TJ vs. the Top 10

[NorthCyd]

Everyone has already discounted the ISU 2020 FB season, let's not start attacking ISU's Final Four team as well...

That team had a roster that was constantly in flux as players were called away for service or dropped in to Ames mid-season.

For the Final Four they had to travel the day of the game and play knowing they would have to forfeit the next game even if they won due to Naval rules not allowing them to be out of town for any extended period of time. The other teams were in town the day before and were able to practice on the court. ISU first touched the court during pre-game warm-ups.

While the war gave them some advantages, it also came with disadvantages. They earned it.

There is nothing wrong with putting it in proper context. It's not the same thing as making a final four today, not even close. It wasn't even the premiere tournament back then. IMO it's never been held up as some great athletic achievement by ISU, just an interesting piece of ISU athletics history.

 

[CyberJJJ]

This just tells me that Mark Few and Gonzaga are very overrated and why they shouldn’t be in the Big 12. .323 against top 10 yet win 25-30 games per year. lol. Cupcakes abound. Also, lol at Mad Fran’s record.

but we aren't too many years removed from losing to cupcakes...

 

[NWICY]

I know the '44 Final Four is always going to be part of Cyclone lore.

But man that's so long ago...

And the game and sport is so different now...

There were only eight teams in the tournament...

And it was during the war so everything was weird...

I don't know how much it even "counts."

I know what your saying but I'll count it. We count the Fiesta Bowl win in FB.

 

[Cyclones8824]

We should have another top 10 win. Iowa State got screwed on the road against KU TJ’s first year.

 

[Jonyrose]

Wr are still looking for our 2nd final 4 I believe. I doubt if any of us posing on CF were around the 1st time.

My dad was 6 mo old.

My dad is old.

 

[CySmurf]

Was it a big crowd when you were there?

Keith Richards played his guitar while Perry Ellis sang the National Anthem.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I know what your saying but I'll count it. We count the Fiesta Bowl win in FB.

I'm not saying take the banner in Hilton with 1944 on it down.

Ideally, I'd want to start adding some more years to it.



But I would probably argue the COVID football season was more "normal." We played 12 games... the whole Big 12 schedule... a conference championship game into a high-level bowl game against a peer... yeah it was a weird year but the 2020 football season looks a heck of a lot more like the 2024 season than the 1944 college basketball season looks like what the Cyclones will play in the 2024 college basketball season.

And that paragraph is not even factoring in the recency issue.

Did Campbell and the staff have an advantage by having an experienced, veteran team with a lot of continuity? Yep. Did teams that lacked such structure and stricture struggle that year (see, for instance, the final Prohm basketball team going 2-22)? Sure did. But that's an advantage with or without COVID.

I don't think there's nearly the argument the 2020 Fiesta Bowl was somehow weirder than 1944.

 

[Thomasrickj]

I just counted quickly on sports-reference.com, which I think has AP rankings (including tourney games):

2022: 1-4
2023: 5-3
2024: 3-2
Overall: 9-9

Against top 25:

2022: 5-7
2023: 9-5
2024: 7-6
Overall: 21-18

I counted 10-9 vs top 10, not 9-9.

21-22: 1-4
22-23: 6-3 (Baylor x2, UNC, Texas, Kansas State, Kansas)
23-24: 3-2

 

[ClubCy]

I'm not saying take the banner in Hilton with 1944 on it down.

Ideally, I'd want to start adding some more years to it.



But I would probably argue the COVID football season was more "normal." We played 12 games... the whole Big 12 schedule... a conference championship game into a high-level bowl game against a peer... yeah it was a weird year but the 2020 football season looks a heck of a lot more like the 2024 season than the 1944 college basketball season looks like what the Cyclones will play in the 2024 college basketball season.

And that paragraph is not even factoring in the recency issue.

Did Campbell and the staff have an advantage by having an experienced, veteran team with a lot of continuity? Yep. Did teams that lacked such structure and stricture struggle that year (see, for instance, the final Prohm basketball team going 2-22)? Sure did. But that's an advantage with or without COVID.

I don't think there's nearly the argument the 2020 Fiesta Bowl was somehow weirder than 1944.

I heard a not so secret that we took the “sec approach” after the first couple of weeks in regard to testing but idk if we need to open up that bag of worms today.