Your game doesn't have to translate to the NBA to be great in college. So many basketball players dominated during their 4 years at the collegiate level but never showed much in the NBA.
SUMMER SERIES: The 2014-15 Iowa State basketball season
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
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That is a testament to how good the NBA is -- not a knock on our guys.
I am just saying -- we have had some really good college players in the past decade, but we have not really had anybody (and pending the development of Monté's career at this point more than anybody) really make much of an impact in the NBA.
There are still some tiers of talent that we have not seen in cardinal and gold.
I misread your initial post to mean that Iowa State wasn't all that talented, my bad. The NBA is a beast of a league for sure.
I haven't listened yet. Were sleeping pills and BDJ mentioned before UAB game?
Sleeping pills...?
That's a new one. What happened?
Yes, I will listen to it, but I have a pile of podcasts that I am working through right now.
That is a good guess, too, but without the collapse against Kansas State later that same season, then we probably bring Rhoads back for another year.
Rhoads might have kept holding on; Campbell might have been gone by then, even that offseason (to say Missouri) or certainly within 2-3 seasons of that.
I do not think the road game against Toledo was the one that "courted" Campbell. I think that was the game in Ames the previous season, with so much lore around it about how much Ames and JTS impressed Campbell with their potential, but ISU won that game.
Other ideas that I had...
-- the OT loss against Nebraska... chance to go 4/4 for bowl games for Rhoads, send Nebraska out of the conference on a 0/2 streak against Iowa State, maybe "turns the corner" as a program... but part of me also thinks the Rhoads era would have still peaked and declined after that no matter what, so maybe it would not ultimately matter...
-- losing to KU in 2005 and missing a chance at the Big 12 North title and championship game... maybe the loss that "sent McCarney down the road to ruin," but even if we make that game, Texas smokes us on its way to a showdown with U$C at the Rose Bowl, and the problems with the program under Mac would have continued...
-- bowl losses to Rutgers/Tulsa... again, chance for Rhoads to "turn the corner," but I am not sure the outcome of those two games alone really matters that much long-term
It has to be something bedrock about the direction of the program, which likely means us coming to acquire Matt Campbell and his staff, so I like yours/mine.
Ohio State losing the 1978 Gator Bowl and Woody Hayes being fired for sucker-punching a Clemson player on the sideline also came to mind, but that was not technically an Iowa State loss. But one can imagine Hayes continuing on with the Buckeyes without that game, Bruce sticking around Iowa State long-term, and perhaps filling the same niche that Nebraska eventually would as the dominant team from the northern reaches of the Big Eight competing with Oklahoma for the title of best team in the conference (or even more than that).
Rhoads’ biggest missed opportunity was the entire 2012 season. That team was much better than 6-7.
As to your last paragraph, I do wonder what would’ve happened had Bruce stuck around and we sustain the success that started under Majors that Bruce continued. Or if Bruce still leaves, give the job to John Cooper when he wanted it.
We wouldn’t have jumped Nebraska, as they had 2 natties under their belt already and thus the inherent advantages they still have. But maybe we challenge them the way Colorado did in the late 80s/early 90s?
Late to this party.
My memory of this year was the bad moments outweighing the good. UAB loss clearly negated all the good. Had they gone to the sweet 16 and lost, I think I'd look far more favorably at the good things.
Baylor shooting like 60% from 3 in Hilton, and ISU butchering the end of the K-state game. Ugh. Fairly tortured season despite that team winning a lot of games.
My memory of this year was the bad moments outweighing the good. UAB loss clearly negated all the good. Had they gone to the sweet 16 and lost, I think I'd look far more favorably at the good things.
Baylor shooting like 60% from 3 in Hilton, and ISU butchering the end of the K-state game. Ugh. Fairly tortured season despite that team winning a lot of games.
Royce was the last lottery pick of 2012.
There is another mountain range between him and the top handful of picks.
And then another, larger one between them and top NBA players.
We underappreciated just how good truly impactful NBA players are.
This is all fair. But Royce wasn’t the last lottery pick for basketball reasons. There is an alternate timeline where he is a regular NBA All-Star. Our timeline, unfortunately, is the dumbest one.
He may have ran some wildcat that day but they had Cody Green starting due to Taylor Martinez injuries.
