The bright side

[ericyates50]

Yes, we're struggling. And that may not change. It's pretty clear that this team was really overrated... We're a middle of the pack big 12 team and playing like it. But, here's the bright sides:

1. Morris is gonna come back. He gets smoked on defense every play no way he's gonna get drafted and he'll be smart enough not to declare, and hopefully come back next year ******.

2. Naz will be back(probably), Burton is back, Thomas who's playing his mind out will be back, and McKay won't.

3. It's clear this team isn't playing like much of a team and seems to be really out of style. Maybe once Prohms recruits/JUCO players get here they play more like a team and play more with a set style rather than this ugly NBA throw up bad jumpers ball, they can play better and maybe they'll do this cool thing called play defense?

4. Maybe with good new players coming and some coming back WE CAN ACTUALLY PLAY MORE THAN 7 AND NOT GET EXHAUSTED AT THE END OF EVERY GAME.

 

[WastedTalent]

Whoa, pretty early for the "wait till next year thread." Wow!!

 

[Hoiball92]

Morris could go to play in Europe if he doesn't get drafted.

 

[awd4cy]

I'm not sure if some of these guys coming back is the best or not. I'm ready to start seeing Prohms guys on the floor. Some of our upperclassmen think they are too good to listen to coach Prohm.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I'm not sure if some of these guys coming back is the best or not. I'm ready to start seeing Prohms guys on the floor. Some of our upperclassmen think they are too good to listen to coach Prohm.

How long do they have to win mulitple conference tourney titles, go to the NCAA tourney every year, and make Sweet 16's before you get sick of them? Or will you just be happy if they look like they try really hard but don't get any accomplishments?

 

[chuckd4735]

This team was not overrated, they are just under-preforming. We all know what they are capable of doing...

 

[isufbcurt]

Morris could go to play in Europe if he doesn't get drafted.

Whoa dream big.

I can just imagine the laughing at the press conference "I have decided to forgo my senior year at ISU to play BB in Europe."

 

[Gunnerclone]

This team was not overrated, they are just under-preforming. We all know what they are capable of doing...

Ya losing to UAB! Amirite?

 

[CloneZone13]

I think there's still a lot of brightside this year, too!

 

[jahfg]

I'm not sure if some of these guys coming back is the best or not. I'm ready to start seeing Prohms guys on the floor. Some of our upperclassmen think they are too good to listen to coach Prohm.

Yuck. This sounds exactly what most of us thought during the Morgan-McDermott transition. The bright side, or potential bright side I guess, is this could let these guys relax. The conference title is most likely out of the picture. Maybe they can get back to having fun and playing good, smart basketball. Right now, I don't recognize this team. A lot of anxiety on the court. You can tell Morris is not used to losing. His body language and postgame comments are concerning.

 

[awd4cy]

How long do they have to win mulitple conference tourney titles, go to the NCAA tourney every year, and make Sweet 16's before you get sick of them? Or will you just be happy if they look like they try really hard but don't get any accomplishments?

I guess you like players that disrespect their coach. Good for you, but I don't, and it won't lead to success as long as they are doing it.

 

[roundball]

Only at Iowa State do fans get excited about players returning because they aren't good enough to be drafted.

 

[chuckd4735]

Ya losing to UAB! Amirite?

Beating KU 2 out of 3 times. They are under-preforming and very inconsistent, but are fully capable of living up to their ranking.

 

[heitclone]

This team was not overrated, they are just under-preforming. We all know what they are capable of doing...

Maybe not the last few weeks but this was never a top 5 team, top 10 is a stretch. Nothing wrong being rated 10-20. The funny thing is we are 3 or 4 shots away from being a 1 loss top 5 team.

 

[fsanford]

I'm not sure if some of these guys coming back is the best or not. I'm ready to start seeing Prohms guys on the floor. Some of our upperclassmen think they are too good to listen to coach Prohm.

We are gonna miss Niang big time.. Offensive talent like that at ISU does not come along that often.
Nader/Mckay can be replaced, but Niang will be a big, big void.

