Kylie Feuerbach in transfer portal

[ISU71]

I think it's OK for a regular student to go to their parent's alma mater's rival school. Keith Murphy's wife Jenny is an ISU grad but his son went to Iowa, which servers as a good example.

Fred Hoiberg's daughter Paige went to Kansas and there wasn't much buzz back then.

But a well-known and well-loved student-athlete going to your most hated rival school is a much bigger issue because the player's decision causes great impact on both rival schools and their fanbases. It affects far more people's lives than a regular student does. Maybe I'm old school, I just don't like some of today's student athletes' mentality of putting me first and seeking instant gratification without sacrificing for the greater good of the people and community around them.

I appreciate players like Maddie Wise even more today.

Amen.

 

[IcSyU]

Bluder is a snake...this transfer is not an example of that however.

If Fennelly had a shot to take a Hawkeye that would improve the roster he would be stupid not to.

 

[ISU71]

How about Rae Johnson? She goes from starting last year, to dwindling time this year. There were games she didn't even get in. Yet she kept a good attitude and when called on made a difference in some games. You really have to appreciate that attitude. At least how it looked to me from the cheap seats (and occasionally not so cheap seats).

Again, Amen.

 

[theshadow]

This kumbaya-spare-everyone's-feelings stuff is tiresome.

Don't want to be at Iowa State? Fine. Quit, and go somewhere else. At that point, I have no moral obligation to offer "well wishes" or to "hope for success." I'll save my energy for those who want to be in the Cardinal and Gold.

 

[Tornado man]

Kylie Feuerbach is a great kid who comes from a great Cyclone family. It's been fun watching her this past year. I wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.

Well said. And her family isn't "Hawkeye," - it's "Cyclone." Her dad Steve the veterinarian is as good as they come.
And I would bet my 401k that when they play next season, her parents may want a good performance for Kylie, but they won't be cheering for the Hawks to win - no way.

 

[Psyclone]

A More Sober View of Kylie Feuerbach's Transfer to Iowa
from a Die-Hard Cyclone Fan Who has No Tie to the HawkeyeNation

A further response to @NEICyFan and other posters who share a neutral opinion on this transfer​

The discussion of a single ISU WBB player's transfer news has reached an unprecedented level (17 pages long and counting) and I'd like to touch on a deeper issue which I'm more concerned about.

I believe the negative reactions in this thread are never about her being a bad person. As a matter of fact, she's a good person and we still appreciate what she has done to the ISU WBB program. She does have the right to choose what's best for her basketball career and her life. IMO, the nature of those negative reactions is more about her impact on the CyHawk rivalry.

First of all, I respect all of the posters' opinions whether I agree or disagree, as long as they are rational without personal attacks (including hints of sarcasm or humiliation). I understand if the same issue is viewed from different angles, the opinions could be the opposite. I also understand we come from different backgrounds, but we all share the same thing in this community - the love for the ISU WBB program. I believe the diversity in opinions on this board with healthy discussions can help the forum grow because most of the posters here are well-educated and civilized people.

Regardless of where you come from, if you only root for ISU, or if you root for both ISU and Iowa, this thread wouldn't have reached this level if

1) Kylie decided to transfer to a different school other than Iowa
or
2) ISU was at a completely different competitive level than Iowa (like Baylor vs Texas Tech)

In those two scenarios, her transfer would make little to no impact on both programs. Unfortunately, the reality is her transfer has escalated the rivalry between the two programs that have been on a very similar competitive level for a long time.

If you are a fan who has ties to both schools and would root for both programs to succeed, then you are probably OK with this transfer because it's a win-win situation for you or it's not that big of a deal. But for a fan like me who is a die-hard Cyclone fan (as my username suggests) and has no tie to the Hawkeyes, this is a different animal. I'll try my best to be objective here as a women's basketball fan to explain my point of view.

Although I'm a die-hard CycloneWBB fan, I'm not a HawkeyeWBB hater. My hate for the Hawks is more from the men's sports side. On the contrary, Iowa WBB is a likable program and I can hardly find anything I don't like about them. Their games are fun to watch, to be honest. My bottom line is: I just don't root for their success and would stay neutral mostly when they play non-ISU opponents.

