Is Next Year’s Team Honestly Going To Be Any Good?

[CyDude16]

I am just preparing the fan base for the Prohm Era. Years of mediocrity is awaiting the fan base......

Can we ban this guy and all his alternate accounts? Sad that we have mods that will quickly pull a trigger if you call someone an idiot, which is pg, and not ban others who clearly break site rules in worse instances of having alt accounts and spamming.

 

[Chitowncy]

My thoughts are we won’t be a contender in the league, but will be closer to the level of what we were the past 6 years. I’d say like a 10-8 type season in conference with a couple losses early in Maui as well.

I think this seems about right, but I would put the over-under on 10.5 conference wins if I had to play bookie right now. I could also see next year's team only winning 8 conference games and being a nervous bubble team on selection sunday, but I think the more reasonable expectation is a 10, 11 or 12 win conference team. They'll have the talent to be there.

Confidence is everything though with young college kids. Losing is tough and hopefully there aren't too many fans out there posting on social media and challenging these kids through twitter, etc. We're all Cyclones and I just hope some of you worriers realize that it is natural to go through ups and downs.

 

[nfrine]

I eagerly await the rest of this season and next.

Rulzz already does that for every game.

We lost at TT because Rulzz was late starting the thread.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Now you sound drunk... or maybe I'm there.

We're ranked poor on defense this year, compared to 2001 or basically any year, because the players are insanely inexperienced. You know these stats, but I'll point them out. Solo, only returning player with any starts... and he had like 12. Two best players are freshmen, one of which hadn't played a real game in two years. The other two starters were role players last season.

Hopefully more time together, and learning from experience, gets them to a point where they can be respectable.

But it isn’t 2001, so we’ll never be good on defense, right?

 

[chuckd4735]

I don't think we will be contending for a Big 12 title next season, but we shouldn't be in the cellar like this season either. 10-8 or 11-7 sounds about right.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I've watched Cyclone basketball (and college basketball) avidly for 35 years. I do not remember a team with less returning experience than this year's team (maybe one of Floyd's teams?). Even Fred's first team had DG to rely on. I'll just assume that the OP and others don't have that kind of experience and context from which to realistically assess the performance of this team.

I've watched teams that suffer from a lack of talent. Clearly this team does not.

I've watched teams that are poorly coached. Clearly this team is not.

I've watched teams that lack effort. Clearly this team does not.

We lack experience in a massive way. That much should be clear to almost anyone. We play in a league that is historically good in ability, top to bottom. We lack the flexibility to play different styles.

To realistically expect more from this team than it has given us, we would have had to go through the season relatively injury-free (we've been plagued with them) and we would have had to have pretty much everyone play beyond realistic expectations.

Next year's team has huge building blocks with Weiler-Babb, Young, Lard and Wigginton (we did not have even one guy this year with the level of experience that any one of them will have had). Long and Lewis will have minutes under their belts (edit to add Talley with a high major year under his belt). Shayok and Jacobson bring high major starting experience as well. Add the best freshman class since the early 90's and I think we will improve in a huge way.

 

[knowlesjam]

I've watched Cyclone basketball (and college basketball) avidly for 35 years. I do not remember a team with less returning experience than this year's team (maybe one of Floyd's teams?). Even Fred's first team had DG to rely on. I'll just assume that the OP and others don't have that kind of experience and context from which to realistically assess the performance of this team.

I've watched teams that suffer from a lack of talent. Clearly this team does not.

I've watched teams that are poorly coached. Clearly this team is not.

I've watched teams that lack effort. Clearly this team does not.

We lack experience in a massive way. That much should be clear to almost anyone. We play in a league that is historically good in ability, top to bottom. We lack the flexibility to play different styles.

To realistically expect more from this team than it has given us, we would have had to go through the season relatively injury-free (we've been plagued with them) and we would have had to have pretty much everyone play beyond realistic expectations.

Next year's team has huge building blocks with Weiler-Babb, Young, Lard and Wigginton (we did not have even one guy this year with the level of experience that any one of them will have had). Long and Lewis will have minutes under their belts. Shayok and Jacobson bring high major starting experience as well. Add the best freshman class since the early 90's and I think we will improve in a huge way.

You see glimpses of what they can do at times during the games...last night there were several times when the defense was very good and the offense clicked. Unfortunately, the team also can completely forget how to play defense and is inept on the half court set. They looked tired at the end of the game last night...too many players in there that didn't have a lot of game experience playing together. They will get better...

 

[madguy30]

He said it’s risky to rely on freshman for depth. He’s right.
Naz wasn’t a freshman. Thomas was, but again, it needed having one of the greatest trios in our history to do so. That doesn’t exactly refute risk.

Do you just wake up every day and have a shot of yourself before you go to work? Lots of selfies and what not? Good lord.

I'm fully aware that playing/relying on freshman is risky. I'm also fully aware that ISU had 3 good experienced players to help pull the freshman along, along with a sophomore like Naz who had limited experience.

The point still stands that it has worked out to play freshman if needed, so perhaps next year could have some good things if it works out. Maybe it won't. Life will go on...for most of us.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Do you just wake up every day and have a shot of yourself before you go to work? Lots of selfies and what not? Good lord.

I'm fully aware that playing/relying on freshman is risky. I'm also fully aware that ISU had 3 good experienced players to help pull the freshman along, along with a sophomore like Naz who had limited experience.

