Excellent wording. Confrontational leadership. I was struggling to figure out how to phrase that.
I do think Haliburton and Conditt can be that kind of leadership. It takes a pretty special player to come in and be that. CW has told stories about Ejim being that kind of guy. But in the last 10 years, that's is the only freshman we have ever heard of being that type.
I really like these two guys, and have all year. Haliburton from game one was my favorite player on the team, and in the last two weeks Conditt is making a strong push. I think it's always easier for a senior or experienced guy to take a leadership role, just as it is a great player. However, some guys are just born to be leaders and some aren't. Some have it and some don't.
I'm not comparing Conditt to Niang, but in some ways this reminds me of the season Niang was a Freshman. The team lost a game to a really bad Texas Tech team. Some of the upper classmen were tweeting snarky things about the fans once the idiot fans came out on social media. Then Niang comes out and had some good quotes really owning the loss in a direct but positive way. I was 100% sure that the program was going to be in good hands for years to come. I said before, Conditt showed a ton of character when he started seeing some DNPs when Lard came back. He was ready to step in and play when the time came, and his demeanor on the bench never dropped off.
I'm just going to enjoy the remaining games, including another trip to the tourney, whatever it brings. Then next year I'm looking forward to seeing the team regroup with these guys leading the way. I might be crazy, but even if everybody leaves for the NBA or otherwise, I think ISU will be a good team next year. I think we'll see a huge jump from Haliburton and Conditt, Solomon will be back dishing out punishment on opposing post players, and Nixon ought to be good. Jacobsen will be solid and Zion has some serious potential.