As most posters here would agree, ISU and Iowa are very close in competitive level with a slight difference, just like the relationship of big sister and little sister with a year difference in age. But it's that slight difference that frustrates me because in the past 5 seasons, Iowa is just a little better than ISU in every single year record-wise. I'm just sick and tired of ISU being the second fiddle or "1b" of the State, i.e. the "little sis" for half a decade and counting.

I'll just let the facts talk.

1. Regarding the records

Since the 2016-2017 season,

1) ISU has lost to Iowa 5 games in a roll, even though the scores were very close. Lisa Bluder has never won at Hilton before the period, then did it twice in the past 5 years.

2) Iowa had a better overall record than ISU in every season. Iowa had 20 or more wins in each season while ISU only had one 20+ win season (Bridget Carleton's senior year).

3) Both programs have made the NCAA tournament three times. Iowa had one Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteen, while ISU lost in the Round of 32 twice and hasn't made Sweet Sixteen since 2010.

4) When facing the in-state rival Drake, ISU went 3-2, Iowa went 4-1.
When facing the in-state rival UNI, ISU went 2-1, Iowa went 4-1.

5) ISU has seen two of the program's all-time best players in Bridget Carleton and Ashley Joens in this period, while Iowa raises it with Megan Gustafson, Kathleen Doyle and Caitlin Clark who led Iowa for better records.

2. Regarding the coaching

There are three major aspects to judge how good a coaching staff is.

1) game preparation and in-game coaching
2) recruiting
3) player development

Combine all three, I think Iowa has done a slightly better job than ISU in the past five seasons.

3. Regarding the goal for the near future

Lisa Bluder and Caitlin Clark have both said the goal is to reach the Final Four and compete for the B1G championship in public. While the goal of ISU remains unclear (I have read, watched and listened to every single ISU coach and player's interview that I could possibly find). The closest answer I could find is to compete and meet higher expectations next season.

4. Regarding the fan support

1) Attendance: ISU is still with an upper hand but Iowa is closing the gap fast.

2) Social Media following: Iowa is getting better now since the program gets more national exposure with Caitlin Clark's popularity

3) Fan forum traffic: CycloneFanatic is dominating HawkeyeNation on the WBB forum, which is the one I'm really proud of.

Overall, I don't think either program is capable of suddenly going supernova to reach Baylor or UConn's level. The competition will stay close. I'm a realist fan. What I hope is for the balance to be restored back to the old days, for ISU to at least get back to the same 50-50 level with Iowa so both programs can have a chance of being the "1a" or "big sis" of the State in turn.

To me, this KF transfer thing is a trigger to a much deeper issue about the CyHawk rivalry. Whether she can become a positive addition for the Hawks is to be determined, but it certainly doesn't help ISU in this matter.

For ISU to get back to the even level with Iowa, or surpass Iowa, IMO the ISU coaching staff needs to do the following

1) Develop players better, especially make it a priority to ensure Donarski and Ryan achieve close to Ashley Joens level. A team with three legitimate stars usually can go very deep in the postseason.

2) Change or optimize player usage with more options. Can't always rely on Ashley Joens exclusively. Need to get other players involved in crunch time, be more unpredictable.

3) Recruit better players at the high school level and from the transfers, especially good post players. I understand we can develop freshman posts but they need time to become P6 level players but there's only one or two years left for Ashley Joens, so the quickest route is to get a better one through the transfer portal. Iowa doesn't have a problem recruiting good post players, neither should ISU.

If ISU can improve more than Iowa in the foreseeable future, then I guess losing KF to Iowa isn't really a big deal after all. You may treat my previous passionate takes in this thread as being out of the envy or jealousy of the Hawks being more successful than ISU did in recent years.

In conclusion, I have nothing personal against Kylie. As a Cyclone fan, I want ISU to get back to its glory days and achieve as much as Iowa did in recent years.

Peace.

After reading that, I was left wondering how these two programs compared over the years. I didn't think comparing records was legit because a team like Baylor is typically worth 2 or 3 losses each year. Maryland has had a good run, but they haven't been as consistent and it may only give Iowa one loss typically. And that is only since they've been in the conference.

So I thought the best way to compare the team's season is by using NCAA seeding. Both teams frequently make the tournament, so there's plenty of data. I had no idea how this comparison would work, so I had no preconceived notion of how it would turn out.

