Before the season...curious

[madguy30]

Imo the best part of the winning is that it is through some things that, if I'm a coach, I want for challenges for the group, especially with younger players.

-two exhibition games, while meaningless for W/L, against good (CU) and respectable (NW) programs.

-not good but athletic MSU team in kind of a weird gym.

-good-very good teams in Vegas with quick turnarounds each day after games.

-play at a very good Purdue team, on national TV, at one of the tougher places to play.

-weird next game where shots aren't falling and not much is going well, the opponent is a rival that's hellbent on pulling a shocker, and experiencing the home crowd getting wild as part of the win.

Obviously a 30 point win last night would have been fun, but for challenges for the group, I really don't know if this could have gone better.

 

[1973 Banker Clone]

Our big men this year have much better hands than last year.

 

[cyclones500]

Our big men this year have much better hands than last year.

Related to that, among other things, success of Jefferson-to-Buchanan assist/feed tandem is something I did not anticipate.

 

[ForeverIowan]

Before the season started, what were you hoping for with this team? Were you bullish? Bearish? Just curious.

Knowing we had Lipsey, Jefferson, and Milan and Heise coming back, I thought while we had a great core, we'd have a solid season but nothing spectacular due to so many new faces coming in which can be a situation where they never mesh like we thought. Even preseason rankings I thought we might be pegged a bit too high. Maybe I wasn't giving our big three enough credit. I thought we'd make the NCAAs but somewhere in the 5-6 seed range.

We haven't even hit conference play, so can things change? Yes. Can injuries happen? Yes. Still a lot of variables. But given our schedule with the neutral game against MSU and the three neutral games in Vegas with a bunch of new players, and playing at #1 Purdue and a rivalry game against Iowa, I thought being 7-3 after ten games would be ok...not great but fair. 8-2 is solid. 9-1 is fantastic and 10-0 just wan't in the cards.

This is a TEAM. Every single player and position just...makes sense and compliments everyone so ******* well. We have incredible basketball IQ at every position. Our depth is insane.

Are we going to stumble and lose games? Yes. I think we're still looking at 5-6 regular season losses...this league is tough as hell. But so far, this season has to exceed almost all of our expectations, right? Not sure many would have said we'd be 10-0.

Not to pencil in wins here but our next three games are in Hilton against cupcakes. That gets you to 13-0. First conference game in Hilton is West Virginia (73rd in KenPom). We should start 14-0.

In your post you said you thought we'd have 5 or 6 regular season losses. If they start 14-0, that leaves 17 conference games. Call me crazy but I think this team is better than 11-6 or maybe even 12-5 in their last 17 games.

IMO, the goal should be first #1 seed in program history and regular season Big 12 title. To do so, probably need to finish the regular season with 4 or less losses (historically speaking).

 

[CychiatricWard]

I was pretty high on Toure coming in and I liked Buchanans motor and quickness, but certainly didn’t expect Pleta to come along this quickly. Banking on improvements from the big 3 returners as well. Had us around a 5-6 seed potential.

I didn’t expect Toure to be an absolute dog this damn fast though! And how much better the big 3 have looked has been fantastic. Like someone else said you never know how the rest of the season will play out but man this team just has something about them that is hard to put on paper, too. Chemistry looks great, guys know their roles, etc. This will have to be our m.o. as a program isn’t finding those diamonds and I don’t think there is anyone better in the country at doing so than TJ.

 

[jsb]

I don't know what thought. But after watching this team, the one thing that I see is that you watch this team and you can TELL that they are good. Several of our most recent teams, you knew they were good, but when you watched them you kind of wondered how.

Before the season I hoped that one or two of the freshman were going to be good enough to play and stick around. This freshman class has been great.

 

[rosshm16]

I don't know what thought. But after watching this team, the one thing that I see is that you watch this team and you can TELL that they are good. Several of our most recent teams, you knew they were good, but when you watched them you kind of wondered how.

Before the season I hoped that one or two of the freshman were going to be good enough to play and stick around. This freshman class has been great.

I've had this thought lately too. Not sure what it is exactly. Like against Purdue it was just clear within the first 10 minutes of game clock that they weren't better than us.

 

[madguy30]

I've had this thought lately too. Not sure what it is exactly. Like against Purdue it was just clear within the first 10 minutes of game clock that they weren't better than us.

Toure's athleticism and length on the perimeter are what's been missing for ISU all of TJ's tenure and maybe speed on the team in general.

Like even Batemon hasn't played a ton lately (I think he'll find better fits as the season goes a long) but when he's out there he can cover ground and did a nice job staying with Pistol Pete last night.

 

[Brockchili]

I didn’t know Tamin had this level of offense in him. Nor did I expect Jefferson to be the second coming of Royce White, and Toure to be the best on ball defender in the country.

This is the biggest factor. Tamis is looking to score more and has a better three point ball. Opens up everything else.

 

[AlaCyclone]

Before the season started, I was hopeful. I figured they would be good but not sure how good.

When I listened to the Creighton pre-season game on the radio, I was thinking: "WTF?"

When I attended the Northwestern pre-season game, I was thinking; "These guys are good!"

 

[Letterkenny]

I thought we'd take a step back from last year.

