Enjoy the ride

bawbie

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Mar 17, 2006
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Why is this so difficult for fans? Every year the team will be different with ups and downs. ISU is in a position to land a 3-6 seed in the tourney and all people do is complain. 3-4 years ago, you would have **** your pant for a season like this. This team doesn't deserve to be called lazy, selfish, weak minded, etc. They deserve your support so stop crying and give them that.

This is spot on. I think some of it is based on the heightened expectations this year, which were very real, and in light of those expectations a 3-6 seed can be viewed as somewhat of a disappointment, but a little bit of perspective is obviously needed.

On the other hand, this type of freak-out happened each of the last 4 years, so it's not entirely based on expectations.

As you pointed out, it's the incessant personal attacks (lazy, selfish, weak, not trying, etc) that make this site fairly unreadable after a loss for me. I don't understand how people can treat their favorite team that way.
 

NorthCyd

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Aug 22, 2011
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Why is this so difficult for fans? Every year the team will be different with ups and downs. ISU is in a position to land a 3-6 seed in the tourney and all people do is complain. 3-4 years ago, you would have **** your pant for a season like this. This team doesn't deserve to be called lazy, selfish, weak minded, etc. They deserve your support so stop crying and give them that.

I totally agree about the criticisms that border on personal attacks. Too many people assume they know the heart and character of these guys, and say some really stupid **** in the heat of the moment.

But do any diehard fans really "enjoy" watching their team? The irony is the better your team is, the more is constantly at stake, and the more excruciating it gets when things don't go well. I get there is some elation after big wins, and its always fun to look back on good seasons, but its hard to really "enjoy" when your in the middle of it. Just seems like part of being a fan.
 

CyJack13

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May 21, 2010
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Probably because even with a good seed, it doesn't look like we'd win any more than 2 games in the tourney based on how these neutral/road games have been going

Well yeah winning more than 2 games in the tournament is extremely hard, our best team ever won three games. There's very, very few teams that look like they will comfortably win more than 2 games in the tournament.
 

im4cyclones

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Jun 14, 2010
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Ames, IA
Very true. Get caught up in the emotions. I can't take a loss. I just want to see a team that fights every single possession. When you think about the fact that it is sports - a distraction for us that starts fresh every year -- it is pretty silly to get worked up about. It is a past-time for us. It is Fred's job. He should be the one who gets emotional about it (and I am sure he does).

Thanks for the re-set.
 

Rural

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Feb 3, 2010
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JFC, we are the darlings of ESPN even when launching a stink bomb like last night.

Jay Williams, "This is the way basketball should be played".
 

istater7

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Mar 31, 2010
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JFC, we are the darlings of ESPN even when launching a stink bomb like last night.

Jay Williams, "This is the way basketball should be played".
He said that after the 92 point first half. That was a pretty good half for ISU was it not?
 

CYdTracked

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2006
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Grimes, IA
I think we as fans have every right to be frustrated and critical of our team. We blew a 10 point lead when we were in control for most of the 1st half then completely fell apart in the 2nd half and got down by 20. OU was playing well but well enough that we allowed a 30 point swing over a matter of about 15-20 minutes of play? How often do you make 14 3 pointers, shoot 48% from the field and lose a game by double digits? Here's the story:

Turnovers: ISU 14 OU 7
OU flat out took care of the ball better than us plus we gave up 14 offensive boards that led to a lot of 2nd chance points. OU had a 17:7 assist to turnover ration while we had a 12:14 ratio. Heck OU wasn't even getting to the FT line much going 6-6 while we shot a pathetic 7-14.

This team has shown us what it can do when it stays focused and plays defense for 40 minutes. We beat a good KU team in Ames and completely threw their offense off and we completely dominated a bad TT team where we held them to 38 points on 31% shooting after they had scored 78 points on 42% shooting on their own court against us. The effort on defense needs to improve. We have the athletes that can be shut down defenders when they want to be and they can't just expect McKay to clean up everything if they don't feel like playing hard on defense every other time down the floor.

