Blake Buchanan commits

[CycloneVet]

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.

The nice thing about Jefferson shooting from deep is drawing a big away from the hoop. Allowing guards and other bigs to have an easier time. (Yes Thanks Captain obvious)

 

[Cyclonepride]

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.

I'm honestly more concerned about our ability to break down the defense off the dribble, and I think a healthy Lipsey, and the addition of Williams and hopefully Rohde could help with that.

 

[FinalFourCy]

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.

Buchanan should see a bump just from being a rim runner off our defense, assuming we have guards to replace Gilbert on defense

And from Jefferson and Lipsey joining Rohde in feeding him

 

[Pat]

NCAA classified Pleta as a Sophomore-- based on his mentioned pro-Euro ball and age.

Wait… JUCO ball can’t count against eligibility but Euro can? The NCAA just can’t help themselves at this point.

 

[WhatchaGonnaDo]

Only posting to tell people to stop misspelling this man's name. How in the world did everyone start using "Hasan"?

Hason Ward - Men's Basketball - Iowa State University Athletics

Hason Ward (24) Forward - Honors & Awards Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll (S24) Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team (21) 2023-24 Appeared in 28 games with three

cyclones.com

 

[FallOf81]

Only posting to tell people to stop misspelling this man's name. How in the world did everyone start using "Hasan"?

Hason Ward - Men's Basketball - Iowa State University Athletics

Hason Ward (24) Forward - Honors & Awards Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll (S24) Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team (21) 2023-24 Appeared in 28 games with three

cyclones.com

Isn't Hasan from a Bugs Bunny cartoon in the 70s? Having a flashback.

 

[Malone]

Only posting to tell people to stop misspelling this man's name. How in the world did everyone start using "Hasan"?

Hason Ward - Men's Basketball - Iowa State University Athletics

Hason Ward (24) Forward - Honors & Awards Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll (S24) Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team (21) 2023-24 Appeared in 28 games with three

cyclones.com

An uphill battle. We have Momchilovich already, looking forward to years of Bateman and however the hell they're going to spell Dominykas Pleta

 

[Rural]

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.

Being bad offensively the last place you look is in the post.

 

[CloniesForLife]

Only posting to tell people to stop misspelling this man's name. How in the world did everyone start using "Hasan"?

Hason Ward - Men's Basketball - Iowa State University Athletics

Hason Ward (24) Forward - Honors & Awards Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll (S24) Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team (21) 2023-24 Appeared in 28 games with three

cyclones.com

Thanks I think I misspelled it a couple times. I swore it was an. Usually try to be more conscious of this stuff

 

[2forISU]

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.

Jackson had heavy feet, no doubt. The problem is it god enough to compete against with sweet 16 teams/elite 8 teams. That is my concern.

 

[MTCyclone43]

An uphill battle. We have Momchilovich already, looking forward to years of Bateman and however the hell they're going to spell Dominykas Pleta

Hopefully Bateman becomes Batman. Just sayin'

Edit: Sorry I have been exposed to too many Tournament commercials.

 

[cyclones500]

Thanks I think I misspelled it a couple times. I swore it was an. Usually try to be more conscious of this stuff

I still have to double-check proper spelling of Paveletzke, and he's two years removed.

 

[Dgilbertson]

He took it to the hole aggressively through traffic against Ole Miss. It was an athletic glide double pump to for a layup. I didn't think he had that in his game, he does. If he plays with confidence and aggression, he will be a good scorer for us next year

I had mentioned halfway through conference play I hadn’t seen Nate look like this all season.


Still think there’s another level of getting down hill and trusting his skills he’s not yet reached in a Cyclone jersey. Excited for next season.

 

[Clonefan32]

Our path to success is recruiting freshmen that come in, contribute and are willing to stick around because of the culture. Realistically we can’t recompose a team around transfers every year. We have to start force feeding freshmen some playing time.

 

[werdnamanhill]

Hason Ward holds the ISU record for career +/-

 

[Psiclone]

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

Did we whiff on Cluff? Is there a reliable source for this? I'm not finding anything online other than he's visiting Purdue this weekend and then ISU.

 

[AuH2O]

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'm not sure there is consistent enough scoring from the returners to be feeling great about rolling out a low-impact guy on the offensive end. Maybe if Buchanan was elite defensively, but he wasn't at UVa. Relative to the rest of their rotation he was one of the more efficient offensive guys and least efficient defensive guys.

I think what we can hope about Buchanan is that we're getting a guy that can be a contributor in a power conference, and hope that he can provide some offensive efficiency with a better team around him, and can improve his defense with a better coaching staff. I think these are realistic expectations. I don't think he's going to be a Rob Jones kind of player on defense. Rob was not a shot blocker but he was really good at staying in front of guards in a switch situation. Another thing to keep in mind is that Jackson and Chatfield had a much easier job offensively than Rob because of Jefferson. What ISU ran through Jefferson at the high post, we didn't really have that guy last year, so it ran through Rob more often than not. Had Rob played with this year's team he would've had a lot of opportunities for dunks off of JJs passing. King was a good 4, but not a guy you ran your offense around like Jefferson.

I had mentioned halfway through conference play I hadn’t seen Nate look like this all season.
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Still think there’s another level of getting down hill and trusting his skills he’s not yet reached in a Cyclone jersey. Excited for next season.

For sure. He was a totally different player at the end of the year offensively. He’s going to be a lot more comfortable and let it rip.

 

[Psiclone]

Sometimes a whiff can be positive. Maybe by missing we have enough funds and are able to grab an additional player that adds some depth and versatility to the lineup. We were wanting a solid 4 transfers at least and with the ability to add a 5th.

Cluff is one of the top 2-3 bigs available, he is a difference maker. Purdue doing well in the tourney probably elevated them as a landing spot. If Otz can't land him, no one else is going to do any better getting him away from Purdue.

 

[Psiclone]

Did we whiff on Cluff? Is there a reliable source for this? I'm not finding anything online other than he's visiting Purdue this weekend and then ISU.

 

[AuH2O]

Being bad offensively the last place you look is in the post.

Yeah, I do think there’s a factor of the team being disfunctional offensively that snowballs and really hurts a complimentary player. I think Buchanan can be solid offensively. Playing with JJ and Tamin is going to make him a productive player.