Gabe Kalscheur!

[exCYtable]

So where is the love for Kalscheur after last night?

Gather round, children, as I relay the story of the kid from Edina, Minnesota...

Minnesota fans wanted him gone while he was there and said "good riddance" when he left. Now "single" again, he wasn't courted by the princes of college basketball nationally like his former teammate Marcus Carr, and he instead settled down with the next-closest P6 team to Minneapolis in Ames to work with a new head coach with nothing but hope to sell and a couple of assistants from the Missouri Valley Conference.

His first season in Ames was successful but not radiant. He seemed quiet most of the time and deferred to Brockington and Hunter to lead the offense and team. He settled into the role of doing yeoman's work as a defensive stopper, didn't make many flashy plays, and occasionally had scoring outbursts. He seemed to pick up where he left off early this season coming off the bench and deferring to the other guards.

But something in him changed about a month ago. Something snapped. It's like he saw his family murdered in front of him and, in response, he went off to a remote monastery to meditate, work out, and practice basketball for a decade before coming back as the biggest badass in all of college basketball. There's a palpable "**** you" attitude about him and the way he's playing that just wasn't there in previous seasons.

He's turned from a tertiary guard known for playing defense and missing shots into Klay Thompson. He's the best player and the lead guard of the #9 team on Torvik and #11 team on KenPom. He's making a case for first-team all-Big 12 and CPOTY as the best two-way guard in the conference if not the country.

He's proving it on the court with his play. He spent all night last night outplaying Carr and Hunter, the two former teammates who left him behind as not good enough for the bright lights of Austin and the big bucks of Texas oilmen. He outscored both of them (and every other Longhorn) and beat the stuffing out of them on defense, holding Carr to 11 on net -3.1 points and Hunter to 10 on net -3.3 points.

And the best part was he did this with swagger and confidence, running his mouth all night long up and down the court with both of them. Kalscheur and the Cyclones got into Texas' head, and while Grill had the highlight telling Texas' bench to call a timeout, Kalscheur was singing the same songs.

He might come back down to Earth, sure, but even then we should admire the month he's had and the kind of season he's produced. Half the games of this season have been played. This isn't an illusion or a fluke. This Iowa State team is really good, and Kalscheur is one of the main reasons for it.

T.J. said in post game with John and Eric that he thought Gabe is not only All-Conference right now, but should be in the mix for Conference Player of the Year. And I agree. There's nobody more valuable to their team in this conference right now when you consider what he does on both offense and defense combined, guarding the best players in the league night in and night out.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

TJ is maybe the best motivator I've ever witnessed. You can tell this team takes it up a notch at conference. TJ picks his Alpha and works him hard and prepares him for this phase. Gabe is embracibg it like Brockington last year and he is flourishing. TJ took the best part of Hoiball and made it better, the ability to put untouchable earned confidence in your players.

 

[Cyclonepride]

T.J. said in post game with John and Eric that he thought Gabe is not only All-Conference right now, but should be in the mix for Conference Player of the Year. And I agree. There's nobody more valuable to their team in this conference right now when you consider what he does on both offense and defense combined, guarding the best players in the league night in and night out.

He's a huge player for us even when the shots aren't falling for him. Not many teams have a guy who has the ability to basically erase the other team's best player (or hottest player). I was incredibly impressed that he was able to still defend the way he did after picking up foul #2 with a lot of time left in the first half.

 

[BeTheCyclone]

Gabe has become one of my favorite Cyclones current and past. Both on and off the court. Great leader and person.

 

[CyLyte2]

Two things happened for Gabe. 1)He’s possessed by senior urgency. It’s kind of like when pro athletes are in a contract year 2)He doesn’t seem to be worried about failure anymore. He’s reached the point that he wants the ball far more than he’s worried about missing the shot. He’s reached “the zone”.

 

[cdface]

Gabe has turned into a scoring machine in conference. Something clicked, whatever it was.

100% this. I don't know what has changed, but when I heard he was coming back this year I had mixed feelings. With the way that things have played out, especially over the conference slate so far, it's an incredible offensive turnaround IMHO. while there's a lot of shared responsibility at this point, i don't think there's a single more important piece to our team right now, and i'm here for it!

 

[ISUKyro]

Someone posted his shooting % for each year. He had gone down every year since his freshman year.
Not sure where he is at now, but wow! What a redemption year for Gabe!

 

[NENick]

I've been of the opinion that a strength of this team is that THE guy on any night can be any of 5-6 guys. But this current string of games Gabe has put together has been consistent top dog stuff. He's having a great senior season.

 

[VeloClone]

100% this. I don't know what has changed, but when I heard he was coming back this year I had mixed feelings. With the way that things have played out, especially over the conference slate so far, it's an incredible offensive turnaround IMHO. while there's a lot of shared responsibility at this point, i don't think there's a single more important piece to our team right now, and i'm here for it!

I think the big difference is he has decided that he is a scorer not a shooter. He takes it to the hole, he takes his defender for a few steps and shoots the midrange. All of that means that he sees the ball go in the hoop. That does wonders for a guy's confidence rather than finally seeing your sixth three pointer go in. When you have already made two or three shots before you attempt your first three that hoop doesn't look like a thimble but rather looks like a barrel.

He is on such a high now that his first shot doesn't matter, but I think that is how he got himself here.

 

[Jayshellberg]

T.J. said in post game with John and Eric that he thought Gabe is not only All-Conference right now, but should be in the mix for Conference Player of the Year. And I agree. There's nobody more valuable to their team in this conference right now when you consider what he does on both offense and defense combined, guarding the best players in the league night in and night out.

If the voting was today, there is no doubt in my mind Gabe would be first-team all conference.

 

[NATEizKING]

That was the first conference game Carr didn't have double digit shot attempts despite seemingly having the ball in his hands for 15 of the 40 minutes.

All the talk about Grill and Gabe not being on the same nights - Grill is 42% from 3 in conference and Gabe 46%.