Momcilovic and Jefferson both improved more than I thought they would.
Lipsey is what I thought he'd be.
Buchanan is better than I thought he'd be, especially on offense.
Moulder is a a little worse than I thought
Pleta is about what I thought he'd be.
Toure is a lot better than I thought.
Heise is about what I thought.
Batemon isn't as productive (I thought he'd be a starter) but when he's had his chances, he's been good.

 

[MartyFine]

 

[NWICY]

We will always be a top 20 team under TJ. I don't think a lot of our fans even understand how smothering our defense has been since he's been here. I'm not sure anybody plays D like we do. Even in his first year when we were somewhat limited offensively the D made us a top 20-25 team. Even people that consider us a great defensive team don't comprehend how good we are at it most of the time. Who's consistently been better defensively than Iowa State the last 5 years? I can't think of anyone.

It's not the same but the nearest I can think of is when Nolan Richardson (?) Had Arky playing really good defense. I thought that was more press oriented though.
It was a while back and I might be fuzzy on the details.

 

[Cyrealist]

It's hard to develop preseason expectations when rosters change so much. Even if one studies up on incoming players, you don't know how they'll fit into TJ's system and what the team chemistry will be. Toure is definitely playing like a 5-star recruit.

 

[cyclones500]

It's not the same but the nearest I can think of is when Nolan Richardson (?) Had Arky playing really good defense. I thought that was more press oriented though.
It was a while back and I might be fuzzy on the details.

Yes, Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell." Definitely a lot of full-court press, but pretty much all-over-court, a lot of trapping and forcing turnovers.

 

[CySmurf]

Fantastic start.
Will reserve my judgement for when Big12 conference games start...
They exceeded my expectations so far. So I won't be shocked to see them do well in conference play too.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I thought we'd be similar to last year, but replacing the scoring that Jones provided was my biggest concern.

Seeing several people picking up the slack makes us so much more dangerous. Jefferson's outside game looks more polished. Tamin plays with crazy poise and just does whatever is needed each game. Buchanan is an upgrade I didn't expect. Toure is a stud and fun as hell to watch. Milan has improved his overall game and is playing with the confidence he should have.

I think Heise is being overlooked, but he is still a solid and smart player. He'll find his stroke and will improve his shot as the year goes on. Batemon is going to be a good one for us, so I hope he keeps getting chances to play as conference play continues. He'll likely make Freshman errors as the Big XII starts, but it'll be good for his progression. Pleta has been better than I thought and doesn't play like a typical newcomer post player. He's aggressive and searching for ways to affect the game. Nelson is a wild card for me. He's easily the most reckless player, but there are games where I think he'll be needed to break down a defense and soften it up for the team.

All in all, we're faster and more under control this year on both ends. And we have solid depth to not just sustain a lead, but also build on it.

I think teams that will give us the most trouble are teams with multiple athletic bigs that attack. I feel good about our guard matchup with anyone in the country, but I worry about Jefferson wearing down with the minutes he plays. He's been fantastic so far. Hopefully Pleta can play some more minutes and keep him fresh as the season wears down. Mulder could help, but I haven't seen the fire in him that I'd like to yet. Maybe a switch will go on and he'll be able to contribute.

It's been fun as hell so far and I'm anxious for the next game as soon as one ends. I honestly don't look at any other team and think that we can't beat them.

 

[GoSTATE71]

I thought we’d be like a 7-10 seed and was hoping we’d just do ok in the nonconference given how hard the schedule was.

Obviously this team is wildly outpacing expectations given all the returning guys have made massive massive improvements from last season (and they were all good - Lipsey, Heise, Milan, JJ). Blake Buchanan and Toure have been way better than I was expecting and Batemon is ahead of schedule for a freshman. Future is bright

 

[twincyties]

Yes, Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell." Definitely a lot of full-court press, but pretty much all-over-court, a lot of trapping and forcing turnovers.

His practices were absolutely brutal according to most accounts. Seems to be similaries to TJ's (particularly his summer work outs).

 

[Cyclad]

Before the season started, what were you hoping for with this team? Were you bullish? Bearish? Just curious.

Knowing we had Lipsey, Jefferson, and Milan and Heise coming back, I thought while we had a great core, we'd have a solid season but nothing spectacular due to so many new faces coming in which can be a situation where they never mesh like we thought. Even preseason rankings I thought we might be pegged a bit too high. Maybe I wasn't giving our big three enough credit. I thought we'd make the NCAAs but somewhere in the 5-6 seed range.

We haven't even hit conference play, so can things change? Yes. Can injuries happen? Yes. Still a lot of variables. But given our schedule with the neutral game against MSU and the three neutral games in Vegas with a bunch of new players, and playing at #1 Purdue and a rivalry game against Iowa, I thought being 7-3 after ten games would be ok...not great but fair. 8-2 is solid. 9-1 is fantastic and 10-0 just wan't in the cards.

This is a TEAM. Every single player and position just...makes sense and compliments everyone so ******* well. We have incredible basketball IQ at every position. Our depth is insane.

Are we going to stumble and lose games? Yes. I think we're still looking at 5-6 regular season losses...this league is tough as hell. But so far, this season has to exceed almost all of our expectations, right? Not sure many would have said we'd be 10-0.

I thought we would be good, but not as good as last year - at our best. I thought we would be better on defense but worse of offense.
I was wrong.
As somebody already said, Toure changed things a lot. Time will tell.
Not sure if this team is better than our 2000 team or not. That team could have won it all. This team possibly can also.
Only times in my 56 years of fandom that I felt justified in saying that.