady (6'8", 13.9 minutes/game, 6.1 points and 4.0 rebounds, 57.7% shooting)

- Chris Harris, Jr. (6'10", 11.2 minutes/game, 2.8 points and 3.6 rebounds, 72.5%)

- Fabian White (6'7", 17.4 minutes/game, 6.0 points and 3.7 rebounds, 45.7% shooting)

Good size and uber efficiency. In this group's 56.2 minutes/game, it has shot a combined 232/410 (56.58%) on twos. A lot of those twos are on putbacks after missed shots. This team doesn’t really dump it down to posts for post moves. Most of this group’s offense comes from what I’d call “garbage time.”

Gresham, Harris and Brady can really kill you with their offensive rebounding. Harris (16.9%), Gresham (14.3%) and Brady (12.7%) all rank higher than anybody on Iowa State's roster, with our highest being Conditt and Jacobson (10.7% and 10.6% respectively).

Though this is a solid group, its effectiveness appears to lessen in a game like this against a team that plays 4 guards. One of these guys will be playing at a given point, and if Houston’s staff is wise they’ll keep it at 1 as none has the lateral ability to stay with a guard and Jacobson would likely fan out to create paint space.

Defense:
Houston appears to switch fluidly from man to zone defense depending on needs, with three guards on the outside and a lot of #23 Cedrick Alley (6’5”, 230) as an undersized four and #55 Gresham (6’8”, 225) or #24 Brady (6’8”, 260) in the center of that zone. The guards are quick and don’t let too much by. The bigs are physical and, with that, prone to fouling.

Houston leads the country in effective FG% defense with a measly 42.4% allowed on the season. That stat is bolstered by an impressive blocked-shot rate of 13.8%, good for 20th in the country (ISU's is 12.8%, 29th in the country). The film shows an aggressive group that doesn’t sit back and wait for the other team to dictate things. They force action. Houston has bigs with decent athleticism, and guards that can really fly around. It’s like a Texas Tech - great team defense that understands sagging to help and cutting off driving lanes with hedges, while staying alive by not hedging too much.

However, I believe Houston has benefited significantly this season from some three-point luck on the defensive end. Their three-point percentage defense for the year is second-best in the country at 27.6%. Keeping in mind metrics that Haaland pointed out, three-point and free throw defense are more random than fact. Our successful games against Kansas State especially show this to be the case. Film from Houston’s games show that they aren’t doing anything especially damaging to keep that percentage down. Houston has played one team with similar guard talent, and that was LSU back in mid-December. There were a lot of open looks LSU got out of simple weave action that were simply missed. Despite the gloomy outlook the stats provide, I believe there is opportunity here.

With being so aggressive, Houston sends the other team to the line quite a bit. Per Kenpom, 37.6% of every 1 field goal attempt by Houston's opponents leads to free throw/s. That's 283rd in the country. For comparison's sake, ISU is at 23.6% - 5th in the country. Gresham and Brady, their two main bigs, foul A LOT. It'll be important for ISU to take advantage of free throw opportunities, as history shows Houston will provide plenty of chances.

Each of Houston and ISU is good at avoiding coughing up the ball, and neither turns over other teams much. Not going to focus on this aspect.

The Kenpom luck stat - where Houston ranks 49th - reinforces the notion that luck has played a role in their 31-3 record results compared to what one would expect based on their stats. Their three point shooting defense reinforces some thoughts of luck as well. Film shows that good teams get open looks against them. They just haven’t played many good teams.

One must also factor in the competition that Houston’s work has come against. Their in-conference opponents combine for an average rating of 122.45 overall in Kenpom (ISU’s average Kenpom Big12 opponent rating is 37.77). Quality of competition matters. Houston's guards are head and shoulders above those in their conference, and film shows that even more glaringly than stats.

