Expectations for 2018-2019

[ForeverIowan]

Let's say we start Babb, Wigginton, Shayok, Lard and Young next year...When is the last time we had a better bench than Horton-Tucker (fringe 5 star recruit), Talley and Jacobsen?

That is the difference. We can go 8-9 deep next year without skipping a beat.

Would not be surprised if THT ends up being an absolute stud and we go to a 4 guard starting lineup.

 

[gocubs2118]

I really wish Maui was the latter part of the non-conference. We could play lights out, still take 3 Ls and be confident about where the season is headed. Who knows what Arizona will look like now but that field is loaded. If we could take one or two games that week, it could be a huge building block for the rest of the season.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

THT doesn't have a hole in the roster to fill like Wigginton, but he's going to be just a good. Slightly less athletic, much more skilled Nader. Ice in his veins and not scared of the competition. Hopefully the transition to Ames is smooth.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

Top 2-4 in the conference. 3-6 seed in the tournament.

Listen, Kansas will be a top ten caliber of team yet again. Until KU gets knocked off you have to assume they win the conference. After that, who hands down has more talent than Iowa State next year? No reason why we can't challenge for top 3 in the conference.

West Virginia loses Carter and Miles
OU will lose Young and Lattin
Texas loses Bamba
TTech loses Evans, Gray and Smith
TCU loses Brodz and Williams

Shayok from all reports has a chance to be our best all around player next year. Horton-Tucker is a big time recruit. I don't think he will put up similar numbers as Wigginton this year simply because he won't need to.

As of right now you can pencil in a rotation of Babb, Wigginton, Shayok, Lard, Young, THT, Talley, Jacobsen.

Gray is still at Tech, he is a freshman who plays like a senior. Still a good point, though.

 

[NWICY]

Tourney for me. Being way to optimistic early in the season I was hoping to sneak into the tourney and keep the streak alive. As inexperience reared it's head and injuries mounted I realized that wasn't going to happen. Nice thing was other than a few clunkers I thought this team continued to play hard and tried to learn through out the season.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Gray is still at Tech, he is a freshman who plays like a senior. Still a good point, though.

Justin Gray is a senior.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I just go from the top to the bottom of the roster and scholarship chart...

Weiler-Babb + healthy and a senior leader in his fourth year in the program
Wigginton + a year of experience, sophomore leap
Shayok = Jackson but a more rounded player
Young = a junior, where you really expect dividends of a developmental post
Lard + a year of experience, sophomore leap

THT = 97% (and still climbing) on 24-7 when Lindell was a 98%
Talley + healthy and a year of experience in the Big 12
Jacobson = Beverly/Brase only a legitimate P6 player and healthy

Just looking at those comparisons alone calls for a lot of improvement.

I think Lewis will still turn out a good player for us. He can shoot. Not a great freshman year, but he seems like a good kid who will still work out for us.

Griffin may surprise, too, given his athletic abilities.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

Justin Gray is a senior.

My bad, I'm a dumb dumb.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Our depth will be a big plus and we’ll be as good as some of our best teams player 3 or 4 to 10, but I don’t know if our top-2 or 3 will be at the level of Fizer/JT, White, Georges, Kane, (senior) Ejim, Morris, etc.

A recent comparison is the 2012-13 team. Lucious, Babb, Clyburn, freshman Georges, Ejim, Booker, McGee, and Gibson. The big difference is that team had positional mismatch in Georges, and Ejim structurally added value past his overall talent. If we wanted, we could match that with NWB, Wigginton, THT, Shayok, and Talley. Next year should be better on defense, too.

Imo the biggest needs are improvement on defense and for our highest usage guys not named Lard to be more efficient.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Our depth will be a big plus and we’ll be as good as some of our best teams player 3 or 4 to 10, but I don’t know if our top-2 or 3 will be at the level of Fizer/JT, White, Georges, Kane, (senior) Ejim, Morris, etc.

A recent comparison is the 2012-13 team. Lucious, Babb, Clyburn, freshman Georges, Ejim, Booker, McGee, and Gibson. The big difference is that team had positional mismatch in Georges, and Ejim structurally added value past his overall talent. If we wanted, we could match that with NWB, Wigginton, THT, Shayok, and Talley. Next year should be better on defense, too.

Imo the biggest needs are improvement on defense and for our highest usage guys not named Lard to be more efficient.

Good comparison. One more thing I want to add to that...

Good teams have identities. That team had beautiful ball movement, epitomized position-less basketball before it was cool, and shot the three very well.

