No. 3 ISU's Nate Heise vows to banish shooting struggles Tuesday against UCF

[The Rob Gray]

No. 3 ISU's Nate Heise vows to banish shooting struggles Tuesday against UCF

Iowa State Cyclones guard Nate Heise (0) rebounds the ball around Utah Utes forward Ezra Ausar (2) during the second half in the Big-12 men’s basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 7, 2025 in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images AMES — Nate Heise ant

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[flycy]

Next time we have a large lead in the second half, we should run some set plays for him to shoot. He has been abysmal, and his past performance indicates it is merely a confidence issue. Would really help open up the offense if he shot above 30% from long range. Without shooting, he is a black hole on offense, teams only have to guard Jones so they can crowd the lane.

 

[Cloneman89]

Agreed - zero x zero is still zero! Score or ride pine. Put Indrusitus in since Heise is a bust right now. MVC teams are not B12 level - might be too much for him!

 

[ClonerJams]

Agreed - zero x zero is still zero! Score or ride pine. Put Indrusitus in since Heise is a bust right now. MVC teams are not B12 level - might be too much for him!

Nojus might end up being a great player, but right now in their careers Heise is a guy you can trust on defense and to be in the right place. Nojus isn't there yet in that regard.

 

[exCYtable]

I hope so, because we need him to. I appreciate the little things he's been doing, but we have to get more from him offensively.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Just keep playing the way you've been playing, and the shots will start falling.

 

[Clonefan32]

Love everything Heise does for us on the floor, but his jump shot doesn't look very fluid either. It's kind of mechanical looking and from what I can remember he's typically missing by quite a bit.

 

[cyclone82]

Would like to see CJ back to his 6th man role. Yeah, I know..” who starts then?”
Someone here probably knows where or how to find this….. but how many minutes did the 3 , TL, KG,CJ play together when Curtis was coming off the bench vs sat.
I know the rotation is much different with out MM but with those 3 guards …. I didn’t like the flow of the game offensively.
Just a thought…..
I know it was just one game …. So On to UCF and a BIG trip to the desert await. I think they respond to the challenge !

 

[Cyclonepride]

Love everything Heise does for us on the floor, but his jump shot doesn't look very fluid either. It's kind of mechanical looking and from what I can remember he's typically missing by quite a bit.

Trying to think in the shot rather than just letting it flow naturally.

 

[jsb]

Milan and Nate provided good balance. Milan isn't great on defense and Nate hasn't been shooting well. As much as we miss Milan, we'd also miss Nate if he was hurt.

Hopefully he can see a few shots go in soon!

 

[madguy30]

Agreed - zero x zero is still zero! Score or ride pine. Put Indrusitus in since Heise is a bust right now. MVC teams are not B12 level - might be too much for him!

I'm sorry you haven't been watching.

 

[ISUNJ23BS]

I think he'll be fine. His follow through looks good, he pushes off with his legs and guides the ball well with his off hand. He should stop thinking and just let it fly! As a 6'5" rebounder he is powerful and it looks like he frequently intimidates the opposing players.

 

[madguy30]

Just keep playing the way you've been playing, and the shots will start falling.

The group in general seems to be in a funk and it may last a game or two.

 

[ISU_Guy]

one way to keep struggling at slumps is to keep talking about the slump, then compound it by saying you will get out of it next game.
just keep playing. Our issue last game was 10 guys decided to have an off game at the same time.

 

[Cyclonepride]

The group in general seems to be in a funk and it may last a game or two.

Losing a great offensive player for a while probably put some extra pressure on them, particularly given their expectations, but it also could be just a little cold stretch.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Losing a great offensive player for a while probably put some extra pressure on them, particularly given their expectations, but it also could be just a little cold stretch.

We’re one game removed from going 8-13 on 3Ps and going 18-25 on FT without Milan, against a better defense than WVU

We didn’t get to the line, and missed a lot of make able 3Ps. That’s often life on the road.

A little early to say “the group in general seems to be in a funk”

I’m more concerned we couldn’t stop WVU/Small at the end

 

[coolerifyoudid]

It was against worse competition , but he shot 46% from the field and 35.6% from 3 last year. He's also being asked to defend at a completely different level, so his legs are bound to feel more fatigue as he season progresses. A few 'off' games were to be expected. He still grabbed 5 boards and defended well.

Hopefully a home game can restore some confidence for him and everyone on the team. Overanalyzing a road game against a good WVU when the entire team shot bad isn't going to accomplish much. Heise has proven he can play at this level.

 

[Cyched]

I am vowing to drink beer during the game tomorrow

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

If Heise can do a mini version of what Curtis Jones did last year that would be huge…..and it would elevate this team to the next level. He has it in him. When you are new to a team sometimes it takes some players longer to fully find how they fit, get comfortable and maximize their potential.

If you guys remember, Curtis was pretty bad the first half of the year from 3 last year with people saying “I just don’t see it” etc. His confidence was low and he was overthinking. Then the TCU game came and he gradually started to get his shot to fall as the season went on…..and by the tournament he was one of our best shooters.

 

[Lyon309Cy]

Heise needs to be a reliable threat to hit the 1 or 2 wide-ass open 3s he gets every game. He doesn’t have to create his own or force anything, just let it come to him. Otherwise he's not giving us anything that Watson doesn't also provide.
Not to turn it into a Watson derail, it just strikes me that they both rebound, defend, cut, and do the little things really well. To this point Nate has been getting the PT, but if he hasn't figured it out by the time Milan returns he may start losing minutes to DWat. Heise has more upside on O, but we haven't seen it much yet. If he's going to turn into a non-shooter I'd rather have Watson.

To be clear, I want both to be very successful. I would love for both of them to play to their abilities and not be offensive liabilities while continuing to do all the little things. More options are always better than fewer options.