Summation:
Houston is tough. Teams that love the three ball usually don't rebound the ball so well or play at such a slow tempo. If we do not value our possessions, it’ll feel like we’re being slowly choked in the same way it does when playing a Virginia or Texas Tech. Tech is probably the best in-conference comparison defensively, but it’s an imperfect comparison. The film looks a lot like the Virginia team we played a few years ago that beat us in the tournament, but with a caveat: Houston isn’t a great shooting team (52.1% EFG, 107th nationally). But they don’t care because they go grab misses. Thankfully, Houston doesn’t have a Mike Tobey or Anthony Gill going after said misses.

This game is going to come down to:
1. Prevention of offensive rebounding (ISU guards will need to crash the defensive glass)
2. Stopping their quick guards from getting into the lane with sound hedging
3. Some luck in Houston's three-point shooting

If we can keep their guards out of the paint/Houston's three ball isn't falling, and can defensive rebound at a high rate, we have a great shot as Houston is so reliant on those components (dribble-drive into a kickout, threes, offensive rebounding) for success. Houston will also foul, so success at the line will be important. High level defensive rebounding would also lead to some opportunities in the fast break, with Houston being so focused on having eager bodies looking for offensive rebounds.

I didn’t write about our offensive strengths/weaknesses. Us fanatics are all aware of those and, good as Houston has been defensively, I don’t believe they’re going to be able to stop us from getting to 70. So to me, it really does come down to how we defend and rebound.

If we don’t show up, this will feel like the game in Waco where Mason couldn’t miss and we couldn’t grab a defensive rebound.

If Big12 Tournament version ISU shows up and does its thing as an above average three-point shooting team that's extremely efficient inside the arc (54.9% EFG, 25th in the country), and keeps Houston's offensive rebounding at bay as we did to all three teams in our tournament, we'll have a great shot to win. Houston’s guards, for the first time this season, will not be defending lesser talent – LSU included.

One could argue that should have been a Flagrant Foul for a hold on Shayok, then the refs sent Lard to to line but it took a long review to figure it out that Shayok got fouled as he was held but that should have been upgraded to a F1 like it has all year?

So, this is my favorite time of the year, I totally nerd out if given the time. I love looking through the numbers and going from there. Based off those, here are a few preliminary predictions I have (not really specific as I havent been able to follow college basketball like I used to and havent looked closer into matchups and injuries),

This year could be crazy for upsets, I have 6 double digit seeded teams going to the Sweet 16, with a 7 and 8 seed mixed in as well. Only have 1 advancing to the Elite 8.

UNC, Kentucky, and Michigan could all lose by in the 2nd round.

Only Big 12 team I have advancing past the 2nd round at this time is Tech, they make it to the Elite 8.

Duke may not make the Final 4.

Gonzaga looks to be the best overall team.

Iowa State beats OSU fairly comfortably, then loses to Houston in the 2nd round.

What are your predictions once you get the bracket filled out?

Monday is our last time to see Bridget - and others - in a Cyclone uniform in Hilton. Don't miss it. Bridget's number will definitely be hanging in Hilton; she may even retire as our #1 scorer; it will depend on how far we go in the tournaments.

If you wonder how special BC is, look at what she did tonight at TT. She was scoreless in the first half, but scored half our points in the 4th quarter, including the winning basket.

We will also say goodbye to Meredith Burkhall who drove up from Urbandale to choose the Cyclones. She was ranked the 45th best player in her class nationally and tops coming out of Iowa. She's had a great career here and showed the kind of character that Bill is always looking for in his players.

We will also say goodbye to Alexa Middleton who arrived from Tennessee to handle our point guard duties - and are we ever glad she did. She came out of high school as a McDonald's All-American and ranked the #28 overall prospect nationally and the 4th best guard. She really came into her own once the conference games started.

Unfortunately, Ines Nezerwa will also graduate. She became a crowd favorite with her drive and enthusiasm. We are sorry to see her go. If there is a chance she gets another year, that would be a great thing for the Lady Clones.