Yeah, for a sophomore I would say Buchanan has a better transfer resume than BRE, Jackson, and Chatfield, who all came from much lower conferences with mediocre stats.
Blake Buchanan commits
- Thread starter ClonerJams
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I'm optimistic Heise can be dialed in and up to speed on the competition level starting game 1 next season. If he hits 40+% from 3, he is a potential HM all conference player.
But what if Cluff wasn't going to be a 17/12 guy at Iowa State? It's a big step up from SDSU to Big 12. Especially for a post guy.
And there's only one ball and I expect the offense will run through Lipsey, Jefferson and Momcilovic. It's a guards game so I would expect our 2G's Heise and Williams to each scoring around 10ppg. So it wouldn't be unrealistic that Cliff is/was going to be a 12/8 guy playing 25mpg.
IMO if we don't get Cluff the staff pivots. Maybe Buchanan is that pivot. Maybe he was always part of the plan. But I don't believe the Cluff vs. Buchanan difference is much from a defense & rebounding perspective. And points can be found from existing players.
I think there may be a difference between them in rebounding. Totals are obviously higher for Cluff, but looking at advanced stats, and rebounding % :
Cluff at SDSU led D1 in defensive rebounding at 32% and was 25% total.
Buchanan was 20% and 15%
For reference, Ejim was 27% and 20% his junior season. And Oscar Tshiebwe at Kentucky was 29% and 24%, and lead the nation in total% his Jr year.
I'll be very interested to see how all of Cluff's numbers translate to high level D1, no matter where he ends up.
The PASE is a concern at this point.
- Total overperform once.
- Big fail to Pitt.
- Basically on for last year.
- Underwhelming this year.
Optimistic case is you were within a bucket last year, and injuries shut them down late this year.
Pessimistic case is they're getting outcoached and/or just lack the VERY high-end talent to get there.
Ask me in 2030 and I will tell you which is correct.
I think a safe & fair comp for Buchanan would be a skinny version of BRE. Not offering much in the way of offense or FT shooting, but hustles on defense. I think it's important to have those players on the team - was just really hoping we'd end up with a skilled big man.
If I knew Cluff was never an option to begin with, I'd have a much different perspective on all of this. It'll go down as the great Cluff tease of 2025. Hang it in the rafters next to Rashad Vaughn and Emmanuel Malou.
Ok…. so I have a right to be worried…. got it!
You serious, Clark? I think the fanbase would be beating down the door for a 5 man that would get 12 & 8. Anything above that would be gravy. When was the last time we got 12 & 8 out of our big man. McKay? Maybe Cam Lard?
I'm guessing Buchanan will match what he produced at Virginia. 5 & 5. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
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Honestly I think all 3 of our new bigs next year are upgrades athletically from what we had this year. At least in terms of being able to play above the rim a little bit and foot speed.
The staff was very confident Cluff would “adjust” from the Summit League without issue and be very, very good on our team.
He did that playing 22mpg for the 361st fastest team. ISU was 104 in tempo. I’ll take the over.
I have no doubt Cluff would adjust and be very good on next years team. But he would join an already talented team with Lipsey, Jefferson, Momcilovic and Heise. So he wouldn't join a team where he is a focal point like he was at SDSU.
So being a 12/8 guy would be a solid season for Cluff at Iowa State. Remember Cluff was a 7/4 in 20mpg at Washington State in 2023/24.
NCAA classified Pleta as a Sophomore-- based on his mentioned pro-Euro ball and age.
Per 100, Jackson was at 26 and 15.5
Per 100, Buchanan was at 16 and 15.7
Based on Jackson’s 8 and 5, Buchanan at 5 and 5 isn’t that bad of guess, although I’d take the over based on less foul trouble/more minutes for Buchanan
He’s entering Year 3, whereas Jackson was going into Year 5. Hopefully we look back and say Buchanan made a big jump
For the record:
Jefferson shot 39.4% from 3 during conference play
Heise shot 57.5% from 3 over the last 12 games of the season
Both should be expected to take more deep shots next year.
Of course looking at the volume numbers, playing time being equal he should improve. But a big difference than when for example Shayok came to ISU, he was playing on a slow, highly efficient team. This Virginia team was bad. Pace is a huge part of it, but so is the fact that the team sucked. I remember watching some of their Louisville game. I was actually captivated watching it mainly because of how bad UVa was offensively. It think it took almost to the 8 min. mark before they hit double digits.
Also don't forget Lipsey took the 2nd most 3's in Big12 play and shot 33.7%. Not far off from Curtis Jones at 35% and Keshon Gilbert at 34.7%. And Tamin had a bad hand the whole Big12 season.
Having enough efficient 3 point shooters is always a concern. But feel like Lipsey, Heise, Momcilovic and Jefferson are a good place to start. Adding Williams at 34.5% and hopefully Rohde (41.3%) would give us a pretty good group of jump shooters. And that doesn't include the upside of the freshman.
