Men's Basketball '05-'06 vs '06-'07

[Jeremy]

Men's Basketball '05-'06 vs '06-'07
CycloneFanatic.com
Jeremy Lind
Opinion

While 90% of the fan-base understands that the Men's Basketball program is heading in the right direction, there are still some that question how this season is going. Hopefully this will help a little bit.....

For some reason there are always people that don't use logic when analyzing a team's performance from one year to the next, especially when controversies are mixed into the off-season. Let's take a look at last year's men's basketball team compared to this year's by analyzing the quality of the wins and losses for each.

Last year Iowa State entered the season 23rd in the country and things looked good with two prospective NBA guards (Stinson & Blalock) at the helm and a supposedly future NBA power forward (Taggart) on the inside. The non-conference schedule couldn't have been any easier and the conference as a whole wasn't as tough as previous years. Yet for some reason, Iowa State failed to garner even a nod from the NIT, let alone the NCAA. How could this happen? Let's take a look at the W's and L's...

(Note that the below rankings are obviously based on personal opinions and everybody would rank things differently.)

Terrible Losses: Iona, Fresno State, Nebraska, Baylor (incredibly bad)
Bad Losses: Kansas State, Colorado
Good Losses: Ohio State, Texas A&M, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Easy Wins: Mountain State, Portland State, Howard, Drake, South Florida, NW State, Colorado State, Tennessee State, Kansas State, Nebraska
Good Wins: UNI, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Missouri

This year Iowa State entered the season with a new coaching staff, new style of play and only two returning starters. While the future was bright, it was obviously going to be a rough ride with very little offensive power and extremely under-sized post players. Things have been bumpy and down-right sloppy at times but except for one or two games, the players have appeared to try twice as hard as at any time last year. Not only have the players found ways to stay in games despite terrible shooting, they've done it while learning and growing with each other. While nobody expects to go to the NCAA or probably even the NIT this year, we at least have a legit reason why.

This year so far...

Terrible Losses: Drake (borderline)
Bad Losses: Bradley, Colorado
Good Losses: Ohio State, Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Texas A&M, UNI, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Missouri
Easy Wins: UC-Riverside, Louisiana Monroe, Eastern Illinois, Norfolk State, Lake Superior State, Savannah State, SE Missouri State, ND State, Nebraska, Baylor
Good Wins: Minnesota, Missouri

Games remaining: Oklahoma, Kansas State, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas Tech

Looking through both season's results it's easy to see that while we don't have the quality wins this year that we would all hope for in the future, we also don't have the terrible and ugly losses experienced a year ago. All of Iowa State's losses this year, possibly excluding Drake, have been to teams with either more experience or just plainly better athletes. While a couple of the losses have been ugly, they've been to extremely good teams, excluding Missouri.

Iowa State came incredibly close to upsetting Kansas, played Ohio State extremely well for 35 minutes and Texas for 25 or so minutes. Who else besides Iowa State would have been able to defend possibly the most versatile scorer of the past decade with a walk-on and hold him to a conference low 17 points? (Remember that Durant averages 33 in conference play and hadn't been held to less than 26 so far.) Some people say there is no such thing as a moral victory in college basketball but that my friend is an incredible victory for this young team and eager coaching staff. It showed that even though we're overpowered in all aspects, we still give it our all and find ways to be competitive with the best of them.

It hasn't been a great year for victories but anybody questioning the direction of this program needs to read a few books from the "Introduction To College Sports" series. This team might not be the most athletic or offensively potent but they play with as much heart and determination as any team we've seen. They know they don't have the best chance heading into a game but they know that as long as any chance remains at all, they'll find ways to exploit it. Regardless of the final outcome in a couple of weeks, I couldn't be more proud to be a Cyclone as I am today. It won't always be easy but we all know that hard work leads to great rewards.

Go Cyclones!

[ISUKyro]

Wow, I had almost forgotten that last years team started out ranked.
For the most part I agree with everything posted. Let's hope for a great next season and if nothing else at least the wrestling team is on fire!

[cycloneworld]

Great info Jeremy.

About your classification of wins and losses over the past 2 years:
I would put the OU loss into the "bad losses" category. We were up 7 with about 1:20 to go and lost.

Also this year I would put the Colorado loss as "terrible" and I would call the Missouri loss a bad one instead of a good one.

Other than that, I think you are right on.

[clone52]

Drake didn't seem so bad at the time, but in retrospect, that isn't a borderline loss, its a terrible loss. Also, I'd put Colorado in the terrible loss column. Missouri should also go as a bad loss (not terrible). They aren't that good and it was at home and we looked like crap. If you look at how we played and not just how good the team was that beat us, Texas A&M and Iowa would also be bad losses. And both of our good wins were a wisker from being a bad loss (losing at Missouri may have been a good loss).

[clonomaniac]

Good article Jeremy.

