Positives From Exhibition

[State43]

We still have our core frontcourt from last year, so unless you think Ejim and Niang forgot how to play I don't see the problem. I feel like you're in pre-meltdown mode and I cannot figure out why!

No not at all. I am very excited to watch this team. I know they will struggle and lose some games they shouldn't and win some big games as well. I am just responding to the fact that our bigs are not as good as some here seem to think. I have total faith in Ejim and Niang but as history shows us, they are consistently in foul trouble and that wont change either so someone has to fill that void. If Percy and/or Edozie play a lot of minutes against a good team, that will not bode well for us.

percy put in some quality minutes and was under control for the most part. niang seemed like a liability out there. its just an exhibition and I wouldn't count percy out yet

Percy looked like Percy, just against bad competition. I am not trying to make it a bash Percy thing, I just saw exactly the same thing out of him I saw last year. Doesn't attack the basket on rebounds. A bit soft and slow of defense and a black hole on offense. He did have a great assist pass down low though tonight. Might have been his only pass of the night.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

One thing I don't get on CF is the antagonist approach that a small majority of people have against Iowa State's athletes. First and foremost with Percy Gibson and Naz Long. Why is there hate directed at them? Naz easily played better than SDW, started, hustled the most, and ran the point when the likes of Ellerman, Edozie, and Bluford were all on the floor. Of course he looked a little ragged at times.

The way some people talk about those 2 guys, you would almost question if they actually want to see either of them even have success at ISU. That isn't being a true fan in my opinion.

 

[Gnomeborg]

Wrong. He got the ball in the post three times. He passed out on one of them. His "awkward" shots were textbook dropstep hooks. Percy played well and Fred mentioned the same thing in the postgame, but I'm sure you know better.

What is it that you expect Percy to do? When a post player gets the ball in the post, he should look to score. If his move doesn't work, he should look opposite or kick it out. I only saw one shot by Percy that looked forced. He's a post player off the bench. He's not going to average 10 and 6.

and don't forget that that pass was immediately kicked to the wing for a huge 3 pointer. His passing out directly led to those points. Percy is Percy, and we have to realize that with Percy all we're ever going to get is Percy, but today, Percy was about the best Percy I've seen him be.

 

[mustangcy]

Is it just me or does Thomas remind you of Matt Gatens? That's a big compliment btw...loved Gatens game.

 

[gocubs2118]

Percy had 6 points tonight on 3/5 shooting and 3 rebounds. What more do you guys want from him? Jesus. He was anything but a black hole tonight. Stop being dumb.

 

[mjhavlo76]

I am not going to candy coat it too much. Percy did NOT have an outstanding game, but I thought he played well...

I thought Percy gave very solid minutes for us tonight. If he can give 10-15 minutes a game while Melvin is out, I'll be happy.

 

[jahfg]

One thing I don't get on CF is the antagonist approach that a small majority of people have against Iowa State's athletes. First and foremost with Percy Gibson and Naz Long. Why is there hate directed at them? Naz easily played better than SDW, started, hustled the most, and ran the point when the likes of Ellerman, Edozie, and Bluford were all on the floor. Of course he looked a little ragged at times.

The way some people talk about those 2 guys, you would almost question if they actually want to see either of them even have success at ISU. That isn't being a true fan in my opinion.

Naz did a good job on the boards, but I didn't see the stellar defense everyone else did. He was okay, but I thought Morris looked better defensively. SDW made good rotations on defense and knocked down some shots. I like Naz. I just don't think he's as good as Thomas or SDW.

The Percy hate is weird to me. I'm not sure what people expect him to do. I didn't see any defensive breakdowns. I saw him rotate to help and block a shot. I saw him make two nice hook shots. I saw him pass out of a double team. I saw him clumsily throw up a bad shot on a drive. It seems to me he played well. We don't need him to stand out. We need him to eat minutes. He has shown he can do that.

 

[BallSoHard4Cy]

It's the best Percy has played without Royce White. No matter who it's against, that's really good to see

 

[Cincyclone]

Wrong. He got the ball in the post three times. He passed out on one of them. His "awkward" shots were textbook dropstep hooks. Percy played well and Fred mentioned the same thing in the postgame, but I'm sure you know better.

What is it that you expect Percy to do? When a post player gets the ball in the post, he should look to score. If his move doesn't work, he should look opposite or kick it out. I only saw one shot by Percy that looked forced. He's a post player off the bench. He's not going to average 10 and 6.

