Get ready for an ugly frustrating game

[cycloneworld]

Call it overconfidence if you want. I call it a pretty proven confidence in a team that's already beaten better teams than UNI.

If we go a season without losing to a team that isn't as good as us, it will be a miracle (very, very few teams ever do). That combined with UNI's style that has given us fits lately, I don't see this game as a gimme. Should we win? Yes. Will we? We'll find out.

 

[Rural]

I can't wait for Fran to get fired and this Big 4 nonsense will go away.

 

[CycloneErik]

If we go a season without losing to a team that isn't as good as us, it will be a miracle (very, very few teams ever do). That combined with UNI's style that has given us fits lately, I don't see this game as a gimme. Should we win? Yes. Will we? We'll find out.

I'm fully aware that nobody goes undefeated. That said, expecting a win as the better team shouldn't be something to warn against or complain about.

 

[iowast8fan]

We should expect to beat UNI this year. They don't have the same type of team they had in the past. We deserve to have a melt down if we lose to UNI this year.

Here are some rankings from ESPN for our team, UNI, and the teams UNI lost to:

Team PPG RGP APG FG%
ISU 4th 5th 3rd 32nd
UNI 186 223 142 212
Ohio 154 136 115 129
GMU 299 222 318 182
Mrylnd 175 56 111 123

They haven't played a team close to our caliber, and they have lost to some very average teams.

 

[MNCyGuy]

There will be devastation, weeping, wailing, and teeth will be gnashed.
It will stink to wear purple on Saturday.

Just so they know, it's just business. Get in the way of a Cyclone, expect to be destroyed.

Truly what would be best on Saturday would be to crush the Panthers, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their education major women.

 

[CyTwins]

Brent Blum ‏@brentblum11h
Missouri and Northern Iowa are the only teams Fred Hoiberg has coached against multiple times and not defeated.

 

[CYCLNST8]

Time to get this monkey off Fred's back.

And beat the **** out of it.

 

[rholtgraves]

UNI is bad. Period. A loss to them would be a really bad loss. It's not going to happen

 

[brokenloginagain]

i fully expect bohannon to make at least 5 threes from 23 feet.

 

[mcblogerson]

Just like my stock prospectus says: Past performance is not indicative of future results.

UNI will slow it down, play tough D and make some shots you don't expect them too. I have a hunch it'll be one of those touch foul free throw shooting contests. I doubt UNI can stay with them the whole game, 10-15 point win mostly built in the 2nd half. If it gets close in crunch time we go to the well and iso Kane or Niang and let them beat their man.

 

[LLCoolCY]

Brent Blum ‏@brentblum11h
Missouri and Northern Iowa are the only teams Fred Hoiberg has coached against multiple times and not defeated.

Though to be fair both Missou and Purple Panthers decided to skip playing Fred the past last year or this stat would already be debunked.

Still schedule time for the Big 12 to select Missouri as ISU's SEC Challenge opponent next year. Then we can get rid of that stat within 12 months. Fred shouldn't have any blemishes on his resume. :skeptical:

 

[CTTB78]

It will be a Cyclone beatdown vs. UNI. The guy that always held us back in this game is coaching Omaha.


Cyclones 80 UNI 66

 

[Stormin]

I expect UNI to play hard but go down to the Clones. DeAndre Kane creates all sorts of matchup problems for every team we play. I love that Hogue had a great game when Niang played not so well. This team has such great chemistry and feeds it to the hot hand and has a lot of different weapons. And even when players are not shooting well they do other things to help the team and contribute. Fun team to watch and I actually expect us to play well and have a shot at winning against every team we play. Ultimate team with us developing depth going to 10 deep. I like it.

 

[Clonefan94]

Those of you who are so damn confident about this game are going to be the ones posting ridiculous melt down posts when we lose this game.

Fred Hoiberg has never beat UNI. Let that sink in. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't witnessed it.

Until we actually beat UNI, I won't expect it. For whatever reason, we blow at this game.

If we lose this game, it deserves a meltdown, no matter what anyone thought going in. We are ranked in the top 20 and undefeated. UNI is 3-3. If we do lose, it's definitely not the end of the season, but it will take all of the accolades we've had recently and put a big giant **** over all of them. And this will end up being a bad loss on our resume later in the season.

I don't play the game, so what I think really doesn't matter at all. I do know what I've seen of our team so far and if they let UNI even hang close in this game, it's a **** performance on ISU's part, not how well UNI can play. Personally, I'm going to take the glass half full approach to this season. I'm not going to fall to the classic ISU mantra of, "Well, we're ISU, anything can happen. I'm saying we come out and punch them in the face. This ISU team seems pretty resilient. They have shown they come out to play, so for now, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and be positive about this game.

 

[Thomasrickj]

It's so annoying that people constantly think we are going to lose or not gel early because of previous seasons. Fred hasn't beat UNI yet, but that doesn't mean he has to lose again this season. People are so negative and for no reason. The way to beat a slow, half-court team, is to run fast on our end and tire them out. Teams like UNI are a half court team and can't keep up if we are gunning while on offense. If we get aggressive on D, run up and down the floor quickly, then we should be able to beat them soundly. I'm not terribly worried about these guys and think we can pull this win off by 15 points.

 

[BryceC]

Zero excuses this year for losing to uni. I'll settle for a win of any kind but Fred and the players should take some heat if they lose this one.

 

[cycloneworld]

Though to be fair both Missou and Purple Panthers decided to skip playing Fred the past last year or this stat would already be debunked.

Ummm, it was the other way around. We said we didn't want to play UNI at their place anymore.

 

[inCyteful]

i fully expect bohannon to make at least 5 threes from 23 feet.

I'll take Matt Thomas v Bohannon in a 3 shoot out. I would take Naz Long v. Bohannon in a 3 shoot out.

I think I know where you were heading - UNI always has someone shooting lights out against us. They will this year too. Didn't do Auburn much good though, their stud had 27 pts to lead all scorers.

 

[bawbie]

UNI's adjusted Tempo (per kenpom.com) is 4.5 possessions per game higher this year than last (67.5 vs 63.0)

Ours is 6 possessions per game higher (75.4 vs 69.3)

Sample size plays some factor in that, as I think ours comes down during conference play. But I don't think this will be your normal UNI slow it down game. It'll be a little faster than that, and we may have more luck than usual dictating the tempo against them.

 

[MNCyGuy]

Ummm, it was the other way around. We said we didn't want to play UNI at their place anymore.

Didn't we still offer them 2 for 1 before the Big 4 event materialized?