Has anyone considered the fact that Coach K interviewed for the job the same time as Orr? Now I'm not saying that is K would have came here we would be Duke, but its one of those things you wish you could see. It is also unfair to compare GMac to Coach K because of one detail everyone seems to be forgetting....Coach K was a player and Asst. Coach under some guy by the name of Bobby Knight. I don't know if anyone has heard of him, but he is an OK coach. ;D
Also the player defections are hard on any team, but alot of those guys were leaving before GMac got there. I am undecided about the Taggart leaving. I am disappointed because he does have a huge and I mean HUGE upside, but it did not seem like he had the right attitude for ISU basketball. His comments prior to coming and after leaving make me suspect of him as a person. I do agree with discomb... that he was a true freshman and the Big 12 was loaded with some pretty good "Bigs." What bothered me was the fact that he said he was only going to be here one year and then to the NBA, which is fine if he would have competed and done the things it sounded like he could do. I am definately sad to see Degand leave. He came in at 6'0 and is now 6'4, from what I have heard. He also came in a year early and was in college at the age of 17. I had heard reports that he was basically a bigger version of Will.
I would also like to make a comment on the Troy Davis issue. Mac did get lucky to have him, but he also did something that I found very interesting. He knew winning was not going to happen overnight. So he took his biggest, most athletic kids on O or D and put them on the O-Line. He knew that if he could get a 1500+ yd rusher that he could put Iowa State somewhere on the map and start recruiting kids a little bit easier. Also, do not compare Mac to Stoops. We tend to forget that their resumes might be the same prior too, but Stoops also walked into a FOOTBALL SCHOOL. It is a little bit different when you are HS athlete and you get a letter from Oklahoma and a letter from Iowa State....who are you going to be more interested in?? I know it is hard to wait and we want to win now and it feels like we aren't going anywhere, but the rest of the Big 12 is getting alot better and I think we are on the right track. We are starting to get the facilities and the media coverage we weren't getting before. It used to be the only game we could watch on TV was the IOWA-ISU game and that was because is was on Iowa's carrier. We have come a long way in 10 years with alot of situations arising. So please, stop ragging on each other and respect the other viewpoint. At the end of the day, WE ALL SUPPORT THE CYCLONES!