ISU-UT Post game thread

**CYdTracked** · 01-10-2009, 05:47 PM

Brackins 1st half play really hurt us. I know he had a nice scoring 2nd half but it was obvious the better post players he's going against is going to make it much tougher on him.

Plus with Brackins out our offense went into panic mode and chucked up a lot of poor shots. The one positive I took from this game is Hamilton is really coming into his own lately. That poster dunk showed some fire out of him we have not seen yet and you can tell the increased playing time is giving him a lot of confidence. He should benefit playing next to Brackins and notice how a lot of his scoring opportunities came with CB was actually in the game. 8 pts 10 boards is a pretty solid first Big 12 game for this kid. Brackins 5 for 18 shooting really hurt us though.

**A-town Cy** · 01-10-2009, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by saf

Good game today. Hamilton is such a stud. LOVED the aggressive 1-handed dunk. Hamilton is the key to how far we go this year, imho.

Yep, the way he's moved into the starting line-up over Thompson has been huge, Alex is much better off the bench.

**EYEoftheSTORM** · 01-10-2009, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by saf

Good game today. Hamilton is such a stud. LOVED the aggressive 1-handed dunk. Hamilton is the key to how far we go this year, imho.

ha ha ha ha ha ha agreed!!!!!!

hey A.J. Abrams, how did Justin Hamilton's nuts taste! lol!!!

**ISUonthemove** · 01-10-2009, 05:49 PM

We've played pretty well 4 out of the last 5 games. Seems like we're making progress. Athletically, we're towards the bottom of the conference right now. We need to keep penetrating and getting to the FT line. I'm surprised how well we did with that and not settle for 25 footers all day.

**Aclone** · 01-10-2009, 05:49 PM

Brackins' one half was nice. Now, just to put two of them together against a good team.

**CyCloned** · 01-10-2009, 05:49 PM

I liked the effort but not the officiating. ISU got called several times for touch (a couple times no touch) fouls, while TX hacked rebounds away from ISU 4 or 5 times. I don't mind if it gets a little rough, but some consistancy is needed.

**Wallacelantz** · 01-10-2009, 05:55 PM

I havent been able to catch a lot of the games this year, so this was my first real good look. Here is my opinion. First overall I was happy with the effort overall, played them a lot tougher than I thought we might. In the first half I thought the pressure D hurt us, it seemed to take us out of our game. One of our strengths is the 3 point shot, but I think we need to create those a little more on inside out oppurtunities instead of firing them off the dribble. I think at times we forced some bad shots. In the second half I think we allowed them to get too much in the paint. I am very impressed with hamilton. I think Staigers mid range jumper off the dribble will prove to be a huge weapon. I think the thing we are missing most is that player that can create off the dribble and finish. The guys played with a lot of heart, but in the end we just dont have the athletes to match up with the top tier teams. Very excited about the rest of the season and the future.

GO CYCLONES

**saf** · 01-10-2009, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by Aclone

Brackins' one half was nice. Now, just to put two of them together against a good team.

Hard to have a good half when you are sitting on the bench, but I agree.

Must say that I also really like how Brackins is rebounding. 13 boards (I think 4 offensive) is really good. Early this year I never thought he would be a good rebounder, but he is going up and getting them.

**ISUonthemove** · 01-10-2009, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Aclone

Brackins' one half was nice. Now, just to put two of them together against a good team.

I don't want to be hard on Brackin's but a lot of his second half points were easy put backs and scoring when the lane was cleared. I wish he were more dominant with his back to the basket. This is where he could use another year or two in conference play to improve. He will see athletic freaks every night in the NBA, like Texas and OU have and he hasn't proven he can score downlow against them. Egelseder is a joke compared to what he will face the rest of the season.

**saf** · 01-10-2009, 05:57 PM

Also, Eik didn't even play (or I didn't notice him)--hopefully he comes out of his slump and gives us quality minutes.

**A-town Cy** · 01-10-2009, 05:57 PM

Zero highlights for I-State on ESPNews

No surprise but I was at least wanting to see Hamilton's dunk again.

**StLouisClone** · 01-10-2009, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by CyCloned

I liked the effort but not the officiating. ISU got called several times for touch (a couple times no touch) fouls, while TX hacked rebounds away from ISU 4 or 5 times. I don't mind if it gets a little rough, but some consistancy is needed.

Yeah, how about the phantom foul call on Boozer, the one where they had to look at the replay to find out who committed the foul. I actually hoped the ref might take back the foul call after looking at the replay.

**ce1** · 01-10-2009, 06:01 PM

2nd half defense really hurt us, esp. in the low post and paint...do you think we were tired? Texas kept getting to the basket, and really stuck the mid-range jump shots. I thought we played a solid offensive game, the type we needed to win. We just couldn't stop them from scoring in the final ten minutes.

Gary Johnson was the X factor for Texas. Our front-court defense didn't have a good answer for him.

Overall, a lot of positives. Especially Hamilton's game. As fast as he's progressing, he makes me think two years from now he'll be a dominate player in the Big 12.

**LindenCy** · 01-10-2009, 06:06 PM

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but we out rebounded and out assisted them. They only had 5 turnovers though, wow.

**agcy68** · 01-10-2009, 06:07 PM

I am hoping that this team will get better with age and experience. Hamilton looked a little out of position on defense a couple of times, but if he works as hard as everyone says he does he could be pretty good by the end of the season.

I just hope they work their tails off in improving the rest of the season. If so, there could be a couple pleasant surprises in the rest of the schedule.