Mid(conference)-Season Check-Up

[Cloned4Life]

I honestly don't care about our record or placement in the big 12 at this point. My only hope is that we can get healthy and get people right mentally before the big tournament starts. If we put our game on the floor we can be anyone anywhere but the team I saw yesterday definitely won't make it out of the first weekend. We have 4 players that we can count on every game and 3 players in heise, jackson and Chatfield who have regressed horribly in the last month. Heise and especially Chatfield have become almost unplayable. If we can get those guys back to being any semblance of productive and get a healthy MM our main goal is definitely still on the table. If those guys don't get it back together it's gonna be too much to ask 4 players to carry us deep in March with little to no help.

I must be wired weird.

Like, I love March and yes obviously want us to be in great shape for March. But it's literally do or die in March. 1 loss and your season is DONE. 1 fluke play or game or injury and boom - its instantly over. It is so freakishly hard to make a deep run.

January... February.. these are long, grueling months. In the grand scheme of "life"- yeah sure, these games don't matter and the regular season really isn't THAT big of a deal at all. But in terms of "sports-only-emotional-happiness", it sure is really nice and fun to be playing good basketball during these times. Just like it was extremely fun to watch us beat Iowa, Marquette, do well in Maui, etc. in November and December.

It's really fun to pop on SportsCenter or a national podcast and we are being talked about as a top 5 team. It's really fun to be 15-1 and get national media to gush all over us. It's really fun to be SO good in the regular season, that College Gameday wants to come visit Ames. I don't know, it just feels like it kinda matters.

 

[Cyhig]

This is maybe the most disappointing part of yesterday to me (along with a #1 seed likely being off the table too). With Houston dropping one at home and Kansas losing again, without that stinker yesterday we'd have been in descent position to catch Houston, with KU pretty deep in the rearview.

Agreed. But I personally don’t put much weight to a regular season conference title. It’s really about the tournaments IMO

 

[qwerty]

8-2 on the back half to finish 15-5

 

[fsanford]

I'm typically on the optimistic side and understand there is plenty of doom & gloom right now, but I hope the realists will lead this discussion.

To start off, I will point out that 2 years ago the eventual national champion UCONN Huskies lost 6 of 8 during a mid-season slump.

They were ranked # 2 end of December and by the end of Jan they dropped to 24th.
They lost by 11 to St Johns at home. St Johns from that year probably comparable to KSU this year.

Big East was pedestrian that year. UConn finished 4th. The tourney is more about teams that are not familiar with each other and how they handle it

On a positive CBS sports has ISU 6th

College basketball rankings: Texas Tech rises to No. 15 after gritty win over Houston on the road

The Red Raiders were shorthanded but still snapped the Cougars' 33-game home winning streak

www.cbssports.com

If I am being honest Tech might be the best team in the league. Losing one of your best players to a ridiculous Flagrant foul call early in game and winning at Houston. That road win was huge

 

[rosshm16]

That was a really impressive win for TTU yesterday. They're seven points away from being 10-0 in the Big 12 with wins over Iowa State and Houston, although those arguments always go both ways, they're also seven points away from being 6-4 in the Big 12.

Not sure how I feel about the flagrant 2. The kick looked deliberate to me.

 

[Cloned4Life]

They were ranked # 2 end of December and by the end of Jan they dropped to 24th.
They lost by 11 to St Johns at home. St Johns from that year probably comparable to KSU this year.

Big East was pedestrian that year. UConn finished 4th. The tourney is more about teams that are not familiar with each other and how they handle it

On a positive CBS sports has ISU 6th

College basketball rankings: Texas Tech rises to No. 15 after gritty win over Houston on the road

The Red Raiders were shorthanded but still snapped the Cougars' 33-game home winning streak

www.cbssports.com

If I am being honest Tech might be the best team in the league. Losing one of your best players to a ridiculous Flagrant foul call early in game and winning at Houston. That road win was huge

Ya know, I remember watching the Tech game on replay and thinking - whoa, Tech is good. We had to play REALLY well down the stretch to win that one. Keshon, JJ, and Tamin all had some truly great plays to get us in a position to force OT. Great win that was!

 

[fsanford]

Ya know, I remember watching the Tech game on replay and thinking - whoa, Tech is good. We had to play REALLY well down the stretch to win that one. Keshon, JJ, and Tamin all had some truly great plays to get us in a position to force OT. Great win that was!

Tech is a very tough venue to play in.

WV Jerry West Day, Arizona fans saying it's the loudest that place was in like 25 years.

ISU has been to some nasty places. Some more to go, Phog on Monday, at Houston and Bramlage at KSU

 

[rosshm16]

I also noticed Roberts got called for a travel late in OT yesterday, which is great to see. Guy travels with impunity nearly every time he gets a touch in the post.

