I don't often say things like this 7 games into a season, but we really need to beat Iowa this weekend. Moral is very low after the beatdown the MBB team took last night, and honestly if we lose on our home floor to the worst Iowa team in my memory this season could really take a turn for the worse when it comes to fan support.
With the weather what it is on Saturday, we may not get everybody in that bought a ticket. After that, we have 5 straight home games against teams nobody will care about. The next home game that will get any blood flowing is the Missouri game but that's not until 1/16. If we lose this game we'll have some pretty empty games which will not be at all helpful for this young team.
Honestly, if we do lose, it's youth movement time. Peterson doesn't start anymore. Haluska doesn't start anymore. If Jiri doesn't get in gear Vette starts getting his minutes. If we're going to lose and nobody will care, we need to start building for the future.
A couple other random thoughts:
1. I have been a staunch McD supporter but I don't think I've ever witnessed a beatdown quite that bad for a while. He REALLY needs to put a team on the court next season that is competitive for the NCAA's or this program is going to lose any momentum it got after the coaching change. Season ticket sales will be down, recruiting is only going to get tougher... etc.
2. I've said it before, I'm very happy Bryan Peterson decided to come to ISU and be a Cyclone. This is not intended as a personal attack on him. However, I do not expect us to win a single conference game if he is our starting PG and continually plays 30 minutes per game. That being said, Diante is playing soft as heck right now and we need him to step up. He's the only other guy on the roster who could compete to take Petey's minutes, and he's just not stepping up right now either.
3. For a while there I was in favor of redshirting Wesley. But the fact is that we will be so abysmal without him we have to try and get him healthy while still playing him as much as possible. I don't think there is much to be gained this year, but I don't think going 10-21 is a good idea either. I also think that it'd be hard to keep Wesley on campus for 5 years. He'd be a 24 year old senior and a 25 year old Pro rookie if that were the case. I have a hard time believing that will happen. Of course if he could permanently hurt himself he should sit, but otherwise, get him on the floor.
I have a million MBB thoughts in my head, and that's why I haven't posted anything until now. I was a pessimist around here before the season and I didn't think it would be this bad.
With the weather what it is on Saturday, we may not get everybody in that bought a ticket. After that, we have 5 straight home games against teams nobody will care about. The next home game that will get any blood flowing is the Missouri game but that's not until 1/16. If we lose this game we'll have some pretty empty games which will not be at all helpful for this young team.
Honestly, if we do lose, it's youth movement time. Peterson doesn't start anymore. Haluska doesn't start anymore. If Jiri doesn't get in gear Vette starts getting his minutes. If we're going to lose and nobody will care, we need to start building for the future.
A couple other random thoughts:
1. I have been a staunch McD supporter but I don't think I've ever witnessed a beatdown quite that bad for a while. He REALLY needs to put a team on the court next season that is competitive for the NCAA's or this program is going to lose any momentum it got after the coaching change. Season ticket sales will be down, recruiting is only going to get tougher... etc.
2. I've said it before, I'm very happy Bryan Peterson decided to come to ISU and be a Cyclone. This is not intended as a personal attack on him. However, I do not expect us to win a single conference game if he is our starting PG and continually plays 30 minutes per game. That being said, Diante is playing soft as heck right now and we need him to step up. He's the only other guy on the roster who could compete to take Petey's minutes, and he's just not stepping up right now either.
3. For a while there I was in favor of redshirting Wesley. But the fact is that we will be so abysmal without him we have to try and get him healthy while still playing him as much as possible. I don't think there is much to be gained this year, but I don't think going 10-21 is a good idea either. I also think that it'd be hard to keep Wesley on campus for 5 years. He'd be a 24 year old senior and a 25 year old Pro rookie if that were the case. I have a hard time believing that will happen. Of course if he could permanently hurt himself he should sit, but otherwise, get him on the floor.
I have a million MBB thoughts in my head, and that's why I haven't posted anything until now. I was a pessimist around here before the season and I didn't think it would be this bad.
WOOT!!! BUT we need this game for other reasons and it's basically been covered really well in this thread. We need to find a way to pressure teams & throw them out of their gameplan and relieve the press we get as well.
