Williams & Blum: The Aaron Craft game with the forgotten Hoiberg team

[Aiden Wyatt]

Sunday's W&B in your feeds now. I promise it is not as bad as it sounds! Great discussion on the 2012-13 season and what could have been.

Enjoy!

Williams & Blum: The Aaron Craft game with the forgotten Hoiberg team

Chris Williams and Brent Blum look back at the 2012-13 Iowa State Basketball team's NCAA Tournament loss to Ohio State, the Aaron Craft shot, Georges Niang's heartbreak, and how this became the forgotten Hoiberg team. Courtesy of Mechdyne. https://youtu.be/q0iUsXYpzqU

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[Cydkar]

ZERO chance

 

[exCYtable]

Too soon...

 

[madguy30]

I really didn't watch many games that season and actually missed this game due to other commitments.

Just remember a text from someone saying it was maybe good that I missed it.

 

[Cyched]

 

[Sigmapolis]

Aaron Craft is now Dr. Craft.

Post-professional basketball career[edit]​

He enrolled in the Ohio State University College of Medicine to pursue a medical degree in August 2020.[34][35][36] Craft matched into an otorhinolaryngology residency at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and graduated medical school in 2024.[37]

 

[cytor]

Thanks for picking that scab. It's bleeding all over again.

 

[AlaCyclone]

The worst part of that day was all of the Indiana fans (for the IU-Temple game) wearing the candy-cane warm-up pants. My goodness, that was scary.

 

[Lineup]

Freddy was a cornsucker forever

 

[LivntheCyLife]

Weird to say but I don't think I was ever more nervous for a game and then disappointed. After catching lightning in a bottle with transfers the year before, I really thought a window was closing with losing Will Clyburn, Chris Babb, and Tyrus McGee after this game. Then with the 1 and 3-5 seeds all losing in the region, it felt like such a missed opportunity.

So crazy that the next year would add Kane and Morris to Niang plus the leap that Ejim made. My views on Iowa State basketball and what is possible is so much different now than it was then.

 

[jsb]

Too soon! . It's only in the last couple of years I've been able to talk about the 2000 Michigan State game

 

[CyCrazy]

**** Aaron Craft the basketball player. Good on him being a Dr.

 

[CydeofFries]

This is the peak Hoiberg team to me. All the other ones had such a defined identity around one player Royce and Kane and then the Niang/Morris/Thomas/Naz seasons after are separate since they span both him and Prohm. It was all gas no brakes. I'm shocked going back through this team was never ranked, but I'm probably blinded by nostalgia

Babb getting hurt in that last game is almost as big of a what-if to me as Niang breaking his foot. The Niang foot team was better, but Babb was our stopper and the path after was a 6th seed Arizona and 9 seed Wichita State to get to the final four.

 

[madguy30]

This is the peak Hoiberg team to me. All the other ones had such a defined identity around one player Royce and Kane and then the Niang/Morris/Thomas/Naz seasons after are separate since they span both him and Prohm. It was all gas no brakes. I'm shocked going back through this team was never ranked, but I'm probably blinded by nostalgia

Babb getting hurt in that last game is almost as big of a what-if to me as Niang breaking his foot. The Niang foot team was better, but Babb was our stopper and the path after was a 6th seed Arizona and 9 seed Wichita State to get to the final four.

They didn't win consistently enough to get ranked.

No good wins in non-conference, three losses (two to ranked opponents), then good conference record (11-7) but some weird losses too.

Their best game all season may have been ND first round.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

They didn't win consistently enough to get ranked.

No good wins in non-conference, three losses (two to ranked opponents), then good conference record (11-7) but some weird losses too.

Their best game all season may have been ND first round.

I’d much rather relive that ND game! Or the UConn game in the first round the year before. Those wins were utter dominations against favored opponents

Edit: found the full ND game on YouTube.

 

[CRcyclone6]

A couple BS calls and Babb getting hurt. ****!

 

[cyclones500]

Does anyone remember the severity of Babb's injury? -- specifically, if ISU had advanced to Sweet 16, would he likely have returned?

It's a "what-if?" question regardless, something that sprang to mind. The way that season unfolded, it seems like like the longer it extended, the more dangerous we'd be, like if everything were pushed back 2 or 3 weeks and some of the earlier season was "non-existent." If that makes sense.

Kind of the opposite of 2000-01 (and probably 2018-19) when the peak seemed to come too soon.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

**** Aaron Craft the basketball player. Good on him being a Dr.

He's probably still a ****.

 

[CRcyclone6]

Love this though

 

[Lyon309Cy]

I think about this team, and tournament often. We hosted an exchange student from Spain that also loved basketball, so we bonded over this team. We even hosted a game watch for their friends for the ND game, featuring authentic Spanish tapas. To this day, if I have time, I make Spanish omelets or croquetas before postseason ISU games. And when I make them out of season, I can't help but remembering this team.
One nit to pick from the pod, there was a restricted area at that time. I remember the heel of the Ohio State player was hovering over the line while taking the bogus charge on Clyburn. It could maybe be argued that it was a charge, but the defender having their foot within the restricted cylinder should have made it a block, by definition. I remember post-game Barkley being the only one to call that charge out while everyone else was going on about Craft's shot.