 

[FDCy83]

Something needs to change, but at KU is not the place to make a change. We have 3 guards that would likely start on any team in the conference. But they don't really play well with all three on the court. I think a change for Saturday would be to start Watson and bring Jones off the bench. Use Heisse for giving JJ and DW breathers and rotate the 3 guards to keep them fresh and able to play strong defense. Play the same 8 guys but mix things up at the start. Jones gives us a lift. Watson is at least aggressive on defense and rebounds. At this point, something has to change.

 

[madguy30]

I also noticed Roberts got called for a travel late in OT yesterday, which is great to see. Guy travels with impunity nearly every time he gets a touch in the post.

The narrative on here was that Houston wouldn't lose for a long time and I guess when you don't get the breaks you can get beat just like anyone else.

 

[rosshm16]

The narrative on here was that Houston wouldn't lose for a long time and I guess when you don't get the breaks you can get beat just like anyone else.

I've watched quite a bit of both Houston and Auburn this season. They are both great teams obviously, lots of talent, well coached, play hard, and maybe it's just the homer in me, but whenever I watch them I can't help but notice how frequently the ball bounces their way.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

My take is pretty much 100% of @Clonehomer and @NoCreativity takes above. Hard to see us right now finishing any better than three more losses, let's pessimistically drop one more too, so 20-8 (13-7), probably 5th-ish in the Big 12. Not "bad" objectively of course, but not what you'd hope from a 15-1 (5-0) start with the only loss on a buzzer-beater to the #1 team.

Our problems are way beyond Milan being out. Too many guys who are near-zeros on offense (Heise, Chatfield, Jackson, Watson) or who evidently can't see the floor at all (Nojus), and the talent/effort/focus/execution/physicality on defense in the frontcourt that was so critical to the previous three years is just not there this year.

Yeah I completely disagree. Milan being out has really hurt our rotations and overall balance. He was able to pull defenders away from the paint which is huge. There is a direct correlation between his injury and Jackson and Chatfield's offensive production falling off. Heise is the only player I can say that is truly hampering us right now offensively. Even with Milan out our guards have done a terrible job creating offense. There is no movement and Gilbert and Jones are forcing WAY too much. We still have plenty of scorers but the guards need to move the ball and let the game come to them vs playing for stats. I imagine TJ absolutely lit into them after Saturday's performance.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Today's game is going to be a make it or break it game for both KU and ISU, neither team can afford another L in the loss column and expect to be fighting for the league title at the end of the season.
We are pressing as a team, the flow to the offense that was there earlier on, has been missing the past couple of games. Time for this team and staff to decide are we going down with a fight, or just going down. Tonights game is critical to both teams. Lets go Cyclones.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I also noticed Roberts got called for a travel late in OT yesterday, which is great to see. Guy travels with impunity nearly every time he gets a touch in the post.

That play was great. The crowd wanted a foul but he lost his own balance. He was trying to leverage his back into the defender and then pivot off him but he got the rugged pulled out from underneath of him and he stumbled a third step. What a way to lose.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

The narrative on here was that Houston wouldn't lose for a long time and I guess when you don't get the breaks you can get beat just like anyone else.

Some of us have also pointed out that Houston has played a much more favorable first half schedule. The back half for them is going to be much harder.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Today's game is going to be a make it or break it game for both KU and ISU, neither team can afford another L in the loss column and expect to be fighting for the league title at the end of the season.
We are pressing as a team, the flow to the offense that was there earlier on, has been missing the past couple of games. Time for this team and staff to decide are we going down with a fight, or just going down. Tonights game is critical to both teams. Lets go Cyclones.

LOL you never circle a game at the Phog and call it make or break. I don't care what version of KU it is, when you win a game there it feels like a steal.

 

[Clonehomer]

Today's game is going to be a make it or break it game for both KU and ISU, neither team can afford another L in the loss column and expect to be fighting for the league title at the end of the season.
We are pressing as a team, the flow to the offense that was there earlier on, has been missing the past couple of games. Time for this team and staff to decide are we going down with a fight, or just going down. Tonights game is critical to both teams. Lets go Cyclones.

Barring injuries from Houston, neither team is competing this year win or lose.

 

[Jdk]

Not going to make a prediction on the final score of tonight’s game just win cyclones and get back on track

 

[NYCYFan]

I'm predicting that the doom and gloomers will be looking stupid in about a month when this team is humming going into The Hilton South tournament, starting with a win at The Phog tonight.

Even if they lose tonight, I take this team up against anybody on a neutral court against anybody in March. I think this core has earned some rope with this fanbase.

 

[CPG4ISU]

I think it is being overlooked how good of a resume this team has. Right now they have the 4th most quad 1 wins in the country.

Blum has mentioned that going 12-8 in conference probably gets them a 2 seed. 15-5 would likely get them a 1 seed. We hated it last year, but the committee overvalues non-con games, and this team has a great resume in that regard.