Oh yee of Little Faith. If there's one thing TJ has proven THE LAST FOUR YEARS, it's how to build a roster to match his system perfectly. I'm pumped about Buchanan and Mulder. They will blossom in TJ's system. Just wait.
Blake Buchanan commits
- Thread starter ClonerJams
- Start date
Out of curiosity how much further are you expecting ISU to go up from two consecutive 2/3 seeds?
Not saying they won't but that's quite the bar.
We've been locked in on all our first targets and only whiffed on Cluff so far. I like that Buchanan has 2 years too. We saw the jump that Rob Jones and Hasan made
My point is that they DID improve upon some of their weaknesses. IMO the biggest weakness on the team was that Jackson and Chatfield couldn't guard guys on the perimeter. Jefferson could, which is why you saw him playing a lot of 5 at the ends of games. Will we miss Jackson's post up scoring? Maybe a little. Will definitely miss his FT shooting. But Jefferson can be our post up guy and he's pretty good at it. Jackson would leave a much bigger hole if he didn't fumble so many balls out of bounds. To me, if you have Jefferson/Buchanon/Mulder/Pleta vs Jefferson/Jackson/Chatfield/Watson, the actual scoring difference is going to be negligible and the defense is going to be better. Now, replacing Gilbert and Jones is a different matter. We're going to need a 15-17 ppg scorer that can handle and defend and we're probably not getting that out of the portal. Gonna have to depend on TRFR and the portal guys we can get plus Heise.
Look at the scores of the games we lost.
Yeah, BYU wasn't hitting 25 3's because of luck, it was because they were open. Look what Houston did to them the next game in KC.
Jefferson can create on his own. We just need someone that can catch a pass and dunk the ball when his defender helps to Jefferson. That’s what we need in a center offensively. Jackson did that OK, but he fumbled a lot of those passes.
I don't know jake about the game of basketball, other than in a most basic way.
I did watch Buchanan's and Mulder's highlights, though. To me, based on their foot speed and attack incentive around the rim, they seem to me to be very quick and aggressive.
As they work and develop in Ames - they know what they're getting into - I can see how their roles on the 2025-26 Cyclones could be important. Guarding the baseline and elsewhere (foot speed) and slamming home stuff that Jefferson and our guards initiate.
If I'm full of it, tell me. I can take it.
Per cbbanalytics.com, lineups with Jefferson but neither of Jackson or Chatfield were better than any other combination of the three. So I'd say it definitely can be a good thing for Jefferson to play more of the 5.
To be fair, those numbers might be swayed by Jefferson at the 5 being the default end-of-game lineup, including in games where ISU had a lead and the other team was fouling (see the crazy high free throw rate). But the net rating difference is high enough to at least show that the team wasn't worse with Jefferson at the 5.
I think we still have a slim chance on Cluff.
I been following the Purdue board all day.
They seem to think they have the inside track, with our commit from the UVA kid, as do most of us - but nobody reporting a deal. I guess we will see if his visit gets cancelled or not. They are still reporting he intends to visit us next. Might be like me - nobody really knows anything.
I agree, but would replace the word “effort” with “limitations”. The improvements we made on offense were offset by the limitations this team had on defenses. Relied a lot on Tamin and Keshon being able shut their guys down playing straight up defense. Our bigs were generally too slow footed to trap like previous teams. When those two got hurt our defense became much less aggressive.
Was not a serious expectation of 10/10 but an expectation for his numbers to improve. Whether they play slow or they suck, either way you can expect more production here. I mean we've seen it how many times under Otz? Who comes here and sucks worse than their last stop?
I agree with this. If the internet is true Cluff is on campus at Purdue now and plans to visit Iowa State next. Maybe because the big red head for Perdue plans to transfer people are reading into it. FWIW, the Purdue folks seem split on cluff. Some think it would be a good pickup and some think their s*** doesn’t stink and deserve only big name transfers.
It seemed like before the injuries, TJ's "killshot" lineup down the stretch was Lipsey, KG, Jones, Heise and JJ. Milan would sub in for offense/defense type of stuff but JT liked that lineup for sure in crunch time.
Do you not remember who DID NOT play in that game??!!!???!!!! And we still almost beat them!!
Yeah, I know. And both of those guys DID play when they beat us in Hilton. My point is that a little more quickness at the 5 will go a long ways. If your bigs can hold up for even a couple of seconds switching on to a guard, you completely take the pick and roll and high ball screen away. Or, if your big is quick enough to hedge the screen and then get back on the roller. BRE was really good at that.
Buchanan is the most **** on recruit I've ever seen on here. The 2nd most was Curtis Jones.....
