*** Official #23 Tennessee vs #6 IOWA STATE Game(Day) Thread ***

[Cyhig]

Gonna repost this for the morning crew. He wasn't even close to playing.

You have to feel for Jefferson. It’s hard enough losing to end your collegiate career, it’s even worse when a freak injury forced you to sit while you watch helplessly. All the while doing EVERYTHING he could to try to get back on the court

Jefferson was never a vocal leader, but he is certainly one of the cyclone greats

Keep your head up, Jefferson. Heal up and go make us proud in the NBA

 

[Cyrealist]

I don't think our guys played bad; we just lost to a better team. Their defense was really good and the rebounding was the difference maker. Not only did they get second-chance points, but it has to be physically and mentally exhausting to have to defend multiple possessions in a row. They said we lead the league in Sweet 16 losses. Is that good or bad? To break through, we need some combination of better athletes and more favorable matchups. Lots of other good teams went home this round.

 

[dafarmer]

You have to feel for Jefferson. It’s hard enough losing to end your collegiate career, it’s even worse when a freak injury forced you to sit while you watch helplessly. All the while doing EVERYTHING he could to try to get back on the court

Jefferson was never a vocal leader, but he is certainly one of the cyclone greats

Keep your head up, Jefferson. Heal up and go make us proud in the NBA

Everyone on here who has been down on JJ this year, watch the interview and tell me he doesn't care. Thank you for the past 2 years, JJ.

 

[Trudie]

Lots of emotions in the moment, but with some days we should gain perspective. BB had some great things to say post-game about lessons learned, no excuses, and gratitude. The team will be back with a chip on its shoulder ready to unleash holy hell.

I'm one of the fans who sits in the nosebleed section at Hilton. I live close enough to walk. I've literally walked through storms and blizzards to get there. Game days are spent in anticipation. I get damn giddy when I run into players in the community. I love the atmosphere at Hilton so much that I actually look forward to that over-priced soda and half-assed pretzel. I miss my seat neighbors in the off-season. I am grateful for the time, money, and energy to be in the stands. Nothing but gratitude. Thanks for the joy.

 

[joefrog]

One of my worries going in was that Rick Barnes is one hell of a coach and that he'd find a way to disrupt us. He definitely saw the key as keeping Milan in check and that's what they tried to do, quite successfully.

I've seen some people on social media giving him crap about his performance, but in a situation like that, you really need to make them pay for doing that by having others step up. He's such a threat that there's almost no downside to continuing to key on him either way, but to loosen them up just a little bit, you'd have to make them pay down low. That's where Jefferson would have been key.

I can only imagine how stretched out Milan's jersey was after the game.

Blaming Milan for being held all night is a take I guess.......

 

[cyclones500]

With JJ we win.

Maybe so, perhaps likely so, but we'll never know.

It was similar view of 2014: With Niang, ISU beats UConn. Over the years, that has extended to ISU advancing to Final Four, built on assumption that UConn won the title, ergo we would've done close to as well at full strength. (And maybe ISU would have, but that's an alternate universe).

 

[67CY]

And now we get to see hawks go to final 4

 

[cyclones500]

Since Barnes became coach at Tennessee (2015-16), this is the first tournament Vols defeated a higher-seeded opponent.

I didn't look back further into his Texas years.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Didn't have the horses. That team was HUGE. Rough luck. I feel especially bad for Joshua. TJ is here and committed though and we have some very exciting young guards that I'm looking forward to seeing get better and better. Very important who we hire to replace JR and get them where they need to be to win a National Championship.

 

[HawaiiClone]

And now we get to see hawks go to final 4

No!!!! Please no!!!! And I actually will cheer for them sometimes.That would just be too annoying. I'm going to cheer with my brother's friend for the Illini! And BTW, an Arizona win today would be a silver lining.

 

[fsanford]

Since Barnes became coach at Tennessee (2015-16), this is the first tournament Vols defeated a higher-seeded opponent.

I didn't look back further into his Texas years.

Barnes was fired at Texas for not making to the sweet 16 for 7 straight years.

He made final 4 once and elite 8 twice.

His Kevin Durant team got beat in the round of 32.

 

[deadeyededric]

Barnes has now made 3 straight Elite 8s at perennial basketball power Tennessee.

 

[im4cyclones]

So you think TJ doesn't try to recruit good players with reportedly one of the lower NIL funds out there?

Do you not think coaches aren't evaluating players constantly outside of games?

There is a long list of teams that give the bulk of the minutes to 8-9 guys in the bye games. It's not some unusual thing and 11th bench player getting 5 minutes in November isn't going to do much in a game 4 months later.

