Brent Blum is joined by Jake Brend on a Williams & Blum Sunday to recap Iowa State Football Media Day and the men’s basketball availability with Jamarion Batemon. The two then set the line for all 12 of Iowa State’s regular season games. Williams & Blum is brought to you by Mechdyne in the Northwest Bank Studios.

I thought that there was a thread on this, but apparently not. Big XII highlights of ISU from ‘24, minus the Iowa game.

About the time Rocco was hitting Noel deep downfield against Baylor, I realized that I had tears running down my face.

The ‘24 season was great. It was memorable. It was awesome.

Could we do it again, please? Only this time, without the injuries.

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And have a service that you would recommend? Kid is moving for grad school but her new car is an EV and I don't want her trying to drive it that far.

Rumors on Reddit he is stepping down for health reasons.

I know we have various threads on here that get into this issue somewhat (mostly the CR Gazette one)... but wanted to kind of put it all in one place.

There are 3 major things negatively affecting ISU Athletics and its future right now... and it puts us in a very precarious situation I'm afraid. They are....

1. NIL - financially for obvious reasons

2. Wendy Wintersteen retiring - who knows who gets that job and what their view on athletics will be? Wintersteen by all accounts has been great.

3. When will JP retire? - not too much talk on this, but this would probably be the BIGGEST of the 3 issues IMO. JP has been amazing for ISU Athletics. I don't agree with him on everything, but nobody can refute what he has accomplished for ISU Athletics... maybe the best AD in the country. He has to be thinking about retiring soon I would think... and his replacement will probably make or break us.

And... with all 3 of these things lingering over us... who knows what that will do to people like Matt Campbell, TJ, etc... and their futures? I just really feel like the next handful of years will really determine the future of our athletics program.

Below you can watch Matt Campbell’s full press conference as well as full interviews with Rocco Becht, Xavier Townsend, Ben Brahmer, Gabe Burkle, Carson Hansen, Jeremiah Cooper, Caleb Bacon, Kooper Ebel, Will McLaughlin and Kyle Konrardy.

Just wondering if I’ve missed this…any news on a Thanksgiving tournament for the women? I’m thinking of going to Vegas for the men’s tourney so I need to know!

In Jake Brend‘s recap of Iowa State Football Media Day, he hits on what Matt Campbell said about Rocco Becht‘s leadership and how Ben Brahmer and Gabe Burkle have become professionals. Hear how Carson Hansen has developed his game with the O-Line and the type of competition that’s happening in the linebackers room.

Thanks to @Mr Janny for this idea. What is a favorite or particularly entertaining idiom of yours? Any stories about misunderstandings related to them? I work with a lot of people for whom English is not their first language, and they have mentioned that this is the hardest hurdle of translation.

For example, here are a few that have some weird mental images:

- Chew the fat
- Put a sock in it
- **** or get off the pot

How do you envision how the rotation works this year? I think the biggest question is at SG with Heise and Nelson. My guess:
PG - Lipsey
SG - Nelson
SF - Milan
PF - Jefferson
C - Buchanon

Plenty of minutes off the bench
Heise
Batemon
Toure
Mulder

I'm bullish on the future of Pleta, but I think his minutes are limited this year. I don't see us going past 9 deep much.

I avoid Starbucks when at home and typically go local. But I have been traveling a lot this summer, so I typically hit up Starbucks a couple times a week. The real draw for me is their Lemon Pound Cake- love it! A couple times I've gone mid-afternoon and asked fore a certain type of coffee based on the carafe behind the counter and the counter person just said they were out and offered what was available. No problem, I'm in it for the caffeine and could understand if a carafe ran out mid-afternoon and they were slow to make more.

Today I hit up a Starbucks in Western Colorado shortly before 11am and asked for a Sumatra (based on carafe) and the counter person said they ONLY serve Pikes Place after 10:30am. I was about ready to belt-out are you effing kidding me, this is a coffee shop!!! But I was polite. But if that's a nationwide practice, seems like a horrible business decision. Anyone else come across this?

In the last week I visited a McDonalds on an interstate where the bathrooms were locked and the counter person had to unlock the bathroom. Probably just a franchisee decision, but I hope its not a national trend.

Recently used AirBNB to book a condo stay. Afterward I received the ubiquitous customer service survey and rated the property 4 (on a 1 to 5 scale) in a couple areas. The host initially reached out to receive further clarification and there were a couple rounds of back & forth. At that point, I thought he was fulfilling his "Superhost" responsibilities. Finally, the host sent me a note saying I must not travel often (I do, over 60 days in the last year) and not understand the AirBNB rating sytem. Included with the note was canned one pager that hosts could provide customers. The one pager had multiple bullet points letting me know that I was destoying the properties and his repuation in AirBNB's view by gving a rating of anything less than a 5. Don't get me going on the worthlessness of a 5 point rating scale. But if a 4 is such a "jerk move" by the customer, why send out surveys? If this one-pager was the work of this one host, I would have written it off. But the document was obviously passed around among hosts and viewed as a gospel.

Has anyone else come across bizarre "business practices" in their travels this summer. I feel companies have lost their "Customer Focus".

Rant Over!! No Cubs tonight to give me purpose

On Thursday’s edition of CFTV, Jake Brend has a report from the Sukup Men’s Basketball Complex for a summer media availability. Cyclone Fanatic heard from freshmen Jamarion Batemon and Dominykas Pleta as well as T.J. Otzelberger. Batemon talked about how he takes pride of his defensive abilities and Pleta is still adjusting to life in America on and off the court.

This is a real picture. Cops came to get him for credit card theft. They wanted to just take him outside but apparently he started to resist so they cuffed him and took him out. Lol!

I live in Urbandale and my yard backs up to a green space/wooded area near 80-35. There have been coyotes reported in the area, but they haven't been much of an issue.

Recently, I've spotted a few crossing my yard during the daytime, which is a bit unusual. In the past, I would only see them early in the morning. Should that be a cause for concern? I don't have pets, but I do have young children who play in the back yard.

The ISU Alumni Club of Denver is hosting our 36th Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament this Saturday with nearly 150 Cyclones heading out to City Park Golf Course! Our scholarship fund supports local Coloradans heading to Iowa State. We have some awesome auction packages this year from Cyclone celebrities along with some autographed gear from the Nuggets - check them out below!

A few items in the auction (bidding closes at 1:15pm MDT on Saturday 7/26 - we can ship to you):

• ISU at Colorado Football Ticket Package
• Round of Golf at the Country Club at Castle Pines with MLB World Series Champion + Cyclone Hall of Famer, Mike Myers
• 2024-25 ISU MBB team autographed Hilton floor piece
• Lipsey + Momcilovic Autographed Maui Invitational Jerseys
• 2024-25 Denver Nuggets team autographed jersey
• + lots more!

Bid Here -->
Hope you'll take a look. There is also an option to donate directly to our scholarship fund on the site for those interested - every little bit helps!
Finally, don't forget that all are welcome to stop by our events or football/basketball game watch parties if visiting Denver. With football season coming up, we're excited to be back at our main game watch bar, Society (1434 Blake St, downtown) in the Mile Cy City - more info on our website: denvercyclones.com

Pre-sale just started and I thought I had it, but seem not to have it