Here's my comment:
- McD is trying his best to stay above 500 during his first season at ISU and I think he will get it done. How, we will find out soon.
- I say even with our bad losses this year, we "played with the heart" for much of this season compared to WM's ball club.
- Next year will be even more difficult for McD to stay above 500. I do not think we will bounce back for another couple years. This is tough!
- Big 12 is full of great coaches. McD is a good coach, he will have to be a great coach soon and I am certain he will get there. Here are my reasons why he is not so great yet:
-- Texas game, 2 minutes remaining - ISU gets the momentum - down by 8 points while they trailed by 20 points on average the entire 30 minutes prior to that. Big coaching decision, what will McD do? Well, he brought Brock in for shooting 3's - clearly a mistake, bad decision!
-- Ohio State game, 7 minutes remaining - game has been pretty tight so far. No major adjustment was made defensively, OSU gets easy baskets and gets away with a win.
-- Oklahoma State game, despite a sluggish start by OSU, ISU is only within 3 in half time. It seems like we play to the level of competition, we don't take advantage of teams looking sloppy.
-- Many of the games this seasons, we played excellent in just one half - first or second. Not both halves - not the entire 40 minutes. Granted its a rebuilding season, but for how long??? This is a big 12 league that is full of great coaches, great opportunities, and yet some miserable teams that should get us "easy" wins. We need to establish some dominance against teams like Missouri or Colorado and prove that we are at least better than the bottom feeders. McD has been unable to take us to that level.

[Jeremy]

I ranked them based more on the W vs L instead of how the game unfolded. I know some games could be ranked differently but I tried to be fair overall.

[SANDWEDGE]

Jeremy what a great post great

[mjones34]

Great post, Jeremy. I'm just sick of people bashing eveyone. So far, people have bashed Brock, Jiri, Taylor, McIntosh, Ceaser, Marsden, any I'm sure more than that. 90% of the time, the bashings were after that particular player had a rough game.

I agree that the 2006-2007 team is not up to the level fans expect, but seeds are being planted as we speak. At times this year we've played like we can play against ANYONE, other times we act like we don't deserve to be D1. Thats the nature of inexperience.

I think a good and realistic goal for us this year would be to finish above 500 in our overall record and get a couple more quality big 12 wins. Oklahoma is the perfect game for us to reinstate Hilton Magic.

[ColoradoClone]

I feel the biggest difference is the "heart" the team has shown. While some of the losses sicken me, and some of the inconsitency baffles me, I rarely feel like the team isn't trying. With last years team, I felt this quite a bit.

It's much easier for me as a fan to accept a below average team that puts forth effort and doesn't quit, than an above average team that seems to not be trying at all.

If we keep falling way behind and having to rally to look respectable, I'm going to start asking why we dont "rally" for 40 minutes.

[ISUFan22]

Wow...good post.

Excellent observations and points.

[statman]

I wouldn't put Iona (possibly a NCAA tourney team?) last year or Drake this year (weren't they the mythical state champ?) in the terrible category. While the close losses have been a bit frustrating, I didn't have great expectations for this year--many of the close games I didn't expect to be close. Juri, Wesley, Taylor & Dunson have all very far exceeded my expectations. I can't wait for next year to add in Brackins, Thompson and 3 guards (especially Garrett) while loosing only Gray. Hopefully, another year of experience for the returning guys combined with the new faces will turn many of those good losses into good wins in 2007-2008

[CrossCyed]

Here's how I'd do it

Terrible Losses: Drake (borderline), Colorado (they suck, no excuse)
Bad/Mediocre Losses: Iowa (borderline), Mizzou (don't lose by 22 at home), UNI (NIT team at best)
Good Losses: Ohio State, Texas, Kansas, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Bradley (they're a top tier team in the MVC)
Easy Wins: UC-Riverside, Louisiana Monroe, Eastern Illinois, Norfolk State, Lake Superior State, Savannah State, SE Missouri State, ND State, Baylor
Good Wins: Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska (they don't out and out suck for once.)

[PsychedClone]

Originally Posted by mjones34

Great post, Jeremy. I'm just sick of people bashing eveyone. So far, people have bashed Brock, Jiri, Taylor, McIntosh, Ceaser, Marsden, any I'm sure more than that. 90% of the time, the bashings were after that particular player had a rough game.

I agree totally. These players don't deserved to be repeatedly bashed, especially in a public forum. If a player has an attitude problem or is not putting out the effort, I would have no sympathy but I just don't believe that to be the case with this team.

[Jeremy]

Originally Posted by PsychedClone

I agree totally. These players don't deserved to be repeatedly bashed, especially in a public forum. If a player has an attitude problem or is not putting out the effort, I would have no sympathy but I just don't believe that to be the case with this team.

I think that's dead on. While last year people were openly criticizing the effort being put forth, it's not the same situation this year. Last year we clearly didn't play up to caliber and this year we're doing darn good considering. If anything, this team needs an award for effort and team unity for everything they've gone through.

[mt85]

Good post Jeremy. One point I might argue is your thought that this team might not be the most athletic. I would argue that this team is very athletic but may be lacking the physicalness of other big twelve teams.

This team may struggle to score the ball, but they've been pretty good at rebounding and defending. Those are the cornerstones of a solid foundation. It may take a while to get all the right pieces in place, but once they are the future looks bright.