I searched ISU seeding by year first and I found a chart in WIki that went back to 1997 which was the first year of the Big 12. So it seemed like a good place to start, rather than pick an arbitrary date. Once I captured the data, other time periods could be looked at.

To create a graph I converted the seeding into points. A 1 seed would be worth 16 points, 2 would be 15 and so on. Missing the tournament is 0 points. I did this conversion so on a bar chart the lower seeds would have bigger bars, making the comparison easy.

After creating my first cut, I quickly realized it's hard to conclude anything, so I added lines to represent the cumulative points for each team. With lines you can easily compare and see changes in the slope of the line to see how the trends changed over the years.

So having said all that, here is my graph. Red is ISU. Black is SUI. I leave it up to the reader to make observations and comment.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

After reading that, I was left wondering how these two programs compared over the years. I didn't think comparing records was legit because a team like Baylor is typically worth 2 or 3 losses each year. Maryland has had a good run, but they haven't been as consistent and it may only give Iowa one loss typically. And that is only since they've been in the conference.

So I thought the best way to compare the team's season is by using NCAA seeding. Both teams frequently make the tournament, so there's plenty of data. I had no idea how this comparison would work, so I had no preconceived notion of how it would look.

I searched ISU seeding by year first and I found a chart in WIki that went back to 1997 which was the first year of the Big 12. So it seemed like a good place to start, rather than pick an arbitrary date. Once I captured the data, other time periods could be looked at.

To create a graph I converted the seeding into points. A 1 seed would be worth 16 points, 2 would be 15 and so on. Missing the tournament is 0 points. I did this conversion so on a bar chart the lower seeds would have bigger bars, making the comparison easy.

After creating my first cut, I quickly realized it's hard to conclude anything, so I added lines to represent the cumulative points for each team. With lines you can easily compare and see changes in the slope of the line to see how the trends changed over the years.

So having said all that, here is my graph. Red is ISU. Black is SUI. I leave it up to the reader to make observations and comment.

View attachment 84275

Thank you for your nice work. I think if you include the entire Fennelly vs Bluder rivalry dating back to the 2000-2001 season, ISU still has better overall records than Iowa, plus more fan support. That's why I specifically used the data only in the past five seasons to make the comparison of the two programs because those are the stats that best reflect what both programs are at right now. The reality is that Iowa is improving more than ISU in the past five years by average and is now setting a higher bar for ISU to cross. We are proud of our program's glorious history but we have to keep improving our current one so it can return to its old glorious days at least to the level of Alison Lacey era I hope. We don't want to become the likes of Nebraska football fans who still think their program is one of the nation's most predominant ones since they won national championships back in the 90s.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Let her go. Wish her, or not, the best. Let's focus on 21/22. Geeze, I am so glad I'm not 19 and having to know my every decision is under the scrutiny of...my parents; and cyclone fanatic.

 

[BryceC]

and you know this how? It’s comments like this that drive me nuts. People act like Bill's behavior is isolated...only our coach does it. As I’ve said many times...it’s more common than it is rare.

Ok? I don’t like that it happens anywhere, let alone with the Cyclones.

 

[ISU40]

I really thought hard about this for the last two days and I agree with some posts here. My feelings have nothing to do with Kylie but with Iowa. If Kylie was really not feeling at home or not feeling right were she was, then by all means she should leave. No need to have a Debbie downer on the team (we have all seen what that can do). It sucks that she chose Iowa. Again I know that many felt blindsided both on the team and off.

I really dislike when people say I cheer for both Iowa and ISU except when they play each other. Not me. I do not cheer for Iowa. I don't cheer against them, I just don't care. This year I did watch them more than the past but again watching Bluder's team, I am just not a fan. Some here feel the same about Mulkey. Honestly Bluder is the only coach that really rubs me the wrong way. There are times when I don't like Mulkey or Blair or Littel but normally I will cheer them on when not playing them.

You cannot compare Anne O'Neill or Stacy Freese to this topic. Anne was at a non-rival school and Stacy was at Iowa however the Angie years at Iowa were trending down and things were getting bad and then they hired Bluder after Freese left.