The point still stands that it has worked out to play freshman if needed, so perhaps next year could have some good things if it works out. Maybe it won't. Life will go on...for most of us.

We could have 25 wins next year, and certain posters will come out of the woodwork to criticize the team on the 7 or 8 losses. Agendas.

 

[VeloClone]

Working on it. Haha.

Defense doesn't win championships like it did 15 years ago. Give me five athletic guys, with length, and I'll take my chances on them playing just good enough defense.

Do you think Chris Beard is some defensive genius? He has athletes with length, and slows the game down. I will say, he does a good job of getting them to play team defense, but I'm thinking Prohm can too once guys like Wigginton and Lard have more experience.

Beard is Thuggins light. He doesn't generally press full court but he has his guys play physical defense and wears teams down and tries to out depth them when the fouls start to add up. When you only have 8 guys dressed you have very little chance against that tactic. Did anyone notice the hockey line changes he employed a few times?

 

[intrepid27]

We will be fine next year due to many reasons listed above.

That being said............ did we break a conference record last night for committing the most "And 1" fouls in a game?

 

[VeloClone]

I freely admit I am not worthy to dust @GTO 's keyboard but in his absence...

 

[acgclone]

The line between the 5-6th place team and 9-10th is really not that big in a balanced league like the B12.

Our two best players are freshmen. I think we add more with Shayok/Jacobson than we lose with DJ/Brase/Beverly.

The wild card is how much we get out of THT and the other freshmen. If THT can contribute as much as Lard/Wigginton this year, we should be a tourney team.

 

[cb1030]

Is the OP going to miss Jackson getting rejected 100% of the time he takes anything other than a three? Yet still he does it three times a game? Sorry...end rant.

 

[CYVADER]

How are you going to get tix, unless you're a big donor?

i got tickets and i'm not a big donor. they are for sale for non donors right now.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

I don't honestly know if we will be good next year again - I hope that we will and I think that we will. But I'm an ISU guy for a LONG time and I'm going to sit back and enjoy watching these guys represent our school and our BB program.

When I see a list of likely players for next year, it certainly makes me optimistic.

 

[Cyclonepride]

You see glimpses of what they can do at times during the games...last night there were several times when the defense was very good and the offense clicked. Unfortunately, the team also can completely forget how to play defense and is inept on the half court set. They looked tired at the end of the game last night...too many players in there that didn't have a lot of game experience playing together. They will get better...

I wouldn't say forgot to play defense. TT runs constant motion. Guys get lost, hung up on screens, out of position. It happens. Sometimes due to fatigue. On offense, give TT some credit there too. Also, we are limited in what we can do with our lack of outside shooters. Just a tough opponent for a short handed team to have to play.

 

[rochclone]

I've watched Cyclone basketball (and college basketball) avidly for 35 years. I do not remember a team with less returning experience than this year's team (maybe one of Floyd's teams?). Even Fred's first team had DG to rely on. I'll just assume that the OP and others don't have that kind of experience and context from which to realistically assess the performance of this team.

I've watched teams that suffer from a lack of talent. Clearly this team does not.

I've watched teams that are poorly coached. Clearly this team is not.

I've watched teams that lack effort. Clearly this team does not.

We lack experience in a massive way. That much should be clear to almost anyone. We play in a league that is historically good in ability, top to bottom. We lack the flexibility to play different styles.

To realistically expect more from this team than it has given us, we would have had to go through the season relatively injury-free (we've been plagued with them) and we would have had to have pretty much everyone play beyond realistic expectations.

Next year's team has huge building blocks with Weiler-Babb, Young, Lard and Wigginton (we did not have even one guy this year with the level of experience that any one of them will have had). Long and Lewis will have minutes under their belts. Shayok and Jacobson bring high major starting experience as well. Add the best freshman class since the early 90's and I think we will improve in a huge way.

I think talent is an issue for this team. Not talent at the top of the roster but talent in the middle of the roster. We have four to five guys that would log meaningful minutes on a NCAA tournament team.

As for agendas, there will always be people that criticize the head coach and players because they are juvenile. There are others that bring up legitimate concerns and questions. There are others that emphasize the positives while acknowledging the concerns. And there are many that will defend a coach no matter the context. Both parties at the extremes have agendas and the two groups in the middle can have a meaningful basketball discussion.

 

[CycloneVet]

I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy season, but it’s become a disaster very quickly. We have two games where we look like world beaters then go back to looking like scrubs against Baylor and Texas Tech tonight. This brings me to my ultimate question: is ISU really good to be as good as everyone thinks next season? Sure, we get Shayok, but we lose Jackson and most of our lineup next season is going to consist of the same guys that can’t put together any sort of consistent string of games. Our players don’t seem to be making any strides during this season, and, if anything, we are looking worse as the season goes on. We have no bench, guys like Lewis seem like they won’t contribute at all. I’m starting to lose optimism in this team, especially for next season. If we are going to be good then guys like Zion Griffin and THT are going to have to be world beaters from day one. These guys can’t put together a solid 40 minutes anymore and it is beyond frustrating watching our guys play. What are everyone else’s thoughts on next season? I hope I’m wrong, I just don’t see us being any decent.

Shut up

 

[CycloneVet]

When @GTO gets unbanned I hope he comes in and JFC’s this **** post.

Why did GOT get banned?