So where is the love for Kalscheur after last night?
Gather round, children, as I relay the story of the kid from Edina, Minnesota...
Minnesota fans wanted him gone while he was there and said "good riddance" when he left. Now "single" again, he wasn't courted by the princes of college basketball nationally like his former teammate Marcus Carr, and he instead settled down with the next-closest P6 team to Minneapolis in Ames to work with a new head coach with nothing but hope to sell and a couple of assistants from the Missouri Valley Conference.
His first season in Ames was successful but not radiant. He seemed quiet most of the time and deferred to Brockington and Hunter to lead the offense and team. He settled into the role of doing yeoman's work as a defensive stopper, didn't make many flashy plays, and occasionally had scoring outbursts. He seemed to pick up where he left off early this season coming off the bench and deferring to the other guards.
But something in him changed about a month ago. Something snapped. It's like he saw his family murdered in front of him and, in response, he went off to a remote monastery to meditate, work out, and practice basketball for a decade before coming back as the biggest badass in all of college basketball. There's a palpable "**** you" attitude about him and the way he's playing that just wasn't there in previous seasons.
He's turned from a tertiary guard known for playing defense and missing shots into Klay Thompson. He's the best player and the lead guard of the #9 team on Torvik and #11 team on KenPom. He's making a case for first-team all-Big 12 and CPOTY as the best two-way guard in the conference if not the country.
He's proving it on the court with his play. He spent all night last night outplaying Carr and Hunter, the two former teammates who left him behind as not good enough for the bright lights of Austin and the big bucks of Texas oilmen. He outscored both of them (and every other Longhorn) and beat the stuffing out of them on defense, holding Carr to 11 on net -3.1 points and Hunter to 10 on net -3.3 points.
And the best part was he did this with swagger and confidence, running his mouth all night long up and down the court with both of them. Kalscheur and the Cyclones got into Texas' head, and while Grill had the highlight telling Texas' bench to call a timeout, Kalscheur was singing the same songs.
He might come back down to Earth, sure, but even then we should admire the month he's had and the kind of season he's produced. Half the games of this season have been played. This isn't an illusion or a fluke. This Iowa State team is really good, and Kalscheur is one of the main reasons for it.
