Offseason of High Expectations

[madguy30]

Make a bowl game.

Make the tourney.

All's good.

 

[madguy30]

The situational awareness on 3rd down that year was enraging.

So was the leaky defense and special teams and just not getting the same breaks/plays as the prior season.

 

[beentherebefore]

Since it is April........

It would be awesome to finally win 10 games in a single football season.

Earning a 1 or 2 seed in both MBB and WBB would certainly imply that the seasons were excellent. The NCAA Tournament often comes down to matchups and officiating and player health and luck.

 

[HFCS]

I'm very concerned about a 2021 Football situation with the Men's basketball squad.

I’m also a little concerned about that and I was 100% sure they’d be good this year, tried to convince the board las summer and fall that ISU had every possible indicator of success.

Coming into the season ISU had a fantastic grade in every metric that matters yet some were pessimistic.

- great coach, great stability
- great transfer class
- great freshman class
- elite home court
(That’s the order of importance too)

Those things are what matter now. The old way of “losing the most” or “bringing back the most” can be meaningless.

 

[AuH2O]

I'm very concerned about a 2021 Football situation with the Men's basketball squad.

A few major differences:
- Yes, Purdy, Hall, and others represent a ton of NFL talent for Iowa State. But the total number of NFL players was absolutely nothing special or even average among P5 schools, let alone contenders.
- The 2020 season was weird and in retrospect, probably not a great predictor of 2021
- With the relative few games, a handful of plays can wildly swing the success of a season in football

This basketball team has a lot of really good college players. The roster is going to be one of the better ones in P6 basketball. Relative to most of CBB ISU is going to return a good deal of production and experience that played a full, normal season with great success. We don't have to really project much. We've already seen most of this roster succeed at a high level under this staff.

 

[TXCyclones]

 

[AuH2O]

The three most disappointing losses were games where we scored enough points to win (Baylor, WVU and TTU). The WVU game was one of the worst officiated games we've ever had, but we let up so many big plays. The TTU game was downright pathetic for our defense. It's probably the worst game of the Heacock era.

The Iowa game was maddening, but we should have expected that. The OU game was one I never expected to win. The rest of those had lengthy periods of just god awful defensive execution.

Baylor was a strange game. Defense gives up 285 yards and gets a turnover, gives up 24 pts, as there was a KO return for a TD. ISU has 479 yards of offense. ISU has 25 penalty yards, Baylor 100. It was a little like the Iowa game. If you look at the things that predict outcomes really well, it's hard to explain how ISU loses those two games.

WVU and TTU were just disasters and uncharacteristic of the Heacock era.