Exactly this. Percy had one forced shot, but other than that had 3 really good looking baby hooks (not sure how those were awkward, they were textbook) and also a couple of good passes. He also looked better on the boards than in years past.

 

[sheepplucker]

No not at all. I am very excited to watch this team. I know they will struggle and lose some games they shouldn't and win some big games as well. I am just responding to the fact that our bigs are not as good as some here seem to think. I have total faith in Ejim and Niang but as history shows us, they are consistently in foul trouble and that wont change either so someone has to fill that void. If Percy and/or Edozie play a lot of minutes against a good team, that will not bode well for us.

Percy looked like Percy, just against bad competition. I am not trying to make it a bash Percy thing, I just saw exactly the same thing out of him I saw last year. Doesn't attack the basket on rebounds. A bit soft and slow of defense and a black hole on offense. He did have a great assist pass down low though tonight. Might have been his only pass of the night.

I thought he did about the same as everyone els on defense. a lot of players where making some pretty bad decisions the entire game. and to peg percy as not improved from last year based off of this one game. if we are doing that then I would say that niang is a huge let down and we should start someone in front of him.. but im not assumeing this game was the ceiling for everyone

 

[Cincyclone]

Percy had 6 points tonight on 3/5 shooting and 3 rebounds. What more do you guys want from him? Jesus. He was anything but a black hole tonight. Stop being dumb.

People see what they want to see. It's clear many on here already had their minds made up about Percy before this game even tipped off.

 

[Cincyclone]

Naz did a good job on the boards, but I didn't see the stellar defense everyone else did. He was okay, but I thought Morris looked better defensively. SDW made good rotations on defense and knocked down some shots. I like Naz. I just don't think he's as good as Thomas or SDW.

The Percy hate is weird to me. I'm not sure what people expect him to do. I didn't see any defensive breakdowns. I saw him rotate to help and block a shot. I saw him make two nice hook shots. I saw him pass out of a double team. I saw him clumsily throw up a bad shot on a drive. It seems to me he played well. We don't need him to stand out. We need him to eat minutes. He has shown he can do that.

I thought Naz was really good as a perimeter defender and was much better in that regard than SDW. SDW had some good plays offensively but he also had some really silly mistakes (abandoning Niang after his guy went to double being one). Also, as you said, Naz was really good on the boards. There's a reason he was in the starting lineup tonight.

 

[BallSoHard4Cy]

Anyone think we'll see a change to the starting lineup? Maybe we go MM/MT/DK/DH/GN?

 

[Cincyclone]

Another positive I haven't seen mentioned was Hoiberg's halftime adjustments. Immediately in the second half he had Georges run a little point forward, and it was clear he (or one of his assistants) identified the back door cut as something that needed to be utilized against Augustana because we saw at least 4 of them in the first 3 minutes.

 

[AdamJGray]

Anyone think we'll see a change to the starting lineup? Maybe we go MM/MT/DK/DH/GN?

No, because I imagine Ejim coming back sooner than later. So Kane, Thomas, Hogue, Niang, and Ejim is clearly our best starting lineup at that point with Morris being first off the bench.

 

[Aclone]

One thing I don't get on CF is the antagonist approach that a small majority of people have against Iowa State's athletes. First and foremost with Percy Gibson and Naz Long. Why is there hate directed at them?

Apparently you haven't visited the football forums lately. People feel entitled to bash our athletes and coaches, no matter how they're out there trying, and representing our school.

 

[tim_redd]

Anyone think we'll see a change to the starting lineup? Maybe we go MM/MT/DK/DH/GN?

After one game, I could definitely see that, and replace Hogue with Ejim when healthy.

 

[gocubs2118]

Apparently you haven't visited the football forums lately. People feel entitled to bash our athletes and coaches, no matter how they're out there trying, and representing our school.

Coaches are free game. They're getting paid a lot of money to do a job. If you don't understand this, i can't help you.

 

[BallSoHard4Cy]

No, because I imagine Ejim coming back sooner than later. So Kane, Thomas, Hogue, Niang, and Ejim is clearly our best starting lineup at that point with Morris being first off the bench.

Totally agree Adam, but my guess is that he (Ejim) won't be back for the Michigan or BYU games. So I guess would you rather have Naz or Monte getting the bulk of the minutes versus those teams?

 

[klamath632]

I liked how Thomas scored all his points within the framework of the offense....he didn't do anything special to score all those points.

I liked the part where ISU played basketball.