We may not win like we have been this year but we have 4 future pros IMO. Babb, Young, Lard, and Wigginton. Its early but they have the intangibles.
*** Official Tulsa Vs IOWA STATE Gameday Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
The comparison game is not good at all right now. Nebraska got destroyed by someone the other day, then Mizzou got destroyed by someone after they leveled us, then Milwaukee loses to just a horrible team, and App State gets destroyed too yesterday.
So there's no sense in looking back at this point. Just keep winning games somehow and improve each and every game, and let the chips fall where they may.
My quick assessment thus far.... NWB and Jackson are the stars of this team obviously. Nobody else has consistently shown the ability to score, outside of maybe Wigginton.
Solo and Lard are more than capable interior guys for us, but they have to find a way to quit committing so many dumb fouls so they can stay on the court.
High school kids coming into their first year of college have no idea how to play defense at the college level because they didn't play defense in high school. Wigginton and Lewis have a ways to go defensively. Wigginton falls for nearly every pump fake and leaves his feet. Just horrible defensive fundamentals because it was likely never taught in high school. You get scholarship offers for scoring a ton in high school..... not for playing great defense.
I think it will be fun watching this team grow through the year, but the NIT might be the ceiling for this group, and would probably be a very good year for them if they were to make it to the NIT.
ISU's loss to UWM can't be sugar-coated. My hope is, if we look back at ISU 2017-18, we'll view that as an extreme outlier.
It's a throw away game. Steve Prohm puts way more emphasis on getting better than on wins early, and he tells us that in more diplomatic fashion if we listen closely. I think he was fine with losing that game so long as the guys responded and made the adjustments that we needed to make. I don't think that happens either, with Lard and Brase available, so no need to dwell.
He's building a great foundation. If you listen to his post game interviews, you can hear how much he loves this process of teaching and building. Glad he's a Cyclone!
We will learn a lot against Boise State. It is great to win against anybody, and since moving Babb to point and getting two more players we are playing much better. App State is not very good, and Tulsa, who lost to Lamar by 7 is average in their league at best. Boise picked 3rd in Mountain West behind SDS and somebody - Gonzaga? They also have a great player who appears to be a lock to get into the NBA. Good measuring stick to see how much we have progressed.
It may not always show up in the boxscore, but I really like what Brase brings to the team. By Big 12 play I’m hoping him, Lard and Young can cover about 70-75 of the 80 post minutes.
I'm hoping Long is our new 3&D player. Thomas really stepped into the role his junior and senior year and it's where basketball is moving at all levels.
Wiggington needs to develop on defense a little and his offense will be a lot more than just 3 point shooting. Babb already does a lot more than shooting on offense. You needs guys who come in and play lock down animal D but are there to hit open 3s on the other end.
Jacolby Long is built more like Kantrail Horton than any other Cyclone guard I can remember. Kantrail was 3&D before it was a thing. He was the unsung hero of ISU's best team of all time.
What is everybody's take on Terrence Lewis?
For some reason I really latched early to pull for him. He was a top 100 recruit who played for his dad and shot 55% from Trey !! I was expecting him to have good potential, especially after McNeil transferred to Cal.
Now, he didn't even get minutes yesterday. I suppose he will t'morrow vs Boise St, but not sure of his role with NWB, DJ, Wigs, Long getting most guard minutes.
For some reason I really latched early to pull for him. He was a top 100 recruit who played for his dad and shot 55% from Trey !! I was expecting him to have good potential, especially after McNeil transferred to Cal.
Now, he didn't even get minutes yesterday. I suppose he will t'morrow vs Boise St, but not sure of his role with NWB, DJ, Wigs, Long getting most guard minutes.
I don't know if this team will end up being good or bad but, I think we can all agree that the improvement is great to see. If you told me after Monday and that we would be playing for a Championship on Sunday, I would have laughed in your face!
Boise ST will be a tough test
Boise ST will be a tough test
Lewis is a freshmen. It will take time. Matt Thomas was similarly rated coming out of HS. Lewis still looks a little lost on D and is still trying to settle in. There will be a few games where he really shows up.
There were a couple of snippets where he showed his ability--needs to get past the thinking part but perhaps that doesn't come until next year with more time. Crap, look at NWB's ability vs. what he was last year.
I think some are thinking way too much in the 'now' instead of waiting for things to come to fruition.
He's going to be very good.... I expect him to be in the rotation by mid season. Long and him are competing for the same minutes and JL was having an excellent game last night and deserved the time on the floor.
(remember it took Solo time to gain Prohm's trust last year too)
We all need to hold off on judging the players 4 games in. Many would have had Long bench for the season after the App St. game. The best thing we've learned this far into the season is ISU has 10 Big 12 quality players.
Trust the process.
10 quality Big 12 players? Potentially 9 late in the year depending on a generous definition of quality. I think they have a few nice players, Tulsa’s in the AAC and likely not an upper-half level Big 12 team.
Glad we are getting better. The only game I have been able to watch so far was Milwaukee. It was probably the worst performance in the 900 ISU games I have seen. We got beat at home badly by a very bad team . We do have raw talent though and NWB is our star, so keep the faith.
Utah Valley was leading Kentucky at Kentucky like 1st game of the year with like 4 minutes to go in the game..Keep in mind this was at Kentucky. Now KY ended up shooting bunch of FT’s with under 2 min to go and won by 10 but KY could have easily lost that first game..
Utah Valley went on to lose by 20 to Weber state.. So does this make Weber State better than KY? Of course not..I dont know why people continue to compare who beat who this early in the season.
Basketball is a game of match ups adn teams match up differntly and early in the season some teams just take time to gel and figure things out.
Move on..Milwaukee was a bad loss and right now this ISU team is night and day different.
Utah Valley went on to lose by 20 to Weber state.. So does this make Weber State better than KY? Of course not..I dont know why people continue to compare who beat who this early in the season.
Basketball is a game of match ups adn teams match up differntly and early in the season some teams just take time to gel and figure things out.
Move on..Milwaukee was a bad loss and right now this ISU team is night and day different.
That's correct, pretty much consensus. Boise expected 2nd, along with possibly San Diego State.
Only 2 games to evaluate, but what I've seen is Brase has a positive impact. Confident and steady, plays within his role, has an even-keel effect when he's on the floor.
It's interesting that he's often the one speaking when they huddle before free throws etc.
