Tied for 9th-11th, ahead of Nebraska (2-14)
Still find it mildly hilarious we finished that season with a win @#5 KSU. Showed the talent was there to get more wins than we did.
DG coming home
- Thread starter ClonesTwenty1
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Tied for 9th-11th, ahead of Nebraska (2-14)
Still find it mildly hilarious we finished that season with a win @#5 KSU. Showed the talent was there to get more wins than we did.
...plus three other guys who played in the NBA.
Plus two of the best shooters in school history in Staiger and Thugglesworth.
Plus some talented if mercurial bench guys like Dendy and Colvin.
Again, not asking for a national title... but not even having a pulse...
I'm still trying to make it make sense in my head almost 15 years later.
Don't forget Jamie Vanderbeken.
Compare the talent on that team to TJ's first two years here. I'd consider the talent on that last McDermott team to be quite a bit better. For some reason it just didn't work.
JVB only played in 10 games that season before a foot injury shut him down for a medical RS.
He did not play any games in the Big 12 and hence why I deemphasize him.
TJ has literally had one guy record ANY minutes in the NBA -- Iz Brockington. And yes, I know some guys might project there someday (e.g., Milan, Jefferson, etc.) but that was it so far.
McDermott had...
Mike Taylor
Wes Johnson
Craig Brackins
Diante Garrett
Justin Hamilton
It is still infuriating!
Still remember that day. I was afraid that was going to save Macs job.
Fred coming to town was the best thing that happened to him. McDermott really failed DG and everyone else.
If Altman didn't create the opportunity by leaving for Oregon it probably would have. McDermott wasn't getting fired (it was late april before he even left for Creighton).
At least he was gone.
It's in like Chapter 6 of 'The Lost Chronicles of ISU basketball weirdness'.
This is one of my favorite alternative histories. GM had just held into his job by hiring two new assistants: Jeff Grayer and Iowa Energy coach Nick Nurse. Iowa State paid Nurse $175k for the four days he was an assistant. If Nurse had actually coached with GM for a season, does he still end up as an NBA head coach?
If you're playing that alternate history game, add if Harrison Barnes chose to come to ISU.
Probably doesn't suddenly make ISU a winner the next season, but could have saved McDermott for even longer.
I was absolutely furious when we won that game because I thought Pollard would use it as an excuse to keep him.
He did.
McDermott was 100% coming back to Ames for another year.
Then the dominos fell.
Altman to Oregon. McDermott took the route that was one part cowardly in slinking out of Ames to Creighton but also one part "it was probably best to move on for everybody involved."
Similar to Chizik leaving for Auburn... clearly wasn't working. Auburn and Creighton were nice enough to pay for the buyouts for those two contracts that were hanging around Pollard's neck.
Another interesting "what if" had Pollard been saddled with those two bad hires rather than having a chance at a mulligan with Hoiberg and Rhoads, which were generally successful hires. I know Fred left and Rhoads couldn't sustain success in the long term, but both of them were what we needed at the time.
Then Fred. Then Fred to the NBA into Prohm. Then Prohm crashes and burns but... not before TJ has enough time to get his feet under him as a head coach and come back to save the day.
Oregon doesn't hire Altman and who knows where we are right now.
(Might still have been TJ in another roundabout way.)
Conversely, for all he did for ISU, bringing us out of the McD abyss and back to national relevance, isn't it kind of hard to believe one of the first things Fred did was fire Nurse?
Could be wrong but in regards to McD/Chizik, McD really did seem to attempt to succeed and at least gave it a few years and seemed to care about the place.
I'm not sure if Chizik ever had two feet in the door. He did recruit fairly well in a short time though so maybe somewhere in there he showed that it could be done.
Iowa State was always going to be a stepping stone for Chizik. He didn’t give a **** about the university or ames. He took the first head coaching job he was offered and knew he would likely be gone to elsewhere in a few years.
I know Pollard was pretty new when he made the Chiz hire, but I don’t know how he didn’t see through his ******** during the interview process.
Both coaches did Iowa State (and JP more than anybody else) a solid leaving as they did. I do think McDermott wanted to be in Ames... but for some reason it just never worked out.
Chizik had one foot out the door the second he arrived. Which was fine if he won. See below.
The Pollard angle is what is fascinating to me. Pollard comes in and pushes out McCarney (and Iowa State legend and grandfatherly figure to all Cyclones everywhere now) and Morgan and gets "his guys" in McD and Chizik and... both of them are total duds. Rather than their tenures ending ugly and expensively (sort of like Rhoads and Prohm) then Pollard gets a mulligan to do it again. His second attempts are Hoiberg (a big risk but an unexpected hit) and Rhoads (started well the first four years before it went south on him).
ADs who screw up FB and MBB hires tend not to last in a place. If McDermott comes back and goes 1-15 in the Big 12 the next year and Chizik wins four games then three the next two years...
You gotta fire both of them. And egg is all over JP's face and tenure at that point.
No Pollard past ~2012 and... who knows where we are now.
...which is fine by me if he wins and sets the program up for success when he departs (a roster stocked with talent, a good recruiting pipeline, higher national profile, an energized fanbase, no perception Iowa State does not "deserve" to be in a power conference because of its dismal football record, maybe a high-quality assistant who would be the obvious successor and/or the job in Ames is much more attractive to somebody due for a bigger job... like say this guy named after a soup can in northwestern Ohio who likes to bend his hats).
Chizik did none of those things save maybe stocking some talent on the roster.
If Fred keeps Nurse, he's very likely getting rid of Otzelberger. It's definitely a huge what if moment.
I seem to remember retaining TJ was a high priority for the incoming Hoiberg administration.
TJ was a rising star at the time, was known as one of the best recruiters in the country (something Fred famously did not enjoy very much), and had recruited most of the existing roster worth keeping.
Obviously Nurse went on to a very interesting career after that decision.
I don’t think anyone thought Chizik was going to stick around for long. He was a huge splash of a hire, and an impressive get. I think the thought/hope was that he’d have success and move up, proving it was possible to win in Ames.
