Williams & Blum: The Monday after

[Aiden Wyatt]

Chris Williams & Brent Blum analyze the conclusion of the 2024-25 basketball season at Iowa State. Adding everything together to decide what went wrong for the Cyclones, & what will be done over the next month for the 2025-26 roster. The portal is open and there is a lot to talk about. Presented as always by Mechdyne.

Williams & Blum: The Monday after

Chris Williams & Brent Blum analyze the conclusion of the 2024-25 basketball season at Iowa State. Adding everything together to decide what went wrong for the Cyclones, & what will be done over the next month for the 2025-26 roster. The portal is open and there is a lot to talk about. Prese

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[FinalFourCy]

The core has to be returning guys and transfers. You’re paying them most of the money because you know what you’re getting

I think it’s pretty clear that freshmen are ways to get upside, cheaply. Lottery tickets.

You don’t want to count on them, but get just one to be a starter level, and it’s moneyball. Hit on two, and it’s a season changer

Try to keep the ones that hit, mutually separate from the ones that don’t after a year or two. Need the space to keep playing the lottery

But we’ll need to change our bench usage to help them reach that upside. Don’t play starters late in blowouts. Don’t go only 8 deep in a buy game. Sneak in investment minutes in these guys

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Good discussion on needing to hit on freshmen with our limited nil resources. Hopefully this next crop pans out.

 

[FinalFourCy]

I think Blum and CW misconstrued the importance of the tournament for this team

It’s not that they’re unfairly judged because of a 2nd Round exit

The tournament was an opportunity to make people forget going 9-8 to end the year and 5th place

But in the end, they lost in the 2nd Round. Which unfortunately is commensurate for how this team played for most of the season

Hard not to question how a groin pull in December, an injury known to linger if not rested for weeks, culminates in tanking March. Hopefully lessons learned on that one, including investing minutes in the bench before they need the bench

 

[MTCyclone43]

But we’ll need to change our bench usage to help them reach that upside. Don’t play starters late in blowouts. Don’t go only 8 deep in a buy game. Sneak in investment minutes in these guys

I know you know that TJ is a metrics guy- so he is usually going to go with his rotation even in blowouts. A team needs those offensive and defensive numbers for the purpose of rankings/seedings.

 

[JEFF420]

26 min in and no mention of kelderman?? Come on guys

 

[JEFF420]

Ok 43 min

 

[aeroclone]

I know you know that TJ is a metrics guy- so he is usually going to go with his rotation even in blowouts. A team needs those offensive and defensive numbers for the purpose of rankings/seedings.

Yeah, but what good is clawing your way up to a 3 seed if the team is too beat up and gassed by March to capitalize on it?

 

[CloniesForLife]

I know you know that TJ is a metrics guy- so he is usually going to go with his rotation even in blowouts. A team needs those offensive and defensive numbers for the purpose of rankings/seedings.

Is sprinkling in some minutes throughout the game for guys 9 and 10 in the depth chart against **** competition really going to change our metrics that much? No one is saying put in the entire bench for the last 15 min but if you have a freshman with potential then let them get some run against the buy teams with the regular rotation guys so they can gain some confidence and get some reps.

 

[FinalFourCy]

I know you know that TJ is a metrics guy- so he is usually going to go with his rotation even in blowouts. A team needs those offensive and defensive numbers for the purpose of rankings/seedings.

Young coaches grow and improve

 

[cyclo120]

Watson can probably be a nice piece at a mid major, but if he is ever the man on a team like that they aren’t going to be that good. He can be very solid in a role but just isn’t that guy.

 

[rosshm16]

Yeah, but what could is clawing your way up to a 3 seed if the team is too beat up and gassed by March to capitalize on it?

Relatedly: we end up finishing 5th in the league, miss out on the double-bye in the Big 12 tourney, and that first game Tamin gets hurt. Bad luck for sure but it probably doesn't happen if we get that bye. We needed to win more games, not win by bigger margins.

I dislike the fixation on metrics because (at least all the ones I know about; kenpom torvik NET etc.) are all based on "what was the actual margin vs. what it was expected to be?" and that's misaligned with the goal of the actual game, which is to simply outscore your opponent.

