This team really had the toughness factor and I loved it.
Hell of a season
- Thread starter ChickenNuggetMan
- Start date
Proud of our Cyclones! Great season, and even greater seasons yet to come!
I'm obviously heartbroken by tonight's close loss. But it was an amazing season overall. I'll take 2nd place regular season finishes, Big 12 Tournament Championships, and Sweet 16's every damn season. I've seen so much worse. And with the trajectory we're on, we'll eventually break through to the Final 4.
Which reminds me. DONATE TO WE WILL. I'm going to donate again right now.
Which reminds me. DONATE TO WE WILL. I'm going to donate again right now.
For as poorly as we played in the first half I just checked Trank.com (BartTorvik) and we still graded out at an 89; still pretty damn good, although it did break a 5-game long streak of our game scores being above 95. Say what you will about Brad Underwood, but the dude can flat out coach when it comes to offense, especially when he has a player like Shannon.
And seriously; we need to stop the G*d damn silly of insisting the Big Ten sucks and is a terrible conference simply because we hate them and want to firebomb Carver-Hawkeye Arena! Give credit where it's due; Illinois is f*cking good. So are we, but they were just a little better tonight.
I'm as disappointed as anyone else about tonight, but also trying to keep things in perspective. Going into the season I thought we would be a fringe tourney team. TJ once again proved he's one of the best coaches in the country to accomplish the things they did this year. Winning 29 games, another Big 12 tourney and getting to the Sweet 16 is one of the most successful seasons ever for ISU MBB. And to be honest, we played better as a team than many others with more individual talent.
The best way to make a deep run in the tournament is to keep making the tournament. And I have no doubt TJ will continue to improve the talent on this team and consistently get us into the dance every year. It was a great season no matter how tonight ended.
The best way to make a deep run in the tournament is to keep making the tournament. And I have no doubt TJ will continue to improve the talent on this team and consistently get us into the dance every year. It was a great season no matter how tonight ended.
Proud of all our guys, but proud of Curtis Jones. What an addition he was for us this season.
The center from Charlotte will help and Mitchell. Hopefully the freshman jitters wear off and we get a tough rack player who will dunk instead of finger roll. Front line has no offense and that needs correction . TJ will get it done
I forgot to mention the other game that was probably one of the hardest for me to get over: The Cameron Dollar game. Older Cyclone fans know what I am talking about.
This team worked so hard and improved so much over the year. They worked hard and well together. Big Rob grew into a bigger force than I ever imagined that he could. Tre King deserved two full years and was a load down low. Hassan, basically lost a year because he was forced to start late, but made the most of his last year with a lot of highlight dunks.
The guards were a great group of disrupters and Milan has a very high ceiling.
I don't think we can even begin to underestimate the extent of Lipsey's shoulder injury and how much it limited him. He gutted it out through so many games this year after it would get tweaked in game after game.
The guards were a great group of disrupters and Milan has a very high ceiling.
I don't think we can even begin to underestimate the extent of Lipsey's shoulder injury and how much it limited him. He gutted it out through so many games this year after it would get tweaked in game after game.
Illinois is good. Purdue is good. And the Big 10 sucks. All can be true.
I will add - since 2014, Iowa State has made 4 Sweet Sixteens. Only 18 schools have done that (including Iowa State). Only 9 have more than 4 Sweet Sixteens since 2014. And Kansas has the same number of Sweet Sixteens as Iowa State in that timeframe.
And don't forget that Iowa has zero Sweet Sixteens this millenium. 97 schools have been to the Sweet Sixteen since their last appearance.
Did Jacy Holloway ever find his way out of the stands after that push off?
IMO both of those teams would finish in the top half of the Big 12, probably in the top 4 or 5 at the very least.
I think the Big 12 is deeper than the Big 10 at the middle and bottom tiers of the conference. But, unfortunately we're not playing Rutgers or Maryland in the Sweet 16.
Big 12 was very deep, but outside of maybe Houston nobody was elite.
Gotta keep knocking on the door. Tournament is too much of a coin flip, have to keep giving yourself chances.
It was such a great season. A close loss in the sweet 16 doesn't tarnish that for me. We won a hell of a lot of games. We improved a lot from last year. We had a group of guys that I am so proud of. The way they battled and never gave up, were full of grit and toughness. I am not sure I could love a team more than this year. They played together, were unselfish, obviously were coachable. TJ did a great job, and it looks like next year might be even better. Can't WAIT until Nov 2024 to see this team play again.
