Williams & Blum Pod: Pollard's message and basketball's slump

[ChrisMWilliams]

Enjoy!

Williams & Blum: Pollard's message & basketball's slump

Williams & Blum are back in the same room for the first time in months. The fellas discuss Jamie Pollard's message about raising prices for the Cyclone Club. How worried should we be about basketball's disturbing loss to TCU? All of this and more, presented by Mechdyne.

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[Cycsk]

How long should we stick with horrible 3-point shooting? TJ's post-game interviews made it seem like he was not ready to give it up.

On the Corner 3 podcast, Scott C. talked about how most players do a better job on 3-point shots when the ball goes inside-out. It may have happened, but I don't remember a single inside-out pass leading to a 3-point shot on Saturday.

 

[Darius Bieber]

FYI the reason there were no positive Covid tests in the NFL is because they conveniently stopped testing...

NFL halts COVID testing for unvaccinated players

The NFL is halting daily COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated players. Only those who report symptoms will be tested.

www.espn.com

 

[Gunnerclone]

How long should we stick with horrible 3-point shooting? TJ's post-game interviews made it seem like he was not ready to give it up.

On the Corner 3 podcast, Scott C. talked about how most players do a better job on 3-point shots when the ball goes inside-out. It may have happened, but I don't remember a single inside-out pass leading to a 3-point shot on Saturday.

Id like to see Enaruna at that high pinch post spot. He’s just more gifted than Conditt or Jones and that spot is pivotal in most of our actions. I think a threat to shoot, drive, or do something more substantial than just hand the ball off out of that spot would help out.

Just has big ramifications on the defensive end, everything is a trade off when it comes to offense/defense in basketball.

 

[cytor]

Any chance we could sneak Naz in there for the rest of the season?

 

[isutrevman]

FYI the reason there were no positive Covid tests in the NFL is because they conveniently stopped testing...

NFL halts COVID testing for unvaccinated players

The NFL is halting daily COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated players. Only those who report symptoms will be tested.

www.espn.com

Not exactly. They're testing players when they come down with symptoms only. That's the only logical approach moving forward.

 

[JM4CY]

Any chance we could sneak Naz in there for the rest of the season?

Not a bad approach. Especially right before playing Okie St.....

 

[cyman05]

Both of Burrow’s brothers played at Nebraska. Jamie was the more decorated played but I think Dan played a little too.

I could be wrong but my understanding was that Joe wanted to commit to Nebraska both coming out of HS and then transferring out of OSU but Nebby wouldn’t offer him.

 

[Neptune78]

How long should we stick with horrible 3-point shooting? TJ's post-game interviews made it seem like he was not ready to give it up.

On the Corner 3 podcast, Scott C. talked about how most players do a better job on 3-point shots when the ball goes inside-out. It may have happened, but I don't remember a single inside-out pass leading to a 3-point shot on Saturday.

It would be interesting to hear Scott's evaluation of which players have the skill set for our three point game going forward. I agree TJ can't give up, both hopefully adjustments are made to someguys' long ball attempts.

 

[madguy30]

It would be interesting to hear Scott's evaluation of which players have the skill set for our three point game going forward. I agree TJ can't give up, both hopefully adjustments are made to someguys' long ball attempts.

Or what his ideas are for alternative approach to get the ball inside.

 

[Die4Cy]

Iowa State would be a good candidate for a school to try micro funding by supporters who are not donors. The idea being, you may not be able to find 10,000 donors willing to donate $200 annually, but you could potentially find 20000 who might donate $5 twenty times over the course of the year if presented in a fun way that allows them to reward our sport teams in big moments and when they do well. Call them CyFives for winning big games or whatever. Every $5 donation could be entered weekly for unique Cyclone prize drawings, tickets, gear. You could probably even just use Venmo instead of building out your own thing, the bulk of it is there.

Times have changed, the methods of fund raising can also.

 

[Cycsk]

Id like to see Enaruna at that high pinch post spot. He’s just more gifted than Conditt or Jones and that spot is pivotal in most of our actions. I think a threat to shoot, drive, or do something more substantial than just hand the ball off out of that spot would help out.

Just has big ramifications on the defensive end, everything is a trade off when it comes to offense/defense in basketball.

When we were playing at our best, we were getting the ball underneath to Enaruna who was making moves and getting close-in baskets. I'd like to think Enaruna could make the kick-out pass too.
I would much prefer us to be looking to get the ball into the paint than the weave that seems to do little more than take time off the clock. Or maybe have places in the weave where we are looking to get the ball inside and then positioning for kickouts.

 

[AuH2O]

It would be interesting to hear Scott's evaluation of which players have the skill set for our three point game going forward. I agree TJ can't give up, both hopefully adjustments are made to someguys' long ball attempts.

You're not going to fix bad three point shooting in season. And I get tired of "there were good looks, just don't have shooters/shots weren't falling." Literally every team ever gets some good looks through the course of the game. Terrible offense gets you "some good looks that don't fall." Getting a three off a hard cut or with a closeout coming, or a pullup jumper from 22' off the dribble are shots any team in the country can get most possessions. There were some better looks, but it is not binary. Were there some good looks that were missed? Of course, as there are for every team in every game. Was the offense running in a way that most possessions generated easy or good looks? Absolutely not. Most of the shots we get are fine, but it is absolutely not an offense working well and guys are just missing great looks. That's not this offense by a mile.

TTU and TCU played defense with zero fear. Overplay the dribble handoff, overplay the passing lanes, throw a trap in, and it works because our offense's response to just keep getting chased farther away from the rim until the shot clock is chewed up. I don't see a shot selection problem, either. There are few bad shots early in the shot clock, but largely it's a shot and opportunity creation problem.

