This team is all grit
- Thread starter CoKane
- Start date
Yeah its okay to be pumped about this season but also be really excited about the future at the same time. TJ and staff just pulled the #6 recruiting class in the country. Itll be fun to see what TJs defense looks like with a 5 star high level athlete like Omaha Biliew anchoring the defense. Itll be fun to see what TJ offense looks like surrounding a ton of pit bulls around an elite scorer in Momcilovic.
With all of that said the team this year has a chance to be really really dang good!
We need to do damage our first round through conference play. ISU is a nightmare on a one-and-done matchup because you cant prepare for our tenacity and grit in practice. But I wouldnt be surprised if we get picked off a few times the second time teams play us in conference
I’m absolutely thrilled with the future but man nothing is guaranteed. We’ve got a group of men’s and women’s basketball players doing awesome stuff right now.
It’s a great time to be a cyclone!
ISU had a lot of close losses in early Big 12 play and they were still figuring out their offensive identity.
TWO five star prospects next year? Did I miss something?Maybe the best Athletic article written about Iowa State ($).
Why Iowa State's win over No. 1 North Carolina was validation for T.J. Otzelberger's program
The Cyclones handed the Tar Heels their first loss of the season, advancing to Sunday's PK Invitational championship.theathletic.com
This is written perfectly.
Right now we are 79 on offense and 21 on defense. I don't mind that. That'll get us in the tournament
As a verified old person now I’ve accepted I’ll be asleep before halftime and will finish up in the morning
God damn TJ is awesome. It comes from the top.
You beat me to it. His improvement has been phenomenal IMO. He makes the most out of his athletic ability.
Haha he's giving the serious talk at about 1:00 and the shirt is still off. If I'm a player I'm hiding behind someone to not get caught cracking up.
and Therein lies the dilemma. I think we tend to take the game away from certain guys with questions like “why don’t we get better shooters?”. People don’t understand that elite shooters may not want to come here and play that defense (or they aren’t capable of it). When we miss on a transfer or recruit people also tend to look at it from a macro level instead of the micro level that the players look at things at. “We’re way better than them! Why would that guy chose school X over us?”.
I think people would be surprised to find out that some guys are just like “I don’t want to do that I just want to coast on D and on the boards and leak out early every possession to try and get open looks.” So they go find a place where they can do that. Everyone is trying to find the spot that they can maximize their talents. If I were an elite outside shooter and I wanted to maximize that part of my game I wouldn’t go to ISU either.
That being said, those guys that want to maximize everything are out there, they just tend to get gobbled up by the blue bloods and the big NIL schools.
Isn't this basically how Fred got guys? It sounds negative but he leaned heavily on volume of shots.
On the other hand TJ can sell it as 'we need a shooter, if you do the work in our culture, you'll get your shots'.
I also firmly believe that people can gravitate toward a culture of genuine connections and purpose, even if it's not glamorous, which TJ has appeared to build. Anyone coming to ISU following last season doesn't have to look hard to know what they're going to do in Ames.
It’s also important to look at the makeup of our conference. You have to be big, athletic and most importantly imo LONG. Needing those 3 things doesn’t leave as much room for the guys that are typically elite snipers from range. (And obviously those guys with all 3 of those intangibles PLUS elite range get gobbled up by the blue bloods).That’s just how it is. A school like ISU has to pick a lane to maximize their chances of success.