Hopefully Malou gets on campus, just afraid peoples expectations of him are gonna be unreasonable given that NBA scouts are looking at him.

I do think Prohm will always have strong guard play while he is here, so there is that.

 

[awd4cy]

Maybe not the last few weeks but this was never a top 5 team, top 10 is a stretch. Nothing wrong being rated 10-20. The funny thing is we are 3 or 4 shots away from being a 1 loss top 5 team.

We are 2 shots from 10-6. Stop with this stupid crap. Just like football when people were justifying losing.

 

[heitclone]

We are 2 shots from 10-6. Stop with this stupid crap. Just like football when people were justifying losing.

Wasn't justifying anything, just stating a fact, like you did. By your rationale, every team in the country is awful. You think they should shorten the top 25 to just a top 5 or something? No sense in giving any respect to a team that doesn't blow every opponent out or god forbid losses a game.

 

[hoopitup]

This team was not overrated, they are just under-preforming. We all know what they are capable of doing...

Offensively, they are just fine. We're scoring.

Defensively, though, we are just awful. Did anyone hear Miles Simons say at the start of the second half that the "arena is not that loud...we are sitting 20-25 feet from where ISU is playing defense...no one is talking". SOme of our closeouts are awful - ranging from leaving our feet to try to block shots to no hand up. Morris runs into a screener on ball screens way to much instead of fighting through it. We cut baseline, guys spin back to the middle and sometimes no help defender is there. We just are not disciplined on defense. For an experienced team like we have, that is not ok. It makes me wonder how much Hoiberg stressed defense. I mean I know it was there, but we also know he is offensive genius and ran an NBA system here.

The other thing a friend mentioned to me is depth. Ok, sure, fine whatever. We cannot play 8-9 guys. To me that means the 6-7 guys who play need to get more disciplined and better on this end of the court. That's it...no excuses.

Is having a great season still a possibility? Absolutely it is. But if they are not going to clean up their defensive effort, we will end around .500 in the conference give or take 1-2 games.

 

[allfourcy]

Offensively, they are just fine. We're scoring.

Defensively, though, we are just awful. Did anyone hear Miles Simons say at the start of the second half that the "arena is not that loud...we are sitting 20-25 feet from where ISU is playing defense...no one is talking". SOme of our closeouts are awful - ranging from leaving our feet to try to block shots to no hand up. Morris runs into a screener on ball screens way to much instead of fighting through it. We cut baseline, guys spin back to the middle and sometimes no help defender is there. We just are not disciplined on defense. For an experienced team like we have, that is not ok. It makes me wonder how much Hoiberg stressed defense. I mean I know it was there, but we also know he is offensive genius and ran an NBA system here.

The other thing a friend mentioned to me is depth. Ok, sure, fine whatever. We cannot play 8-9 guys. To me that means the 6-7 guys who play need to get more disciplined and better on this end of the court. That's it...no excuses.

Is having a great season still a possibility? Absolutely it is. But if they are not going to clean up their defensive effort, we will end around .500 in the conference give or take 1-2 games.

If Simon was just pointing out a few incidences, it happens. But if that's the norm, than yeah, that's concerning on the no talking. As far as previous years, I think the defense was never a priority but we seemed to have decent game plans and survived. But I think we had either more 'quality' depth or complimentary lineup combinations to still run & shoot quick and not tire while the opponent made us play 30 seconds of chasing.

On the other note, I've been one of the posters trying to tell others to stay positive and look beyond 'effort or not caring' as a shallow reason for our struggles. But I agree it is hard because we've been so used to a top finish in the conference. Heck, 8-8 in the conference doesn't even sound that awful to me right now, when you're 1-3 and have to play KU twice, OU again, WV twice, at Baylor who already beat you at home, and of course other road challenges. Hopefully we just keep improving game by game and forget the other stuff.

 

[swarthmoreCY]

This team was not overrated, they are just under-preforming. We all know what they are capable of doing...

It is a testament to Fred you think your best performance is how good you are. Despite the CF narrative, Fred consistently got these guys to outplay the opposition. We need our best to be good. Other teams have the talent to have off nights while we can't have off minutes