 

[MTCyclone43]

I guess we just need to wait for Nojus to jump into the portal. Blum mentioned it multiple times that Nojus was probably portal bound. In fact, Blum and Williams both commented on how it would probably happen before the podcast is over. Every time that Nojus played any minutes it resulted in him dominating the ball and turnovers.

 

[mustangcy]

I think Blum and CW misconstrued the importance of the tournament for this team

It’s not that they’re unfairly judged because of a 2nd Round exit

The tournament was an opportunity to make people forget going 9-8 to end the year and 5th place

But in the end, they lost in the 2nd Round. Which unfortunately is commensurate for how this team played for most of the season

Hard not to question how a groin pull in December, an injury known to linger if not rested for weeks, culminates in tanking March. Hopefully lessons learned on that one, including investing minutes in the bench before they need the bench

Yes this is the question of the season...Gilbert has been off/injured for half the year. Why wasn't he shut down for the whole month of January? I think there are uneasy answers...either TJ and med staff mis read the injury, didn't think it was as serious as it was...or Gilbert didn't communicate well with the staff. Either way the injury management has got to be a serious discussion point moving forward. Its not like the injuries just slammed the team at the very end of the season...they lingered for most of it.

 

[qwerty]

The Williams and Hassell fathers get into it . . . . Cyclone = class, Hawkeye = not so much

 

[MTCyclone43]

Relatedly: we end up finishing 5th in the league, miss out on the double-bye in the Big 12 tourney, and that first game Tamin gets hurt. Bad luck for sure but it probably doesn't happen if we get that bye. We needed to win more games, not win by bigger margins.

I dislike the fixation on metrics because (at least all the ones I know about; kenpom torvik NET etc.) are all based on "what was the actual margin vs. what it was expected to be?" and that's misaligned with the goal of the actual game, which is to simply outscore your opponent.

TJ's manipulation of the metrics numbers and his concealing Keshon's separation from the team helped this team to a #3 seed. The #3 seed landed Iowa State a Lipscomb team that was tailor made for the injured/depleted Cyclone tournament squad. We all witnessed the Ole Miss beat down. Now take a couple of seeding spots away and Iowa State could have ended up getting bounced in the Round of 64. Just imagine, this board, if this team would have been bounced in the Round of 64.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Yes this is the question of the season...Gilbert has been off/injured for half the year. Why wasn't he shut down for the whole month of January? I think there are uneasy answers...either TJ and med staff mis read the injury, didn't think it was as serious as it was...or Gilbert didn't communicate well with the staff. Either way the injury management has got to be a serious discussion point moving forward. Its not like the injuries just slammed the team at the very end of the season...they lingered for most of it.

There is sometimes a tradeoff between the benefits of uncompromising pushing through, and the costs of ignoring of the need for preventive maintenance

 

[jsb]

Yes this is the question of the season...Gilbert has been off/injured for half the year. Why wasn't he shut down for the whole month of January? I think there are uneasy answers...either TJ and med staff mis read the injury, didn't think it was as serious as it was...or Gilbert didn't communicate well with the staff. Either way the injury management has got to be a serious discussion point moving forward. Its not like the injuries just slammed the team at the very end of the season...they lingered for most of it.

I think they need to figure out how these injuries don't get to the point of players either choosing to leave the team or the coaches encouraging them to leave the team. In a completely healthy relationship for all parties, there is no way that a starter doesn't travel to Milwaukee with the team for 4 days.

The Gilbert situation didn't get as bad as the Grill situation, so that is an improvement. But I still believe that it could have been handled better by everyone.

 

[MTCyclone43]

The Williams and Hassell fathers get into it . . . .

View attachment 146063

Hey Don, at the end of the day you still root for the Iowa Hawkeyes- so you are the one that needs a "suck on." The Iowa hire potentially looks like the Lickliter hire all over again.

 

[rosshm16]

TJ's manipulation of the metrics numbers and his concealing Keshon's separation from the team helped this team to a #3 seed. The #3 seed landed Iowa State a Lipscomb team that was tailor made for the injured/depleted Cyclone tournament squad. We all witnessed the Ole Miss beat down. Now take a couple of seeding spots away and Iowa State could have ended up getting bounced in the Round of 64. Just imagine, this board, if this team would have been bounced in the Round of 64.

The amount of "TJ can do no wrong" on this forum is wild.