I knew as soon as we started forcing things in the 2nd half and making terrible passes and taking poor shots very early in the clock without passing the ball around that the game was over and that was with about 13 minutes left in the game. As soon as we start doing that the wheels fall off on both ends of the floor usually. This team is better than that and we all know it, the players know it but for some reason they haven't figured out how to maintain that focus and energy over 40 minutes consistently, especially on the road where they don't have a home crowd to lift them up when the other team goes on a run. It's hard to fault McKay, that dude brings it every game on both ends, another solid line last night 14 pts 9 boards with 3 on the offensive end. Bryce brought some offense off the bench but at times channeled his inner Chris Allen and chucked up some poor shots but at times I thought he wasn't brining it on the defensive end and he's a guy physically that should cause the guy he us guarding a tough time trying to make a play.
 

Wesley

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Apr 12, 2006
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Based on what?
More missed free throws, weak defense, more missed three pointers, worse rebounding.....all these areas we could be better...this means the team can get better whereas last year we pretty much peaked with what we had
 

ca4cy

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Dec 6, 2009
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North Central IA
JFC, we are the darlings of ESPN even when launching a stink bomb like last night.

Jay Williams, "This is the way basketball should be played".

That ended up being the highlight of the night. You can't buy the exposure we're getting from guys like Jay Williams. Except for the last 3 minutes, that was an AMAZING half of basketball by ISU, and the whole thing had to be extremely fun to watch for the average college hoops fan that tuned in. Sometimes I wish I could remove my emotion and just enjoy how fun we can be to watch when we're rolling. I get texts from non ISU friends all the time telling me what a good brand of basketball we play. It may not always lead to wins, but I'd still rather watch this than 52-50 games the take 2 1/2 hours.
 

isu81

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Mar 6, 2013
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Probably because even with a good seed, it doesn't look like we'd win any more than 2 games in the tourney based on how these neutral/road games have been going

You realize tournament games are a "neutral/road" game for the other team as well, right?
 

Psiclone

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Apr 11, 2006
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Why is this so difficult for fans? Every year the team will be different with ups and downs. ISU is in a position to land a 3-6 seed in the tourney and all people do is complain. 3-4 years ago, you would have **** your pant for a season like this. This team doesn't deserve to be called lazy, selfish, weak minded, etc. They deserve your support so stop crying and give them that.

A big part of the problem with people's expectations was created by Fred and the players at the beginning of the season when they were talking about a national championship, winning the Big XII, etc.
 

bawbie

Moderator
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Mar 17, 2006
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Cedar Rapids, IA
A big part of the problem with people's expectations was created by Fred and the players at the beginning of the season when they were talking about a national championship, winning the Big XII, etc.

Having expectations isn't bad.

Not being able to handle when expectations aren't met is bad.
 

ILikeCy

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Dec 16, 2008
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Probably because even with a good seed, it doesn't look like we'd win any more than 2 games in the tourney based on how these neutral/road games have been going

And since when is it bad to win 2 games in the tourney? I know we all want more than that, but if we make it to the Sweet 16 and no further, I'm still going to feel like this was a pretty successful season.
 

DeereClone

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Nov 16, 2009
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I am frustrated with how some of the games have gone, to be honest, but I agree with the OP. It is so much fun to be relevant in basketball.

Also, we have not peaked yet, and typically Fred's teams don't peak until March. The talent is there, the coaching is there, we just need to put it all together at the right time. Hopefully we can do that, make a run at a Big 12 Tourney Title, and win a few games in the NCAAs.
 

NATEizKING

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Feb 18, 2011
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Hilton
I used to avoid this place after a loss for at least 24 hours, now I like to get on and see all the n00b overreaction. Football I still avoid as that is just intolerable, but this basketball team is still in a pretty good place so I get a laugh out of some of the posts on here. They won't win the regular season, darn. UConn won it all as a 7 seed and in a worst case scenario we probably end up as a 6 at worst. National title is still possible, just as much of a long shot as it was before the season.
 

heitclone

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Jun 21, 2009
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Way up there
Probably because even with a good seed, it doesn't look like we'd win any more than 2 games in the tourney based on how these neutral/road games have been going

Only 2 games in the tourney? Fire Fred, take schollies do whatever. We can't stand for consistently being mired in the lousy Sweet 16.