Is ISU a Cinderella?
- Thread starter NorthCyd
- Start date
Yes and no. By the way sports media looks at Cinderellas, sure. But everything about this season suggested we were capable of this type of run. Not that it was assured by any means, and certainly we could just as easily have been one-and-done.
We are what we've always been: a team with a reasonably high ceiling when it plays at its best, and a very low floor when it plays at its worst. We've seen both in stretches. I can't count the number of times this season I've said to myself, "we could win tonight or lose by 20."
But we got a good draw in terms of matchups and played our game, so here we are.
I suspect there will be an early wave of "Cinderella" coverage and then as people dig into analytics and pay closer attention to what we've done (undefeated non-con, beating Texas Tech, should have won in Lawrence) there will be another wave of coverage about how this team is merely doing what it was capable of all along.
We are what we've always been: a team with a reasonably high ceiling when it plays at its best, and a very low floor when it plays at its worst. We've seen both in stretches. I can't count the number of times this season I've said to myself, "we could win tonight or lose by 20."
But we got a good draw in terms of matchups and played our game, so here we are.
I suspect there will be an early wave of "Cinderella" coverage and then as people dig into analytics and pay closer attention to what we've done (undefeated non-con, beating Texas Tech, should have won in Lawrence) there will be another wave of coverage about how this team is merely doing what it was capable of all along.
We were what, 4 point dogs to LSU and a couple to Wisconsin? We were at one point ranked in the Top 10 this year.
I don't see us as a Cinderella. I see us as a good team that had a few rough stretches in an impossibly hard conference that effected our seed.
I don't see us as a Cinderella. I see us as a good team that had a few rough stretches in an impossibly hard conference that effected our seed.
Agree.
According to the Matrix, Iowa State was the committee's biggest seeding miss in the tourney. Some claim the geographic trade-off, but a miss nonetheless.
Hollywood movie with a cartoon matchup coming up. The brains at Warner bros, Disney, and Hanna-Barbera couldn't dream up a game in the windy city with the cyclones playing the hurricanes whose leading scorer is McGusty. McGusty the villain vanquished by Tyrese the hunter
Cinderella, yes, but to an extent. St. Peter's will be the talk of the town until they lose.
Is it a curse or a blessing that I laugh at sophomoric humor 100% of the time.
ISUMensBB games this year are Less like a Cinderella More like the Blues Brothers driving into and through that suburb Chigaco shopping mall.
They are the very essence of March Madness.
They are the very essence of March Madness.
1) Because of our conference and # of quad 1 wins: No
2) Because we won 2 freakin games last year: Yes
2) Because we won 2 freakin games last year: Yes
Not a Cinderella.
But this year’s team is a great story.
New coach comes in, loses all 5 starters, retains only 3 backup players (Conditt, Walker, Jackson) who combined played less than 25% of total minute share in the 2020-2021 season, and TJ Otz gets to work right away.
TJ retains Tyrese Hunter, recruits a bunch of solid players who are willing to play tough D from various low P6/mid major/low major programs/bench that were NOWHERE near the top of any “hot transfers list”: (Robert Jones from Denver, Brockington from PSU, Grill from UNLV, Kunc from WSU, Kalscheur from Minnesota, Enaruna on the bench @ KU).
This randomly assembled crew of junkyard bulldogs proceeds to go undefeated in non-con, win 7 conference games in the top conference after going 0-18 the year before, and make the Sweet 16 beating both the B10 champion in their home state, B10 tourney champion by 20 in the regular season, and a 6 seed in LSU. Also worth mentioning they have won 11 Q1 games.
They are defined by a blue collar defensive minded mentality which has resulted in a top 5 defense in CBB…basically the opposite of Prohm and Hoiberg ball and something we haven’t seen in decades.
There’s going to be some haters who say TJ Otz got lucky or whatever, but this is the very opposite of luck. You don’t make the Sweet 16 by luck with 3 returning bench players, what an outsider would call a random crew of transfers, and having one of ISU’s highest ranked recruits ever be kicked off the team right before the season starts. TJ deserves all the credit and more and the players deserve praise for buying into a shared goal when others quit.
But this year’s team is a great story.
New coach comes in, loses all 5 starters, retains only 3 backup players (Conditt, Walker, Jackson) who combined played less than 25% of total minute share in the 2020-2021 season, and TJ Otz gets to work right away.
TJ retains Tyrese Hunter, recruits a bunch of solid players who are willing to play tough D from various low P6/mid major/low major programs/bench that were NOWHERE near the top of any “hot transfers list”: (Robert Jones from Denver, Brockington from PSU, Grill from UNLV, Kunc from WSU, Kalscheur from Minnesota, Enaruna on the bench @ KU).
This randomly assembled crew of junkyard bulldogs proceeds to go undefeated in non-con, win 7 conference games in the top conference after going 0-18 the year before, and make the Sweet 16 beating both the B10 champion in their home state, B10 tourney champion by 20 in the regular season, and a 6 seed in LSU. Also worth mentioning they have won 11 Q1 games.
They are defined by a blue collar defensive minded mentality which has resulted in a top 5 defense in CBB…basically the opposite of Prohm and Hoiberg ball and something we haven’t seen in decades.
There’s going to be some haters who say TJ Otz got lucky or whatever, but this is the very opposite of luck. You don’t make the Sweet 16 by luck with 3 returning bench players, what an outsider would call a random crew of transfers, and having one of ISU’s highest ranked recruits ever be kicked off the team right before the season starts. TJ deserves all the credit and more and the players deserve praise for buying into a shared goal when others quit.
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Can you consider a team that was ranked in the top 10 at one point in the season a Cinderella? I get we didn’t deserve that ranking but still a top 25 team at the time.
Win two more games and we are probably a “Cinderella”
Win two more games and we are probably a “Cinderella”
