Rashon Clark comments on McDermott (In honor of his Birthday)

[ST84LIFE]

I found this posted on the free board over at AllCyclones and the Scout website. It's a great quote from Rashon Clark in regards to the transformation between Wayne Morgan and Greg McDermott. I cannot wait to read the rest of this article when it's published.

"The problem was, the new coaching staff didn't want to run and gun anymore. They wanted to run the half court sets. And once you take athletic guys and make them slow up and play a half court style of offense, you are not utilizing our strengths. And my numbers weren't as good as they would have been had we kept the same style of offense. We could have been so much better than we were. You take an athletic group like Wesley Johnson and myself during my junior season there should have been no stopping us. We were too athletic to not let us run. And then my senior year we added [Craig] Brackens and Diante [Garrett], along with Wesley and myself – we should have been running like there was no tomorrow. And that’s the reason why I feel like we had two losing season my final two years."

Carmon Wilson
Reporter - Women's Basketball
@Cdub_99

 

[Cydkar]

What he said.

 

[SoapyCy]

Wow. Would love to know where we'd be if FH was their coach back then

 

[Mr Janny]

Seems like confirmation on what many had already suspected. IMO, G-Mac just wasn't prepared to be a head coach at the Power Conference level. And by the time he figured out that his approach wasn't working, it was too late. A fresh start did both parties a world of good.

 

[MartyFine]

 

[JP4CY]

Wow. Would love to know where we'd be if FH was their coach back then

Think about Wesley Johnson as a wing in Fred's system. Clyburn is close to how I see him utilized, and most likely even better.

 

[brentblum]

While I appreciate Rahshon's honesty (he was always a stand up guy), it didn't help that squad that their front-court was an unseasoned Jiri Hubalek and Ross Marsden and their starting PG was Corey McIntosh. Yes, Clark and Wes and Mike Taylor were crazy good athletes, but to blame the lack of success entirely on McDermott's system is not the entire story in my humble opinion.

 

[awd4cy]

Makes it all the more impressive that he still wanted to stick it out with Iowa State. Shows how loyal he was to this University.

 

[awd4cy]

While I appreciate Rahshon's honesty (he was always a stand up guy), it didn't help that squad that their front-court was an unseasoned Jiri Hubalek and Ross Marsden and their starting PG was Corey McIntosh. Yes, Clark and Wes and Mike Taylor were crazy good athletes, but to blame the lack of success entirely on McDermott's system is not the entire story in my humble opinion.

Very true. That was the reason Morgan's last team finished barely above .500

 

[mj4cy]

While I appreciate Rahshon's honesty (he was always a stand up guy), it didn't help that squad that their front-court was an unseasoned Jiri Hubalek and Ross Marsden and their starting PG was Corey McIntosh. Yes, Clark and Wes and Mike Taylor were crazy good athletes, but to blame the lack of success entirely on McDermott's system is not the entire story in my humble opinion.

There was also differential treatment to players.

 

[scyclonekid]

Clark is one of my all time favorites to wear a Cyclone jersey.

 

[SpokaneCY]

Makes it all the more impressive that he still wanted to stick it out with Iowa State. Shows how loyal he was to this University.

I dunno... There are hundreds upon hundreds of guys that stay with their teams through losing seasons each and every year. Clark is or is not a hero because he stayed during GMac's tenure, but he is a great former Cyclone.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Poor Rashon. He's that athletic/versatile/"position-less" kind of player with a good head that would have thrived under Hoiberg but suffered under McD trying to run a MVC-style team with Big 12 athletes that (a) didn't win against other Big 12 athletes and (b) ****** off what did have, given those ponies wanted to gallop. I can imagine he might have had a Diante-style transformation if he had a year under the current regime instead of the Dark Ages of the previous one.

He's right, too, we had some talented groups under McD:

2006
Mike Taylor - drafted
Wes Johnson - freshman and busted in the NBA, but a hellion of a college player
Jiri Hubalek - quality enough of a post/big man
Rahshon Clark - again, talked about above

2007
Clark
Peterson - yes, token white boy point guard, but one of the better shooters in school history actually if you look--I can only imagine Hoiberg would have made him into a SC-lite
Brackins - **** recruit, drafted
Johnson
Hubalek
DG - freshman, yes, but he could have done so much more

2008
DG
Brackins
Peterson
Lucca - again, greater shooter, but probably not athletic or versatile enough for Fred
JVB - talk about your stretch 4...

2009
Brackins
Gilstrap
DG
Lucca/SC
Hamilton
Dendy - originally a big recruit out of high school
Colvin - **** freshman
JVB - again

Plenty of talent was there, probably not as much as now, but there were plenty of guys with the pedigrees out of high school that went on to success at other schools or even in the draft. McD just couldn't wield them and develop them.

