I forget which player said it, but a famous quote was “we don’t take many bad shots, but when we do Tyrus makes it,”
Favorite 6th men?
- Thread starter CyberJJJ
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He's definitely one of those guys I think of. Jake Sullivan holds the highest 3 point % in a season at .476 and Scotty Christopherson has the career record at .443. Sullivan had such a sweet stroke from 3 too. I remember seeing him in the rec center 1 night working on way to get his shot off quicker as once people knew he was a 3 point threat his freshman year he really had to work on getting his shot off faster with more defensive attention on him. That Elite 8 team had Horton and Nurse who would pull up a good 5+ feet from the 3 point line and hit 3's at a pretty good clip too.
Seeing Jake take shots isn't something that was rare to see...
It is still crazy to me that Jake took 1,000 shots a day every day without fail (including holidays) from 5th grade until one of his last years at Iowa State when he realized for his mental health he needed to not be so OCD about it and allow himself to miss a day. And that is on top of organized practices and games. That is about 10 years which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,650,000 shots. No wonder he was so deadly...
Such a smooth stroke. He always reminded me of Barry Stevens.
With McGee it wasn't just surprising when he missed, it was almost surprising when it wasn't a swish.
I had forgotten that his senior year he not only led the Big 12 in 3 point makes (96), he led the nation in 3 point percentage (.464)!
Purest shot I can remember - His range was one step across half court and no 3pt shot at that time.
He definately was a gym rat! I used to call him ATM because when he shot the ball he was money. He's one of my all-time favorite Cyclones and maybe that is because I went to ISU during that era when he played but he's right up there on the list of best pure shooters I have seen. He is also the all-time career FT% record holder at ISU at .896 and single season record at .933 which is about as money as you can get from the FT line.
Didn't Ronnie Harris do a full year as 6th man before he moved into the starting lineup? Seems like Elmer was the same thing, initially a 6th man. I still laugh when I hear those clips of Johnny yelling at him!
McGee - Last update was he was still playing top league in France but that was 23-24 season.
Sullivan - last i heard, and this was like 5ish years ago, he was working in ministry work and helping coach high school basketball. No idea if that is what he still does.
Horton, - https://cyclonefanatic.com/2020/04/where-are-they-now-kantrail-horton/
S. Johnson - google didn't help me here.
Virgil - Found a 2006 interview with him from Iowa State 247. After school he gave up basketball for a career in business at the time he was a supervisor at motorola and focuses on his family.
According to sports-reference, Ron Harris started every game during his four seasons.
I haven't confirmed that via cyclones.com official site, but it seems correct.
He's on the All-Time Underrated list for me.
Tyrus is my favorite, he is was as good an offensive player as any that played under Fred and that's a pretty solid list.
That team goes to show, tourney is luck of the draw. Who knows, Could have made the final four if they get that call, they were playing at at a very high level.
It's notable that the rules committee saw fit to issue a clarification after that season that a defender needed to be in place in a legal guarding position before the offensive player went up after that season. I'm pretty sure that that high profile incorrect call was a part of the reason.
