Some Cyclones hoop thoughts..........

Cyclad

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Apr 12, 2006
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Assembling all the pieces is half the battle. Getting all of those pieces to play as one and for each other instead of themselves is the other half of the battle. TJ and his staff did an excellent job of accomplishing both last season.

Hopefully, they can mold this year's roster into an unselfish group that plays for the name on the front of their jersey rather than the back. I'm optimistic they can, but it's never a given.
Agree.
Plus sustaining the effort. I have never seen a team play so hard. We won many games of effort, few on raw talent. We had a clear identity, snd it worked for us.
 

singsing

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Nov 2, 2007
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Assembling all the pieces is half the battle. Getting all of those pieces to play as one and for each other instead of themselves is the other half of the battle. TJ and his staff did an excellent job of accomplishing both last season.

Hopefully, they can mold this year's roster into an unselfish group that plays for the name on the front of their jersey rather than the back. I'm optimistic they can, but it's never a given.
Everything I'm hearing all the guys TJ is bringing in are team players and hard workers. I saw Holmes was academic all conference. Good sign of high character.. That with good coaching makes me believe next years team will play with the same intensity. I don't see TJ allowing anything like Prohm had going on.
 

RoseClone

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Oct 18, 2006
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Meh...

The team last year played many games way above their heads. They were pretty lucky to be as successful as they were. The simply out worked a lot of teams that were more talented.

I realize it is a new team, but let's see what we have in the fall before we start talking about a top 4 seed in the spring.
They were lucky because they out worked teams? Huh.
 

LLCoolCY

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Everything I'm hearing all the guys TJ is bringing in are team players and hard workers. I saw Holmes was academic all conference. Good sign of high character.. That with good coaching makes me believe next years team will play with the same intensity. I don't see TJ allowing anything like Prohm had going on.
The staff has emphasized bringing in culture guys who believe in ISU MBB.
Look no farther than asking Bolton to leave last year on a team that desperately needed scoring.
The Culture had gotten a bit lost under Prohm and with it Hilton Magic.

I don’t think the staff had real tourney hopes going into last year but bringing in Brockington, Kalcheur, Grill and Kunz brought the work ethic over the summer to build that Culture all summer.

That is why having Kalcheur, Grill and Kunz on next years team are key returnees. Not so much on how the produce on the court now that each has been recruited over rather to get the buy in and commitment to C5C this summer to get the new team ready for game 1.
 

WhoISthis

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Oct 6, 2010
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The staff has emphasized bringing in culture guys who believe in ISU MBB.
Look no farther than asking Bolton to leave last year on a team that desperately needed scoring.
Which is why it odd Foster, Hinson, and Johnson were retained. Let's just say it is not surprising they didn't make it to the season.
 

VeloClone

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Jan 19, 2010
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They were lucky because they out worked teams? Huh.
They were lucky that more of the more talented teams didn't work harder. Surviving on guts and hard work to overcome a general deficit of talent only works if the more talented teams don't work as hard. If they work as hard as you do you have lost the only advantage you have. So yes, lucky that some of the other teams didn't figure out they just needed to work a little harder.

I loved the guts and hard work; they were fun to watch. But at some point you have to be able to score some points and have an alternate way to win when they shut down your first option. That team rarely had that.
 

8bitnes

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Nov 21, 2010
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Lard, Jacobson, Young, Conditt, Tally (and some would include Zion) was supposed to be a very talented and deep frontcourt. It was sidetracked by injuries and Prohm
Three of those six were sidetracked for reasons beyond injuries/prohm
 

HFCS

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Aug 13, 2010
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You have your right to your opinion but they weren't playing above their heads......they were just better than ISU fans expected.......you don't beat Oregon State (Elite 8 team a year before), Memphis, Xavier, Iowa (by 20), and Creighton (on the road) by just playing above their heads.......they were outstanding defensively (stats don't lie) but inconsistent on offense which lead to some tough losses in the Big 12.......their offense will be a lot more balanced next year and they will be better defensively.......

You don't have to believe me but it's not false hope....this team will be very good next year........national writer John Rothstein just tweeted out today that due to TJ Otzelberger landing Osunniyi, the Cyclones will likely be making another run to at least the Sweet 16.....his words, not mine.......it's okay to get excited as this program is only going in one direction and it's up.....big time!

It also can’t be dismissed that the Big 12 was the deepest conference by % a basketball fan has ever seen. TCU played a one seed razor close and it was no fluke. It was power 1, the other five, then the mid majors.
 
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Cyclones125

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Everything I'm hearing all the guys TJ is bringing in are team players and hard workers. I saw Holmes was academic all conference. Good sign of high character.. That with good coaching makes me believe next years team will play with the same intensity. I don't see TJ allowing anything like Prohm had going on.
Lets not over analyze it.... Prohm doesn't know ball at this level, our team stunk, and that probably created a locker room of unhappy players. Suggesting that Prohm created a toxic environment filled with selfish players is a reach. Winning cures all
 

singsing

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Nov 2, 2007
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Lets not over analyze it.... Prohm doesn't know ball at this level, our team stunk, and that probably created a locker room of unhappy players. Suggesting that Prohm created a toxic environment filled with selfish players is a reach. Winning cures all
Who said anything about selfish? You're putting words in my mouth I didn't say. The question is if there's going to be a drop off in intensity next year. With Otz I don't think so. Prohm?
 

Thomasrickj

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Feb 26, 2012
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“Conditt.....I love George and he was a solid Cyclone for the 12 years that he spent in Ames”

This quote made me jajaja a bunch!
 

t-noah

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Feb 2, 2007
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I love George and he was a solid Cyclone for the 12 years that he spent in Ames......Go Clones!!
HaHa. Love George. I will miss the Gramps, but we have some good talent at the 4-5 coming in. We will be senior dominated for sure. This just seems weird because none have been here very long. I think we will have to get used to that now though.

I don't want to rain on your enthusiasm. Nothing wrong with being excited about your team. Like last year, I will again wait through most of the non-conference season. I'll just throw out 7-8 wins there. We can't do as good as last year. Can we? I expect the team to also improve once Tre King is eligible.

In Big 12, I'll go 10-11 wins, maybe better if we get AJ and he is able to have a big year. if we do less than that we need more W's in the non-con.

Hoping we make the Dance again, of course. Next year, we will have a big overhaul to replace this senior dominated team.





I'm setting expectations at 10 wins like last year. That worked out pretty well
Seems reasonable. I like how it worked out.
Only so many minutes to go around. I really like Watsons potential, but I doubt he sees much PT. Too many experienced upper class men. Although I see this group as two subsets: Osun, Ward and Jones. Kunc, King and Watson. Given the roster makeup, I see all the freshman seeing limited time this season. That said, I think they have a bright future. With all of our seniors next year, across all positions, I see another big portal year coming.

I look at it this way. Being this optimistic until the season starts makes life pretty good up to that point. Then 'adjusting' that optimism as the season unfolds is the key to sanity from there on out. So, thanks for the optimistic outlook. It's certainly better walking around with that than what others will walk around most of the time with.
Yup. I'll go along with that too.
 

t-noah

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Feb 2, 2007
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I'm looking forward to the pre-season chicken wing hot sauce competition. I think that will tell us a lot.

:)