Never Saw That Coming...Basketball

[madguy30]

I love Matt Thomas, and if senior Matt was going to be on the squad next year, we'd probably project him to lead the team in scoring as the featured SG and he'd be the face of the program right now far more than he was in reality being "stuck" behind some all-time personalities like Georges and Naz.

That being said, I wouldn't have called him a defensive "stopper" on the same level as Chris Babb and Gabe Kalscheur. Matt went from a heralded SG recruit who, well, couldn't shoot and was bad at defense to one of the best shooters in school history (with the prettiest form I've ever seen from a Cyclone... so quick and so smooth...) who was at least a plus defender in the Big 12 but not really a true stopper.

I've watched that comeback game against Iowa a few times now. I know Matt takes the credit, but Georges was actually the one guarding Uthoff when he came back down to Earth. I don't think it was so much the defense as Uthoff had the half of his life channeling Bird and then the magic potion wore off.



He was a starter as a true freshman. He was fourth on the team in scoring behind Garrett, JVG, and Uncle Jake and second on the team in rebounding after Uncle Jake. Is that really a "role player?"

That being said, going from a low-end starter in the Big 12 (who was starting mostly because of a complete roster reset after McDermott left and Fred came in) to CPOTY is still impressive.

When Matty T. came into form his senior year it was more like a 'he's arrived' then 'out of nowhere'. Expectations iirc were huge for him coming out of high school and it took some time for him to just play and react instead of worrying about the next step.

Of note, he was the one player that looked like they knew he was in a one and done situation that awful March day in 2015, his sophomore year.

I saw Ejim play on Fred's first team over Thanksgiving weekend and his athleticism stood out, was just raw is all. That said I wouldn't have predicted he turn into what he did.

 

[cyclone1209]

Ejim PPG against the Big 12 --

8.4
10.9
10.7
18.3

I don't know many guys who scored 8.4 against the Big 12 as a freshman who utterly didn't belong in the conference. And that is before you factor in his rebounding numbers...

6.2
7.1
9.4
8.9

Ejim was just an elite college player. Did everything well outside of 3 pt shooting

 

[wing59]

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.

If I remember correctly, Jeff Hornacek was going to go to an Ivy League college but changed his mind and decided to come to Iowa State. Johnny didn’t have any available scholarships so they made an agreement that if he walked-on, he would get the first available scholarship. I may be a little off but this is what I remember.

 

[CyberJJJ]

Tyrese is a great passer and ball handler, but it would be hard to choose the best ever out of a pool of Haliburton, Tinsley, and Hornacek.

Easy, Hornacek was here all 4 years.

 

[HFCS]

BDJ was the same way. He could have had a nice NBA career if not for the tragedy.

His game was always that of an NBA slasher/SG.

He actually wasn't a great fit for college Hoiball even outside of the personality issues.

I think Tyrese was perfect for any level of basketball.

He only played a freshman season and less than half of a sophomore year.

Recruiting “experts” are utter morons if they couldn’t see he was named best player in Wisc while having the wingspan of a power forward with elite pure pg skills. I saw it in five minutes.

 

[Sigmapolis]

I think Tyrese was perfect for any level of basketball.

He only played a freshman season and less than half of a sophomore year.

Recruiting “experts” are utter morons if they couldn’t see he was named best player in Wisc while having the wingspan of a power forward with elite pure pg skills. I saw it in five minutes.

I would have taken him first overall.

Not even Cyclone glasses on there.

He’s the best player of his draft class so far.

 

[CydeofFries]

I do remember Ejim as a projected starter, though.

If only because the roster was so depleted rather than based on raw talent.

Garrett, Christopherson, Anderson, and Vanderbeken were the other starters.

What other options did you even have...?

Bubu? A freshman walk-on who was promoted to a scholarship player?
Godfrey or Railey? Last-minute summer recruits with much lower ratings than Ejim?
DeMarcus Phillips? Didn't even finish the first semester with the team.