Last year's team was known for its experience, crack outside shooting, deadliness on the break, and for having a ball-hawking defense with good perimeter defenders who put up a passable defense despite having no rim protection behind them.

(Can you imagine how well this year's Lard would have fit in last year? But I digress...)

If next year's team is going to be any good, it has to be known for something. It has to have a style or identity that you can describe as to why it wins games.

What is that going to be?

 

[FinalFourCy]

Good comparison. One more thing I want to add to that...

Good teams have identities. That team had beautiful ball movement, epitomized position-less basketball before it was cool, and shot the three very well.

Last year's team was known for its experience, crack outside shooting, deadliness on the break, and for having a ball-hawking defense with good perimeter defenders who put up a passable defense despite having no rim protection behind them.

(Can you imagine how well this year's Lard would have fit in last year? But I digress...)

If next year's team is going to be any good, it has to be known for something. It has to have a style or identity that you can describe as to why it wins games.

What is that going to be?

I very much agree on the need for an identity. What aspect of the game are we going to dictate and that we’re going to make the opposition deal with?

The talent of the first 7 or 8 may be similar to 2012-13, but the style of play could be 2013-14. We talk about shooting being an issue. Checkout the shooting numbers for 2013-14 below. I don’t think Prohm will/can do it, but if we went small...

 

[cyups2323]

We will have a 3 game lead in the conference over kansas with 4 games to play. A phone call to dallas will be placed and kansas will shoot 175 free throws in 2 weeks to win their 15th title in a row.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I very much agree on the need for an identity. What aspect of the game are we going to dictate and that we’re going to make the opposition deal with?

The talent of the first 7 or 8 may be similar to 2012-13, but the style of play could be 2013-14. We talk about shooting being an issue. Checkout the shooting numbers for 2013-14 below. I don’t think Prohm will/can do it, but if we went small...


View attachment 53756

I remember that team's identity mostly being something like...

(1.) Just having three All-Americans. That was all. Three guys who were as good or better than anybody else on the court with them at the same time.

Three guys who were mismatch/invert your offense nightmares. Nobody short of a Joel Embiid or a Malcolm Brogdon could hope to guard any of them.

Most teams could not deal with that.

(2.) Always seemed to pull something out of their *** in close games. Not sure how, why, or why this precocious sophomore keeps hitting big shots, but they did it.

I do not think that any one individual next year is going to be as good as Kane, Ejim, or Niang. Like you said, the distribution of talent will be deeper but flatter.

We would still need to find something else.

 

[SerenityNow]

Better than this year - definitely
19/20 wins and a bubble team - probably
20+ wins and a 5-8 seed - decent chance
24+ wins and a high seed - possible, but not likely

I think how good we'll be will depend how how quickly the team gels, who steps up to be a strong leader, and most importantly that we are much improved on defense.

 

[CyTwins]

We'll make the tourney but those expecting to break the streak are setting themselves up for failure

 

[brokenloginagain]

Need a healthy Babb. That's my biggest concern.

If Babb's healthy, top 3 in Big12 and 4-5 seed in the tourney.

We're going to be really good.

 

[clonedude]

I think we can make the NCAA tourney, and that's all that matters every year IMO. I don't care how many wins we get, where we finish in the conference, how we do in the Big 12 tourney, etc..... just make the NCAA tourney.... that's it. Should be the goal every single year, and I think we have a decent shot at it.

If we didn't have to play in Maui, I'd predict we make the NCAA tourney for sure, but that will be a very tough tourney early on.

 

[Redman97]

Big 12 worst to first. Unlikely, but fun to imagine dethroning Kansas.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Next year’s schedule is brutal. Maui, Missouri, SEC Challenge. We could be significantly better and have a few more non-conference losses. That would put a good amount of pressure on getting a top-5 finish in the Big 12.

 

[allfourcy]

Good comparison. One more thing I want to add to that...

Good teams have identities. That team had beautiful ball movement, epitomized position-less basketball before it was cool, and shot the three very well.

Last year's team was known for its experience, crack outside shooting, deadliness on the break, and for having a ball-hawking defense with good perimeter defenders who put up a passable defense despite having no rim protection behind them.

(Can you imagine how well this year's Lard would have fit in last year? But I digress...)

If next year's team is going to be any good, it has to be known for something. It has to have a style or identity that you can describe as to why it wins games.

What is that going to be?

I think they will win because they'll stay in Holiday Inn Express the night before games