 

[Psyclone]

Thank you for your nice work. I think if you include the entire Fennelly vs Bluder rivalry dating back to the 2000-2001 season, ISU still has better overall records than Iowa, plus more fan support. That's why I specifically used the data only in the past five seasons to make the comparison of the two programs because those are the stats that best reflect what both programs are at right now. The reality is that Iowa is improving more than ISU in the past five years by average and is now setting a higher bar for ISU to cross. We are proud of our program's glorious history but we have to keep improving our current one so it can return to its old glorious days at least to the level of Alison Lacey era I hope. We don't want to become the likes of Nebraska football fans who still think their program is one of the nation's most predominant ones since they won national championships back in the 90s.

In the last five years, they've made three. We've made three. Their three are better than our three, so advantage SUI for that time period using NCAA seed as the criteria.

 

[NWICY]

Global health studies. She now works helping under privileged women with pre-natal care.

I'll let you keep her . That sounds like a medicine type field and UofI does medicine well. Depending on resources available that could be a really challenging job.

 

[NWICY]

After reading that, I was left wondering how these two programs compared over the years. I didn't think comparing records was legit because a team like Baylor is typically worth 2 or 3 losses each year. Maryland has had a good run, but they haven't been as consistent and it may only give Iowa one loss typically. And that is only since they've been in the conference.

So I thought the best way to compare the team's season is by using NCAA seeding. Both teams frequently make the tournament, so there's plenty of data. I had no idea how this comparison would work, so I had no preconceived notion of how it would turn out.

I searched ISU seeding by year first and I found a chart in WIki that went back to 1997 which was the first year of the Big 12. So it seemed like a good place to start, rather than pick an arbitrary date. Once I captured the data, other time periods could be looked at.

To create a graph I converted the seeding into points. A 1 seed would be worth 16 points, 2 would be 15 and so on. Missing the tournament is 0 points. I did this conversion so on a bar chart the lower seeds would have bigger bars, making the comparison easy.

After creating my first cut, I quickly realized it's hard to conclude anything, so I added lines to represent the cumulative points for each team. With lines you can easily compare and see changes in the slope of the line to see how the trends changed over the years.

So having said all that, here is my graph. Red is ISU. Black is SUI. I leave it up to the reader to make observations and comment.

View attachment 84275

@Sigmapolis hop in here bar charts and everything .

 

[cymac2408]

Well said. And her family isn't "Hawkeye," - it's "Cyclone." Her dad Steve the veterinarian is as good as they come.
And I would bet my 401k that when they play next season, her parents may want a good performance for Kylie, but they won't be cheering for the Hawks to win - no way.

I’ll believe that when I see it.

 

[GetAwesome]

All these peeps here talking about grumpy, yelly, tough-love Bill. Did you watch any games this past season? I’ve never seen a more calm in-game Bill, as if he hit up a few zen retreats in the previous offseason.

More times than not I found myself this past season wishing aloud that he’d actually rip into a ref or player or two in clutch situations.

Fennelly’s demeanor is not at fault here.

 

[Clonefan32]

I just get a kick out of the concept that people honestly think she decided to spend the next 3-4 years of her life living, going to school and playing basketball in Iowa City just to spite Bill Fennelly. Get real people.

 

[isufbcurt]

Well said. And her family isn't "Hawkeye," - it's "Cyclone." Her dad Steve the veterinarian is as good as they come.
And I would bet my 401k that when they play next season, her parents may want a good performance for Kylie, but they won't be cheering for the Hawks to win - no way.

If they were "Cyclones" they would have told her to pick any one of the hundreds of other schools out there. If that was my daughter and she chose to transfer to Iowa she wouldn't be welcome home ever again.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

My fellow WBB posters,

It's @mred who broke the KF committing to Iowa news in a previous post. I can't help but notice that he received "6 dislikes" in that post. I totally understand those reactions were for the news and nothing against mred. But they do impact mred's overall reaction score in a negative way. mred has been one of the mainstays, the legends and the #1 WBB stat guru of this board for a long time and he deserves better.

To the posters who left the dislike reaction in that post, may I suggest you change the reaction from dislike to a neutral one such as "informative"? Small gestures like this could mean a lot to a loyal member here. Thank you for your consideration.

Are you saying people actually give 2 ***** what their reaction score is?? Just asking.... LOL

 

[Cycsk]

Did Kylie have an offer from the Hoks when she came out of high school?

 

[Cycsk]

If they were "Cyclones" they would have told her to pick any one of the hundreds of other schools out there. If that was my daughter and she chose to transfer to Iowa she wouldn't be welcome home ever again.

We love your passion, Curt!