And that was it. The team went into that season with only nine eligible (read: not counting the large crop of guys on transfer redshirts) scholarship players, which dropped to eight when Phillips left.

Ejim was starting with the paucity of other options one way or another.

Wow that's a surprisingly strong starting lineup for what that team ended up doing that year.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

To be honest I always thought Tyrese game was more suited for the nba over college. Lots of guys have college games that don’t translate like Fizer.

Would Fizer have been fine in the NBA were it not for his nagging knee injury he suffered his rookie season? I'm not going to deny he was a bit of bust, but I think it was primarily due to the injury

 

[Cyinthenorth]

John Neal begs a mentioning here. Those 3 point daggers to beat Iowa sprung him from walk on scrub to scholarship athlete

 

[fcclone]

Deonte Burton seemed to start his career slow before busting out. So athletic and powerful.

 

[12191987]

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

That is surprising if true.

You know what wouldn’t be surprising? Given how tall and athletic some of the Campbell-era TEs have been it wouldn’t be crazy if one of them played high school basketball with some decent future D-I guys.

You’d probably have to do a lot of sleuthing to confirm it though.

 

[theshadow]

If I remember correctly, Jeff Hornacek was going to go to an Ivy League college but changed his mind and decided to come to Iowa State. Johnny didn’t have any available scholarships so they made an agreement that if he walked-on, he would get the first available scholarship. I may be a little off but this is what I remember.

Wanted to go to Cornell, but didn't get in for the fall semester. They told him maybe spring semester, so instead he pivoted and enrolled at ISU in January. Joined the team and redshirted the second half of the '82 season.

 

[wing59]

Wanted to go to Cornell, but didn't get in for the fall semester. They told him maybe spring semester, so instead he pivoted and enrolled at ISU in January. Joined the team and redshirted the second half of the '82 season.

You are correct about that. I was a little fuzzy on all the details but that is how I remember it.

 

[CySmurf]

I seem to remember us being picked to finish dead last as well. Others have said I remember wrong - but it's more than 20 years ago now so who really knows anymore.

The country knew nothing of Jamaal Tinsley yet...
...they were about to find out.

 

[CyNews]

Gotta put Dr. Marc Urquhart in there.

 

[CyNews]

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.

Andrew Parker—looked like a deer in the headlights at first and then became one of the most dynamic ISU players ever.

 

[singsing]

Sam Mack has got to be one of my 3. Players that exceeded my expectations would be Brockington, Tinsley, and Loren Meyer.

 

[Cyclones8824]

Is it too early to say Tamin, was supposed to be a backup and ended up all making all big 12 freshman team

 

[NWICY]

Sam Mack has got to be one of my 3. Players that exceeded my expectations would be Brockington, Tinsley, and Loren Meyer.

Mack the knife. Wonder whatever happened to him.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Wow that's a surprisingly strong starting lineup for what that team ended up doing that year.

That team had some talent and potential. The starting five wasn't winning the Big 12 but they were good enough to compete for a slot in the NCAA tournament behind an excellent scoring PG, an excellent SG, an excellent shooting big man, a "do everything" guy in Anderson, and freshman Ejim.

They had two flaws, though, which were exposed in the conference season --

(1.) No depth. Calvin Godfrey was okay in bursts off the bench, but they just needed two more replacement-level players in the Big 12 to chew minutes and keep the starters going late in games. One guard and one big would have been fine. I remember that team playing tough the first 30 minutes or so during many games but fading down the stretch as their lack of depth and talent was exposed by opponents.

(2.) Didn't play much defense. Hoiball was never about getting stops, but this team was particularly bad at defense even by those standards and couldn't afford to foul due to reason #1, so they hoped to win shootouts but didn't have enough ponies to really play that style for a whole 40 minutes.

The blueprint was there, though, and Fred would start it singin' the next season.