The really cool part about the tournament is that it could be. Just get in and see what happens. Your best team might exit immediately while a weaker one might catch lightning in a bottle.
*** Official #24 IOWA STATE vs #20 BYU Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
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That loss was about on par for that team but it is a good example of 'just when things seem to be great...'
Personally I don't even care if ISU were to get a 8/9 game. Who's going to be a one seed that's scary?
It was not only called a foul - it was called a shooting foul!!
Send the trainer an e-mail with some links and justification for use. Couldn't hurt.
Send one to JP also. He could make sure it gets thru, as I'm sure all the AD Dept. staff have screeners and more/most likely goes to junk mail.
That was definitely a homer call!
What else is it about #15 (Saunders) that people don't like? He seems to be getting some Cyclone fan hate. I'm just getting into the 2nd half replay. I didn't see anything in the 1st half that would make me dislike the player any more than the others.
Demolition Derby. The Big 12 is a meat grinder.
I question why we didn't at least attempt to insert him into the game after Ward was ejected and got down by double digits. The team was playing flat, why not put him in for a few minutes and see if he could spark the team a bit? We got our asses handed to us without him in the game until garbage time so it's not like whatever he would have done would change the outcome any worse than it turned out.
Seems to be the taboo topic around here even talking about him and I trust TJ and the staff but just seems odd how we can't even carve out a 5+ minute role in some of these games to get him some experience. Especially when the outcome is pretty much determined as he wasn't even getting in until a couple minutes left in games we were up big in the non-conference portion. Is he really just that bad in practice? Early in the season it was obvious that Milan was making the adjustment to this level of play more than Omaha but never did I think we'd be relegating him to garbage time end of the bench minutes like he's getting. Maybe someone has more info on what is going on behind the scenes I dunno but the whole situation is just strange.
Right now BYU anywhere other than Hilton is scary enough. No need to imagine what a real #1 might look like.
I feel like I’m arguing semantics, so I won’t belabor the point anymore after this post. My expectation wasn’t (and never is) to win a national title or be a national title “contender”. By definition if you’re in the tournament you can win a national title, and there is enough parity in the sport a lot of teams can win it all any given year.
My expectation going into the season was to be in the hunt for a conference title (e.g. a game or two back into late February), finish 4th or 5th in the conference, and get a 3-4 seed in the tourney. All of those things were in the realm of possibility with 11-13 Big 12 wins, assuming the conference champ finishes with 14-15+ wins (as has happened 7 of the last 10 years). In fact, those are the exact seasons Baylor and K-State had last year. So those are good proxies for what I expected. I don’t think they were exorbitant.
Now, my expectations have lowered given only one freshmen from our 4-man (5 with Rock, but I’m not counting him) top-10 recruiting class is a contributor and the transfers have not been the shooters I was hoping for.
I don’t necessarily think this is a tournament team. But as I said, I’ll happily eat crow and take all the “dumbs” I get. Because I hope I’m wrong (and have been plenty of times before).
I’m curious too. He’s one of my favorites on the team. All hustle all the time. I could see people getting irritated by that if you faced him. But I’ve never seen anything malicious.
I'll look for it in the 2nd half and let you know what I think. I didn't see anything wrong in the 1st, other than that call which really wasn't his fault, he was just trying to rebound.
Watching the 2nd half replay now, 16.18 left in the game. Byu is getting the ball inside, we are not (although trying).
Why can't we get it inside? Good D by Byu but we are not showing enough of an outside threat, need to make a couple of 3's. We are not even trying to shoot from distance. So they were jamming the middle. I think it gets worse from here. And we didn't make enough adjustments.
We are also turning down quite a few good mid range shots in order to go further inside, unsuccessfully.
Why can't we get it inside? Good D by Byu but we are not showing enough of an outside threat, need to make a couple of 3's. We are not even trying to shoot from distance. So they were jamming the middle. I think it gets worse from here. And we didn't make enough adjustments.
We are also turning down quite a few good mid range shots in order to go further inside, unsuccessfully.
Yeah...I agree with that. But I'm certainly not thinking we need to launch 30+ 3s a game either. Maybe a joint effort of doubling our made 3s without shooting a large sum of shots. And maybe less doubling the post and guard man to man on the 3.
This stands as an excellent take.
There was the incident with Saunders at the 10.30 mark (2nd half), when Waterman was shooting FT's [This after Waterman got fouled by Watson and Watson and Ward getting pushy on Waterman trying to get up.] Looked like Ward blasted Saunders off the foul line causing him to fall. Tempers flaring at this point, ISU down 14 now and appearing to be very frustrated.
Ward is a bit out of control IMO, gets a Flagrant 2 and he was ejected. Was there some baiting there? I don't know.
I remember thinking Flagrant 1 on that one, but understood the F2. I couldn't understand the Houston game, the Houston player only getting an F1 against BRE (Big Rob Energy -Jones), when that should have been an F2.
The play or two after this, BRE gets fouled by Kalifa, and goes down very hard. But it looked like a BB play by Kalifa and nothing egregious. We are getting our butts whipped at this point.
Down 18 now at the 8' mark, Milan gets fouled by Saunders on a 3 point attempt. I just thought he was going for the block and made a stupid foul. At this point, the tension was still pretty high and Byu had all the MO.
Then at the 4.10 mark, Saunders cuts and get the pass, makes a driving layup while Lipsey reaches in and fouls him (not hard) but injures his L shoulder. Tamin is out the rest of the game and we are unsure the seriousness of the injury.
That's how I see it. Saunders
See you in the rematch, BYU.
Edit: I can see the hate toward some of the Byu players, and specifically Saunders and Waterman.
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Rewatching this segment again. Saunders gives a very hard foul on a Momcilovic shot at 10.58, taking him down. This is gonna escalate pretty soon. It did.
Waterman does drape his arm over Watson's neck and head, 10.30 mark, then rolls, taking Watson's head with him, not cool. Watson and Ward are now chippy to Waterman as they get up. Waterman has been getting away with quite a few fouls earlier. It's starting to blow up.
I see this a little differently now. BYU hacking, fouling much of night, not getting called on many. ISU getting frustrated. Ward is frustrated and also sees himself as an enforcer now, taking his F2 on Saunders, Saunders is a perfect target, had just done a hard hack and body blow foul on Momcilovic. Statement made, right or wrong.
I would rather have had Ward keep his cool there, on the other hand it's the emotion of the game and wanting to try to change the direction of the game, good or bad.
So there you have it, the 11' to 4' mark in the 2nd half, some critical moments. The game and that sequence won't be forgotten when they play again in Ames.
The first two TJ teams were dramatically worse in the 2nd half of conference play, when teams got to see their defense a second time and better understood their offensive shortcomings. Opposing teams this year and moving forward won't all have that luxury. That is all I was getting at.
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