Remember the 2010 team that was the "leftovers" from the 2009 team...
DG, SC, JVB, freshman Ejim, Uncle Jake, freshman Godfrey, freshman Bubu

...was better, just for having Fred around, than the 2009 team, despite the gobs of differences in talent from the previous year.

 

[im4cyclones]

While I appreciate Rahshon's honesty (he was always a stand up guy), it didn't help that squad that their front-court was an unseasoned Jiri Hubalek and Ross Marsden and their starting PG was Corey McIntosh. Yes, Clark and Wes and Mike Taylor were crazy good athletes, but to blame the lack of success entirely on McDermott's system is not the entire story in my humble opinion.

Stinson and Blaylock turning pro hurt the back court depth. Losing two seasoned, talented guards with eligibility remaining is hard on any team's roster. If they would have stayed, would it have changed the end result??

 

[CycloneVet]

Stinson and Blaylock turning pro hurt the back court depth. Losing two seasoned, talented guards with eligibility remaining is hard on any team's roster. If they would have stayed, would it have changed the end result??

IMO no, McD in his 1st year was likely hell-bent on installing his system and those guys would have floundered, they weren't built for that type of game and certainly wouldn't have given it much of a chance.

 

[rochclone]

While I appreciate Rahshon's honesty (he was always a stand up guy), it didn't help that squad that their front-court was an unseasoned Jiri Hubalek and Ross Marsden and their starting PG was Corey McIntosh. Yes, Clark and Wes and Mike Taylor were crazy good athletes, but to blame the lack of success entirely on McDermott's system is not the entire story in my humble opinion.

I agree Brent, but isn't it a little bit of the "chicken or egg" issue. Was it that McDermott couldn't play a full-court game because he didn't have the athletes to do so....or was it that McDermott couldn't recruit the athletes at all positions because of the fact that he didn't play an up-paced tempo and his track record indicated he most likely never would. McDermott got killed in many recruiting battles because of his "style of play."

 

[cyclone101]

IMO no, McD in his 1st year was likely hell-bent on installing his system and those guys would have floundered, they weren't built for that type of game and certainly wouldn't have given it much of a chance.

Help me out... did stinson and blalock declare before Morgan was shown the door or was it the other way around?

 

[KcClone01]

I sat behind the bench at the sprint center for Wes Johnson's last game (Big 12 Tournament) we snuck after the Nebraska Fans cleared out. Nearly every time Wes brought the ball up the court he chucked a 3 within 5 seconds of getting to the top of the key. (maybe I am exaggerating a little). but it was enough for Coach McD to start yelling at him to run the offense, this happened repeatedly and every time Wes would just blow him off. He knew McD had no other options.

After the game, while walking out my friend ran into Wes' GF, who was a family friend of his. She let us in on a few of Wes' frustrations about McD. My buddy and I both walked away realizing that one of our best talents and players was pretty much done being a Cyclone. A couple weeks later to no surprise from us, he transferred. But the sentiments that were expressed to us, sound a lot like Clark's comments. McD leaving was a godsend.

 

[rochclone]

I sat behind the bench at the sprint center for Wes Johnson's last game (Big 12 Tournament) we snuck after the Nebraska Fans cleared out. Nearly every time Wes brought the ball up the court he chucked a 3 within 5 seconds of getting to the top of the key. (maybe I am exaggerating a little). but it was enough for Coach McD to start yelling at him to run the offense, this happened repeatedly and every time Wes would just blow him off. He knew McD had no other options.



I know it was discussed alot when WJ transferred but the issues with him and McDermott stemmed all the way back to the Las Vegas tournament when that teamed played Alabama. You will note that one of the Cyclone insiders always put two L's next to the Alabama game. I happened to be at the Orleans Arena that night in Las Vegas and during one of the TV timeouts as WJ was coming back to the huddle McDermott became incensed and grabbed him by the neck and jerked him backwards and just laid into him.

I will always believe that it was that night that WJ began looking at his options as he was starting to blossom as a player and clearly there were some issues between him and McDermott.

After the game, while walking out my friend ran into Wes' GF, who was a family friend of his. She let us in on a few of Wes' frustrations about McD. My buddy and I both walked away realizing that one of our best talents and players was pretty much done being a Cyclone. A couple weeks later to no surprise from us, he transferred. But the sentiments that were expressed to us, sound a lot like Clark's comments. McD leaving was a godsend.

 

[JohnnyFive]

McDermott was the best MVC coach in the Big 12