 

[SolarGarlic]

How long should we stick with horrible 3-point shooting? TJ's post-game interviews made it seem like he was not ready to give it up.

On the Corner 3 podcast, Scott C. talked about how most players do a better job on 3-point shots when the ball goes inside-out. It may have happened, but I don't remember a single inside-out pass leading to a 3-point shot on Saturday.

We had more than you think. Grill, Kalscheur, and Hunter all had open threes on good offense, and they only made 2 collectively.

I think you're overstating the intention to shoot threes. A lack of aggression toward the hoop was a huge issue on Saturday, but I doubt that it was the gameplan until we got down in the 2nd half. We aren't going to be shooting 20+ threes most nights.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I appreciated Blum imploring fans to give more to the Cyclone Club but he also seemed to acknowledge that they don't provide as many incentives or benefits for donating as they should. I imagine our peers are providing more benefits and that helps to explain why a smaller school with a very similar alumni base (Kansas State) is blowing us out of the water in terms of how many millions they have in their fund. Would love to hear some thoughts on what the AD can offer to help drive donations, but seemed like Blum was shying away from offering thoughts that might get perceived as criticism.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I appreciated Blum imploring fans to give more to the Cyclone Club but he also seemed to acknowledge that they don't provide as many incentives or benefits for donating as they should. I imagine our peers are providing more benefits and that helps to explain why a smaller school with a very similar alumni base (Kansas State) is blowing us out of the water in terms of how many millions they have in their fund. Would love to hear some thoughts on what the AD can offer to help drive donations, but seemed like Blum was shying away from offering thoughts that might get perceived as criticism.

KSU actually has a history of football success. That’s the difference. They also have no in-state competition when it comes to football.

I said in the other thread but we need to have another 5 years of making a bowl, and at least one of those years needs to be a “jump up” year where we are a serious conference title contender AND we need to at least go 2-3 against Iowa over that stretch. THEN JP can have his money.

THIS is where beating Iowa matters.

 

[DSMCy]

I appreciated Blum imploring fans to give more to the Cyclone Club but he also seemed to acknowledge that they don't provide as many incentives or benefits for donating as they should. I imagine our peers are providing more benefits and that helps to explain why a smaller school with a very similar alumni base (Kansas State) is blowing us out of the water in terms of how many millions they have in their fund. Would love to hear some thoughts on what the AD can offer to help drive donations, but seemed like Blum was shying away from offering thoughts that might get perceived as criticism.

This looks like the KState donation levels and benefits.

LEVELS AND BENEFITS / AhearnFund.com

The Ahearn Fund is K-State's National Fund for Student-Athlete Excellence.

www.ahearnfund.com

I don't see many or any additional benefits they are offering.
I guess you do get a window cling decal and an Ahern Fund gift, whatever that is.
Nothing on the list couldn't easily be offered by ISU, that I can see.

 

[Trice]

Two pieces of advice I would give the athletic department.

The first is, you have one advantage that other fundraising operations on campus don't, and that is multiple retail businesses: concessions from games, apparel from Cy's Locker Room, events at CY Stephens, etc. And that means you have tons of data. Get some graduate students from some of these new data analytics programs to work and start looking for some trends.

Second, whatever benefits they do offer should be simple, straightforward, easy to remember, and usable. Almost every company you do business with these days has a rewards program, and most of them are set up to look like the company is generously giving away freebies - but in reality they're overly complicated or restrictive to use, and so most people don't. It's a win-win-win for the company: they get to look good for giving something back to their customers, most won't take advantage of it (thus costing relatively little), and they vacuum up customer data in the process.

Make it easy, a total no-brainer that people don't have to manage and will actually use, so they feel like they're actually getting something.

 

[Neptune78]

You're not going to fix bad three point shooting in season. And I get tired of "there were good looks, just don't have shooters/shots weren't falling ...... Were there some good looks that were missed? Of course, as there are for every team in every game. Was the offense running in a way that most possessions generated easy or good looks? Absolutely not. Most of the shots we get are fine, but it is absolutely not an offense working well and guys are just missing great looks.......

Agree 3 point shooting is hard to fix.
Which of our guys do want taking shots from deep? Do you have a percentage which defines them as a "shooter"?

 

[shadow]

Two pieces of advice I would give the athletic department.

The first is, you have one advantage that other fundraising operations on campus don't, and that is multiple retail businesses: concessions from games, apparel from Cy's Locker Room, events at CY Stephens, etc. And that means you have tons of data. Get some graduate students from some of these new data analytics programs to work and start looking for some trends.

Second, whatever benefits they do offer should be simple, straightforward, easy to remember, and usable. Almost every company you do business with these days has a rewards program, and most of them are set up to look like the company is generously giving away freebies - but in reality they're overly complicated or restrictive to use, and so most people don't. It's a win-win-win for the company: they get to look good for giving something back to their customers, most won't take advantage of it (thus costing relatively little), and they vacuum up customer data in the process.

Make it easy, a total no-brainer that people don't have to manage and will actually use, so they feel like they're actually getting something.

I think a benefit to give donors would be the first crack at the Equipment Sales like the one this coming Saturday, February 5th. Why not have a Friday night event for donors or least priority on Saturday morning? The general public then has their chances afterward.

The only thing that we've upped our donation level is better access to Bowl Game/Big 12 Title seating.

And when I say we, I just give my parents money to increase their donation level since they have status and seniority. That may be a factor with others too and why there are fewer donors than anticipated.