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*** Official #2 IOWA STATE vs West Virginia Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
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Yeah I think it’s a good point - how the coaches and team respond will be key. The positive of course is that there are many teaching moments from yesterday.
Definitely a huge curveball w/the Milan injury, clearly they were all feeling that in this 2nd game. So I think it’s fair that the coaches and players need time to adjust.
Personally though, I still expected to win (just like I expected to win @ Texas Tech) Admittedly I’m surprised at how bad we played, particularly the last 4 minutes with WVA being the tougher/more physical team. I honestly didn’t think that - even with Milan out - we would have that low of a floor, but we indeed were really bad yesterday.
Seeing a lot of “these types of games happen!” - losses happen, yes. And we’ll lose more for sure. No one is going undefeated, yada yada yada. I’ll be very surprised if we play THAT badly again though. Huge credit to WVA but 4 assists is Grade F bad. 1-17 from 3 is Grade F bad. Having the other team simply swat/take the ball of our hands 10+ times is Grade F bad. I didn’t think this team was capable of that.
But now that we know, and the tape is out, a huge opportunity is ahead. Really excited to see how TJ and the squad comes back on Tuesday. I think we thump UCF!
Devires is quickly moving up asshat coach list….wait until he lands in ia ****** his true colors will shine every game. He’s a sukeye through and through….
They had 13 turnovers Wednesday in similar fashion and 15 last Saturday at Tech.
They're very capable of it if they're not patient and some physical limitations show out.
The threes were weird but if you're pressing even an open look is out of rhythm.
I'd guess the staff has been working on it and yesterday was a FAFO moment.
I have never understood what makes the online "tone police" types tick.
It was a pretty slow game by 2025 standards, 127 combined possessions. That is our 2nd-fewest this year against P5 opponents (Baylor was 124).
After some quiet reflection over many ice cold Lites, I came to several conclusions:
1. We shot very, very poorly.
2. I still can't figure out why any official would allow a game to devolve into such a blatantly ugly contest. Hideous excuse for basketball.
3. We need to run our offense in practice until our players are running it in their sleep. The lack of movement killed us. We can't play ISO/hero ball all game.
1. We shot very, very poorly.
2. I still can't figure out why any official would allow a game to devolve into such a blatantly ugly contest. Hideous excuse for basketball.
3. We need to run our offense in practice until our players are running it in their sleep. The lack of movement killed us. We can't play ISO/hero ball all game.
one concern going forward is guard minutes. Gray alluded to this in the post game, Tamin, Gilbert and Jones all played 36 plus minutes. There might have been late game fatigue with these guys and I'm not sure those kind of minutes are sustainable over time. Watson only got 6 minutes, would like to see him in a little more if only to steel a couple of minutes of rest for the others. Our 3 main scorers are Jefferson, Jones, and Gilbert, without Milan we need to get someone else going. Sure would be nice if we can get something out of Heise.
Poor shooting on the road is very common. Not 1-17 bad typically, but sometimes. We had a lot of open looks too, they just weren't dropping. Look at the other teams that have come into Hilton lately. Baylor and Kansas had a decent amount of open looks from 3 and missed most of them.
Which is basically what ISU has done the first two years of TJ. It works if you have coaching and grinders on your roster.
I'll put the blame on TJ and staff for this loss. TJ talks about daily habits and routines, routines, routines like crazy. He's had great team chemistry because of it this year so far and he's ruined that chemistry by changing his lineup and rotations because of Milan. As much as I like Curtis, he should not be starting. The fact of what he brings into the game at the 17 minute mark is something that can't be messed with. That also sets the tone of the rotations for the rest of the half. TJ got away with it against Kansas but I hope he's quick to see it's not sustainable. 2 guy's didn't care as much about starting yesterday as they did against Kansas. The rotations and guys looked flat yesterday. Curtis has been on such a heater, I think they just kinda look at him and expect him to get them going. He got tired as did the other guards. There's only 1 guy on the bench that can replace Milan's offense and that's Nojus. Nojus isn't going to be 48% from 3 but he's good about going to the hoop like the other guards. We know he can shoot the 3 and his defense I feel is better than Milan's was last year. I think TJ really needs to look at going to a 9 man rotation instead of a shortened 8 cause you can't 100% replace Milan but you have to some how or else teams are easily going to figure out how to guard us.
The crazy thing is if you look at the starters, overall the effective FG% wasn’t horrible.
It isn’t necessarily that the looks were bad, it took a lot of work and clock to get good looks. So possessions are minimized, helping the less talented team.
Also -10 in bench scoring is a killer.
Yeah, I guess. I don't see the comparison between TJs first two teams though everyone is making.
I thought those teams were terrible on offense so he went after tough, defense oriented players and we played a really aggressive style without being dirty or just hacking every possession.
Their style under Huggins and what I saw yesterday isn't how the game is supposed to be played.
Part of me wanted to see Nojus for at least a few minutes in a game like that, just to see if maybe he could zing a couple of 3's while maintaining general D strength.
On the other hand, it was 1- or 2-possession game for a good chunk of the game, we could've gotten enough production to survive with a W if not for sloppy ball-handling and inability to finish at the rim.
Back to first point, with Milan out for another month, could you weave Nojus into the mix in spots, maybe as opportunity allows?
It'd help if Heise could hit something. I think it'll come, and I hate being critical of a specific player. His shooting reminds me a little of freshman Matt Thomas. Getting good looks and the stroke looks fine, but isn't hitting.
TJ's strategy the first couple years was conceptually similar (keep score and possessions low via defense) but it was not Huggins ball, which was what we saw from WVU last night. Constant grabbing clutching pushing shoving etc. They were hooking/pinning Jefferson's off-arm down as soon as he caught the ball in the post and riding him like that until he shot or passes and not getting called for it. We didn't do that that kind of ****.
There was a possession where Tamin had the ball barely past halfcourt, trying to dribble while facing the basket and spent the whole possession repeatedly swatting Small's arm away as he was arm-barring him the whole time.
There was a possession where Tamin had the ball barely past halfcourt, trying to dribble while facing the basket and spent the whole possession repeatedly swatting Small's arm away as he was arm-barring him the whole time.
This the 1st game the Cyclones were not the tougher team down the stretch. Vs Auburn was a tie. Travel, missing a starter, tough environment all contributed, but WVU was the tougher, more confident team over the final few minutes.
The bold is just silly. He's an excellent coach and his team played the way it had to in order to win.
I was unable to watch the game due to other commitments. That said, we weren’t going to go undefeated in the conference, it is what it is, let’s get back after it and clean it up in the next one.
A think a huge amount of the poor shooting was not getting good shots. Our guys were doing too much dribbling and not moving the ball enough to move the defense. It's disappointing to see them play so poorly, but I suppose it could be seen as encouraging that we stayed in the game while playing like crap.