And who would have done much last night?

I’m talk about managing the roster he has. If you can’t get high level players, you have to DEVELOP the guys you do have. They can’t develop if they don’t play. Plus it means saving the legs of your main guys. Would it have changed the game last night? Can’t say. We didn’t exactly get a lot of production off the bench so maybe having another guy who could contribute would have been nice - as a spark or to spell guys.

He has always struggled with this, not just this season. It’s the difference between seeing the forest and seeing the trees.

 

[deadeyededric]

I’m talk about managing the roster he has. If you can’t get high level players, you have to DEVELOP the guys you do have. They can’t develop if they don’t play. Plus it means saving the legs of your main guys. Would it have changed the game last night? Can’t say. We didn’t exactly get a lot of production off the bench so maybe having another guy who could contribute would have been nice - as a spark or to spell guys.

He has always struggled with this, not just this season. It’s the difference between seeing the forest and seeing the trees.

You have to live for the moment. You can't get caught up in developing players in this era. Sad but true.

 

[GoSTATE71]

I’m talk about managing the roster he has. If you can’t get high level players, you have to DEVELOP the guys you do have. They can’t develop if they don’t play. Plus it means saving the legs of your main guys. Would it have changed the game last night? Can’t say. We didn’t exactly get a lot of production off the bench so maybe having another guy who could contribute would have been nice - as a spark or to spell guys.

He has always struggled with this, not just this season. It’s the difference between seeing the forest and seeing the trees.

I don’t think talent is an issue we had plenty of it we’re just a cursed and need to get past whatever weird voodoo has this program hostage advancing beyond a S16

 

[madguy30]

I’m talk about managing the roster he has. If you can’t get high level players, you have to DEVELOP the guys you do have. They can’t develop if they don’t play. Plus it means saving the legs of your main guys. Would it have changed the game last night? Can’t say. We didn’t exactly get a lot of production off the bench so maybe having another guy who could contribute would have been nice - as a spark or to spell guys.

He has always struggled with this, not just this season. It’s the difference between seeing the forest and seeing the trees.

What do you mean he has always struggled with this? With what?

You don't think guys develop outside of games? Do you think 5 minutes in a couple of November games would help 4 months later? Be honest.

Who in the roster would have come in and been able to get to the hoop or create last night? How does that relate to 5 minutes of a game in November?

Did you think ISU looked wore down in KC or the first two tourney games this year?

 

[12191987]

Yet they won a bowl game and have a very good chance at making a final 4 and we can’t make it past a sweet 16. The post season results matter the most, id rather lose to Iowa in the Cy Hawk the next 5 years if it meant we made a CFP or Final 4

Ok. It’d be pretty silly to prefer wins over the Hawkeyes instead of Final Four and/or CFP berths. I certainly don’t.

It is also pretty silly to intimate Iowa is better than ISU based marginally better post-season results alone.

This year’s Cyclone basketball team is better than this year’s Iowa team. That is not debatable at this point.

With limited data it seems the final AP poll is very reactive to tournament results. That said, if Iowa loses to Illinois they’ll almost certainly finish ranked below the Cyclones. If they lose in the Final Four they will probably still be ranked below the Cyclones. They may even if they lose in the title game.

But even if they win it all I’d say there is still an argument to be made several teams, including the Cyclones, were better than them over the season.

Basing a comparison between two football teams solely on the binary outcome of a low-tier bowl game and ignoring head-to-head results is too stupid to dignify with a detailed response or examples.

 

[12191987]

What do you mean he has always struggled with this? With what?

You don't think guys develop outside of games? Do you think 5 minutes in a couple of November games would help 4 months later? Be honest.

Who in the roster would have come in and been able to get to the hoop or create last night? How does that relate to 5 minutes of a game in November?

Did you think ISU looked wore down in KC or the first two tourney games this year?

The team looked worn down last night, but that’s almost certainly because UT manhandled them.

While I think ISU could have beaten UT in a tightly called game, the way it was called they’d have lost a best-of-seven series in 5 games.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

All I want is to experience an Elite 8 and actually remember it....I wasn't even a year old when the 99-2000 team made it but obviously I have no memory of that.

It honestly doesn’t feel much different. Everyone who remembers that just wants to get to a Final Four. I’m fairly certain we’ll only be satisfied if we win the whole thing.

 

[deadeyededric]

The team looked worn down last night, but that’s almost certainly because UT manhandled them.

While I think ISU could have beaten UT in a tightly called game, the way it was called they’d have lost a best-of-seven series in 5 games.

If we don't get some scorers/slashers in the backcourt where you can go 4 out 1 in against bigger teams we will continue to lose these games