Never Saw That Coming...Basketball

[GoClone]

As the antithesis to another thread:
Name three Cyclone basketball greats to come out of nowhere and do way more than you ever expected at some point in their careers. To get it started I will go with
1. Senior year LaFester Rhodes... Don't tell me you saw that coming.
2. Jeff Hornacek... Walk-on to Big Eight and NBA Great
3. Tyrese Haliburton... Too Skinny and should redshirt to Cyclone assist record and his NBA Payday

Interested to see what everyone else thinks, and to remember and recognize some of our best.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Naz played 124 minutes and scored 25 points as a true freshman overall.

He played 17 minutes and scored 2 points in Big 12 games.

He'd eventually be a second-team all-Big 12 SG and one of the most beloved players in school history.

As a super-senior, he played 1,164 minutes and scored 530 points.

As a super-senior against the Big 12, he played 625 minutes and scored 307 points.

I don't know if there's been more of a "nobody" into "somebody" story in program history.

 

[CyberJJJ]

Not to replace your list, but to add to it:

- Matt Thomas as a defensive stopper his final two years after how he played defense his first two years.
- Jared Holman offensively his senior year.
- 20 point come from behind win vs IA after Mr Soft for IA went off in the first half (OK so that doesn’t fit the form of this thread, but boy, was it fun to say!)

 

[t-noah]

As the antithesis to another thread:
Name three Cyclone basketball greats to come out of nowhere and do way more than you ever expected at some point in their careers. To get it started I will go with
1. Senior year LaFester Rhodes... Don't tell me you saw that coming.
2. Jeff Hornacek... Walk-on to Big Eight and NBA Great
3. Tyrese Haliburton... Too Skinny and should redshirt to Cyclone assist record and his NBA Payday

Interested to see what everyone else thinks, and to remember and recognize some of our best.

You took my three! Just kidding. But yes to all three of those, especially to Hornacek and Haliburton.

I would extrapolate that we need to recruit someone with a last name starting with H! No pressure Jelani! Come on Conrad!

Seriously, my pick would be Jamaal Tinsley! I'm not sure ISU realized how good he could become, what he did here, and then afterward in the NBA. He was special and very fun to watch.

 

[GoClone]

Naz is a great story. I could see that he was not going to be a point guard that Freshman year and would need to become a shooting guard instead, and darned if he didn't do just that. Not to mention a beloved shooting guard as well. Especially after hid buzzer beater in Hilton against OSU.

True also, about Tinsley. What a magician with the ball in his hands.

All good vibes here so far. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Melvin Ejim from role player to Big 12 player of the year

 

[bozclone]

Jeff Hornacek - walk-on to one of ISU's best
Georges Niang - pudgy kid with old man game to one of ISU's best
Tyrese Haliburton - many thought he should redshirt to NBA All Star and $260 mil

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Halliburton - a 3-star, good recruit to one of the top 15 players in the NBA.

I was listening to the Bill Simmons podcast earlier this week and he and Ryen Rusillo were discussing the Halliburton contract. They were going through team by team that passed on drafting Halliburton.

The sheer incompetence of every team after 5 who passed on him, especially the Knicks and Spurs at 8 and 11 who needed PG, is mind-boggling.

 

[Cupped]

I gotta go with Johnny taking the HC position. In March 1980, he surprised everyone by leaving Michigan for Iowa State. He said Iowa State had offered him the highest salary of any college basketball coach in the country: $45,000, a substantial raise from the $33,665 he was earning at Michigan.
Over the next 14 seasons, Orr brought speed, success and a measure of spectacle to Ames, Iowa, and the arena the Cyclones called home, Hilton Coliseum. Fans would stomp and cheer as Orr entered the arena for home games to the theme from Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” He would respond by giving a succinct fist pump to the crowd — and often by leading his teams to victory.
Teams coached by Orr won a remarkable 76.7 percent of their games at the arena, including 20 victories over teams ranked in the top 25. “Hilton magic,” it began to be called. According to the university, the average attendance at home games the season before Orr arrived was 6,470. In the 1985-86 season, the average was 14,024.

 

[NoCreativity]

Niang was a 4-star, Top 75 recruit, not exactly the definition of a rags to riches story.

 

[CycloneErik]

Niang was a 4-star, Top 75 recruit, not exactly the definition of a rags to riches story.

Maybe or maybe not. People forget this, but he played with a heralded young man named Nerlens Noel.

 

[BCClone]

I was standing on the sidewalk and all of a sudden Jared Homan comes out of nowhere from underneath this car.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

Sam Hill - center in the Hornacek / Grayer years. As a freshman, he just looked like a big body (that couldn't jump very well). By the time he was a junior, he had a good offensive repertoire of a sweet mid-range jumper and a soft lefty sky hook. He became a significant option in the offense.

Dr. Marc Urquhart - He was a 6'4 walk-on that Johnny turned into a tough defensive player. When he first made the team, he didn't look to shoot and was very limited offensively. But he had some good point production his senior year. He's now an orthopedic surgeon.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Lafester's nickname was "point a minute." Everyone knew he'd be scoring machine once he got minutes.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Sam Hill - center in the Hornacek / Grayer years. As a freshman, he just looked like a big body (that couldn't jump very well). By the time he was a junior, he had a good offensive repertoire of a sweet mid-range jumper and a soft lefty sky hook. He became a significant option in the offense.

Dr. Marc Urquhart - He was a 6'4 walk-on that Johnny turned into a tough defensive player. When he first made the team, he didn't look to shoot and was very limited offensively. But he had some good point production his senior year. He's now an orthopedic surgeon.

You nailed it with Urquhart. Early in his career he was the crowd favorite, last guy off the bench in blowouts. By senior year, he was a damn good player.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Lafester's nickname was "point a minute." Everyone knew he'd be scoring machine once he got minutes.

IIRC, in his early career, he'd sometimes come in for 3 minutes, and have 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 fouls.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Not to replace your list, but to add to it:

- Matt Thomas as a defensive stopper his final two years after how he played defense his first two years.
- Jared Holman offensively his senior year.
- 20 point come from behind win vs IA after Mr Soft for IA went off in the first half (OK so that doesn’t fall the form of this thread, but boy, was it fun to say!)

Uthoff made millions in that first half.

 

[cyclones500]

IIRC, in his early career, he'd sometimes come in for 3 minutes, and have 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 fouls.

I still remember a game (can't recall opponent) Lafester's freshman season, ISU with a large lead, Rhodes and Eli Parker entered the game with less than 5 minutes to play. Lafester scored either 14 or 17 points. He took a shot every time he got the ball (and made most of them).

 

[SouthJerseyCy]

As the antithesis to another thread:
Name three Cyclone basketball greats to come out of nowhere and do way more than you ever expected at some point in their careers. To get it started I will go with
1. Senior year LaFester Rhodes... Don't tell me you saw that coming.
2. Jeff Hornacek... Walk-on to Big Eight and NBA Great
3. Tyrese Haliburton... Too Skinny and should redshirt to Cyclone assist record and his NBA Payday

Interested to see what everyone else thinks, and to remember and recognize some of our best.

Key words here are "at some point in their careers".

I'd say Hornacek and Haliburton fit the bill, but more because what they did in the pros.

As far as massive improvement at their time at ISU, agree with others that LaFester, Naz and Ejim are probably tops.

If you're looking for players that just didn't look the part, but got the job done, Julo & big Vic come to mind.

 

[drlove]

Lafester's nickname was "point a minute." Everyone knew he'd be scoring machine once he got minutes.

a former teammate of his told me he had another nickname as well that has inspired a screen name.