There was a lot of agreement earlier this year about 8-10 having a shot at the Dance.
*** Official West Virginia Vs IOWA STATE Gameday Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
I've never like Huggy Bear, but that was a ******* fantastic post game interview on Cyclones.tv. Cant close a game but can close out a press conference.
I have never seen a team break WVU's press so effortlessly like we did last night. Not once was I anxious because our guard caught it in the corner. Talley was a composed inbound option who brought it up when need be without having problems. Overall super impressed with how we played offensively, not many times you see Bob Huggins completely give up on his press.
I've always been a big Solomon Young fan, and I've remained bullish on his future even after some rough games this year. I think people forget he's basically played about one full season of college basketball right now. He was a monster on D and on the glass. More than anything he does lots of little things that are hard to notice. Last night Wigginton beat his guy off the dribble and Young saw it and screened the help defender, giving LW a wide open layup. There are certainly some small ball games where it will be tough for Young and Lard to play together much. But if they bring it like last night there are few conference teams in the conference that can match that physicality and activity up front.
In addition: Second-most points allowed by West Virginia since Bob Huggins took over in 2008.
Wow. What an offensive performance by ISU! Great job by the staff of getting these guys ready for this game. And good job by the players in executing the game plan and playing their asses off. I don't care if WVU hasn't been playing that great lately because they are still a really good team and ISU made them look bad.
His methods aren't favorable and his teams' style of play is awful (but wouldn't be possible if the refs stood their ground) but iirc he's usually complimentary of ISU and has a pretty great sense of humor. Giving Self the shirt this season was really funny.
I think he also tends to build strong relationships with his players even if it's not exactly obvious.
I think someone on CF said once they hung out with him in a bar or something and he's a riot. I can believe it.
I enjoy those highlight packages, but am I the only one that wishes they'd use John and Eric's commentary instead of the ESPN guys? If we had Fran that would be one thing, but two guys that don't know crap about our team or conference don't do much for me.
Huggins is a great coach and I would bet they get things turned around. But I wonder how long he will continue coaching. He is losing Carter and probably Ahmad as well as Miles and they don't have much besides them except Konate.
It was interesting to see that Teddy Allen kid ISU recruited. Certainly looks like he could be a really good offensive player in the conference in the future. WVU was an odd choice for him. Seems like a offensive system like ISU would be better.
It was interesting to see that Teddy Allen kid ISU recruited. Certainly looks like he could be a really good offensive player in the conference in the future. WVU was an odd choice for him. Seems like a offensive system like ISU would be better.
Physically, Young looks like a friggin monster, and it was nice to see him exert some of that strength last night. Konate is not small by any means, but the way that Young ripped the ball away on some rebounds, it was like he finally decided "Alright, I've had enough" and just absolutely overpowered the guys around him.
Yes. Very refreshing to see his tenacity and toughness and some power dunks again. That’s the Solomon we need going forward, a pissed off one!
One thing I thought we did different was to be very slow picking the ball up to inbound after a made basket. Instead of trying to hurry up and inbound before they can set up the press we waited until our guys were settled into position. It was all very methodical and not chaotic which can lead to confusion.
I think Solo got into konate's head. He was whining to the refs and basically just tackled Solo on one rebound.
Right after he was tackled, Did Solomon walk thru the WVU hudle during the Media TO that followed?
I got to watch Donovan a lot at Iowa Western, there, he was a great distributor but the lack of defense in juco ball made the pace so fast that it was almost always transition basketball, not much half court. WV's style played right in to his strengths as a PG.
The key to beating WV's press is that the 2nd and 3rd guys to touch the ball after the inbounds have to be able to attack of the dribble. That's what made Donovan and Talley so crucial last night. We saw Talley attack similar to what Nader did in 14/15, he was an inconsistent bench guy but he had something like 19 and 16 points in both games vs WV that year.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
How do you explain OU, two years ago...the 17 pt first half, Cousins running his mouth & the floor slapping, then the Clones win the game. Plenty of opportunities for the fans to give up...yet they were loud that entire second half.
We would have given up if the players did. The fans feed off the players much more than the other way around.
Absolutely. I've seen it talked about, and waiting on the double team rather than trying to hurry before it got there, and then attacking 4 on 3 worked like a charm.
That was maybe the strongest we've played inside since the Homan years.
The announcers were preaching it last night, but the spacing was perfect almost every trip. Ball would come in, and as the double came it was either a quick bounce pass back to Zoran or a cross court pass to a person with nobody within 15 feet of him. It's alot easier when seemingly half of the first 30 minutes we had numbers.
