By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com PublisherFollow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams
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Here’s a day late Happy Father’s Day to all of you daddy’s out there.
Now, this week’s Monday Musings…
ON IOWA STATE BASKETBALL…
— Matt Thomas’ recent commitment to the Iowa State basketball recruiting class of 2013 had been in the works for a long time. I’ve never seen a young man take more unofficial visits to one school without committing than Thomas did with Iowa State. It wasn’t that Thomas was indecisive either. The young man just happens to be a very thorough human being and who can blame him? In his position, choosing a college will go down as one of the biggest decisions of his life. In that spot, taking your time and weighing your options is a very positive thing.
— Shortly after committing to Iowa State on Thursday afternoon, Thomas told me that getting to the NBA is his ultimate goal. It drove some peeps crazy at the time, but the whole "I’ve got every NBA GM on speed dial" comment Fred Hoiberg made during his opening press conference at Iowa State is still paying off today.
ON THE CAPITAL CITY LEAGUE…
In what’s become a summer tradition in Des Moines, the YMCA Capital City League tipped off last week at the Valley Southwoods Gymnasium. I haven’t had the opportunity to attend a night yet this summer but do plan to do so sometime this week. Never been before? CLICK HERE for details on this year’s league. Here are a few tips as well…
— Don’t expect to see much defense. If you go there expecting to see guys diving for loose balls and taking charges, you’re in the wrong spot.
— Having said that, this league does have a tendency to tell us quite a bit about newcomers within the Iowa State men’s basketball program. It isn’t an exact science. After all Tavon Sledge did drop 50-plus in a game last year. That obviously didn’t translate. But still, the first time I saw Melvin Ejim play in the league, it was obvious that he was a Big 12 player. Eric McKnight was not. Royce White was a dadgum freak last summer.
Just take this league for what it is worth. It’s like any sporting event actually. The good is generally never as good as it appears at the time. The same goes with the bad.
— If I had the first pick in the 2012 YMCA Capital City League draft, I’d have a hard time not taking Korie Lucious. However, this is generally a league where big men dominate. Because of that, it’d be pretty tough to stay away from Will Clyburn…Who would you take?
ON WOMEN’S HOOPS…
— The Iowa State women’s basketball program picked up its second verbal commitment for its class of 2013 over the weekend. CycloneFanatic.com will have more on this story later on this week but you can CLICK HERE to visit Jordan Jensen’s ESPN.com profile.
— If you’re keeping track at home, that’s two top-100 ranked recruits for Bill Fennelly’s 2013 class. Jansen joined Mason City’s Jadda Buckley as an Iowa State commit.
ON IOWA STATE FOOTBALL…
— By no means is this a done deal so don’t make travel plans, but I’m hearing that Iowa State’s football game with West Virginia could very well take place on the Friday after Thanksgiving. That’d be kinda neat…
— One thing that I like about Iowa State’s first football commitment of 2013, California quarterback Trevor Hodge, is the fact that he only threw four interceptions last season. Having said that, Hodge appears to be a heck of a runner. He’s a fine athlete and with a 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame, that’s a good thing. It gives Iowa State flexibility on where to play him at in the future if quarterback doesn’t work out.
— It isn’t very often when a football prospect out of the state of Texas commits somewhere and that young man doesn’t have a profile page on Rivals.com, Scout.com or ESPN.com. That happened last week with the commitment of safety Kamari Syrie. I’m hoping to catch up with Kamari later on this week. Since Syrie made the commitment, Rivals did create a profile page for him. CLICK HERE to check it out.
RANDOMS…
— My wife and I attended the College World Series with my parents yesterday in Omaha. Being that I’m from southwest Iowa (grew up an hour and a half from Omaha), the CWS is a tradition that I’ve embraced ever since I was a little dude. If you’ve never been, I highly encourage making the trip at some point in your life. The atmosphere is fantastic and Omaha’s new TD Ameritrade Park is state of the art. Having said all of that, I’m still not aboard the "bring back baseball" train at Iowa State.
— I watched my fair share of the U.S. Open over the weekend. Personally, I have no problem with "Get in the hole!" guy. He doesn’t take himself too seriously (obviously). He’s passionate (to a fault). He’s comfortable with who he is. He’s pretty darn funny.
— Speaking of golf, thanks to the great people at the American Cancer Society for inviting me to golf in their outing at Beaver Creek last Friday afternoon. I was randomly paired with my Cyclone Reaction co-host and former player/political up & comer Jack Whitver. Let’s just say that our team didn’t bring home the top prize and we’ll leave it at that…
— Here’s a shout out to our all-everything technology guy Sam. His behind the scenes work at CycloneFanatic.com has been phenomenal from the day he came on board. We moved servers on Friday night in what was the first step of many to making CF the greatest fan site in America.
