*** Official #19 IOWA STATE vs Creighton Game(Day) Thread ***

[mjdivine]

Since when is having 6 tough conference games a story? There are always tough outs in the conference.......including us this year. Everyone is shaking in the boots over Iowa.........I don't get it. Like I have said before........why are people waiting for the shoe to drop just to say "I told you so"? Give TJ and the guys a little more credit than that. That is what was done to Prohm his first 2 years. Nothing was ever good enough. This team is already making a tourney run. They have 8 wins right now. You don't think between what non cons are left, the 18 game conference slate and the conference tourney this group can't find 12 more? Not every game is going to be against KU, Texas and Baylor. And I have seen KU play this year and I'm not so sure the guys can't sweep them. This team IS going to the tourney!

I posted this in another thread, but there is a very realistic path to 8 conference wins, which almost always gets you in the tourney from the best conference in the country:
1 win against the top tier (KU, Baylor, Texas)
3 wins against the middle tier (TTU, Oklahoma, OSU)
4 wins against the bottom tier (WVU, KSU, TCU)
Add that to the minimum 12 non-con wins we’ll have with several quality wins, and that’s easily a tournament resume.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

I posted this in another thread, but there is a very realistic path to 8 conference wins, which almost always gets you in the tourney from the best conference in the country:
1 win against the top tier (KU, Baylor, Texas)
3 wins against the middle tier (TTU, Oklahoma, OSU)
4 wins against the bottom tier (WVU, KSU, TCU)
Add that to the minimum 12 non-con wins we’ll have with several quality wins, and that’s easily a tournament resume.

Boom..................winning! And that's the minimum, right now. I can see them winning 10 conference games along with 1 or 2 in the conference tourney.

 

[isufbcurt]

Jones fouled out and Conditt played with 4 fouls for the last 7 or 8 minutes of last night's game. If Conditt fouls out, we have only Kunc and Enaruna (small forwards) as the only remaining players over 6'5". ISU is going to face this situation a lot in our remaining games. Iowa, KU, Texas and Baylor are going to pound the ball inside against Conditt. I am thinking TJ knows this and will be looking for more options on the bench for the 2nd half of the season.

I like our small lineup with Jazz at the 5.

I'd like to see Tre and Tyrese on the floor at the same time more, this might give Tre more open looks from 3.

 

[BoxsterCy]

It's almost like Pollard had never seen TJ coach up close or had a relationship with him to determine whether he'd be a good fit for ISU in the current situation.

Has anyone gotten a call from a former employer that's looking for help and thinks you'd be a good fit? Not an extensive process.

Thing is, to me anyway, is that he looks to be perfect for 2021. Perfect in 2016, who knows? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'd guess he's learned a thing or two from his five years as a head coach, no so much the recruiting (he knew that stuff obviously) , but about actually running a program as the guy and not an assistant. This may turn out to be an epic hire, hopefully he has an Orr like length of tenure.

 

[madguy30]

Since when is having 6 tough conference games a story? There are always tough outs in the conference.......including us this year. Everyone is shaking in the boots over Iowa.........I don't get it. Like I have said before........why are people waiting for the shoe to drop just to say "I told you so"? Give TJ and the guys a little more credit than that. That is what was done to Prohm his first 2 years. Nothing was ever good enough. This team is already making a tourney run. They have 8 wins right now. You don't think between what non cons are left, the 18 game conference slate and the conference tourney this group can't find 12 more? Not every game is going to be against KU, Texas and Baylor. And I have seen KU play this year and I'm not so sure the guys can't sweep them. This team IS going to the tourney!

Not sure anyone is shaking in their boots for Iowa. They're just a good team and December basketball is their moment and it would be annoying to watch them win in Hilton.

ISU will need to play better than last night. I'm curious to see how they defend Iowa.

Can't agree on sweeping KU but they're way less scary than BU.

 

[Kaner04]

It's too bad TJ couldn't have convinced Kaluma to come with him. I feel like this team is another big away from really being special.

There’s a reason he wasn’t recruited to come here after we hired TJ

 

[isufbcurt]

There’s a reason he wasn’t recruited to come here after we hired TJ

And what is that? He looked pretty good last night.

 

[OtownClone]

Does anyone know how to watch a replay of the Creighton vs ISU game? www.foxsports.com/replays is not working. I was at the game and would love to catch a replay of the TV broadcast.

 

[Sigmapolis]

There’s a reason he wasn’t recruited to come here after we hired TJ

I'd much rather have had Hawkins if drafting a Creighton big man.

Some insiders on here intimated we definitely could have had him.

He's from Iowa and wanted to be a Cyclone.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Thing is, to me anyway, is that he looks to be perfect for 2021. Perfect in 2016, who knows? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'd guess he's learned a thing or two from his five years as a head coach, no so much the recruiting (he knew that stuff obviously) , but about actually running a program as the guy and not an assistant. This may turn out to be an epic hire, hopefully he has an Orr like length of tenure.

While TJ deserves loads of credit I wonder what this team would be without Green on the staff. I wonder if TJ would have targeted him as an assistant then and if so would Green have taken the job.

 

[Tornado man]

While TJ deserves loads of credit I wonder what this team would be without Green on the staff. I wonder if TJ would have targeted him as an assistant then and if so would Green have taken the job.

That's a great point. In watching UNLV on TV the last couple of years, Otz's teams never seemed to play D with quite the intensity like we're playing now...

 

[CyHans]

That Memphis win is looking less impressive by the day..

They need to stop losing so that win stays strong

Evidently we took the fight out of them

 

[NoCreativity]

There’s a reason he wasn’t recruited to come here after we hired TJ

Go on.....

 

[cyclone87]

There’s a reason he wasn’t recruited to come here after we hired TJ

One thing we have to keep in mind is we lost some guys off the roster late. Namely Foster which was out of anyone’s control.

 

[madguy30]

Thing is, to me anyway, is that he looks to be perfect for 2021. Perfect in 2016, who knows? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'd guess he's learned a thing or two from his five years as a head coach, no so much the recruiting (he knew that stuff obviously) , but about actually running a program as the guy and not an assistant. This may turn out to be an epic hire, hopefully he has an Orr like length of tenure.

While TJ deserves loads of credit I wonder what this team would be without Green on the staff. I wonder if TJ would have targeted him as an assistant then and if so would Green have taken the job.

Yep lots of learning what not to do or what works or doesn't is needed before really taking something over like this.

So far it's worked out.

Aside from that being truly passionate about where you work can have an impact on how you sell it.

 

[NoCreativity]

One thing we have to keep in mind is we lost some guys off the roster late. Namely Foster which was out of anyone’s control.

I really hope Johnson and Hinson are ashamed of themselves. They basically stole 2 scholarships that could have helped us this year because they couldn't hack it with the intensity TJ demands.

Foster is a whole different ballgame but I hope he gets his life together.

 

[Cydkar]

Not sure anyone is shaking in their boots for Iowa. They're just a good team and December basketball is their moment and it would be annoying to watch them win in Hilton.

ISU will need to play better than last night. I'm curious to see how they defend Iowa.

Can't agree on sweeping KU but they're way less scary than BU.

I'm worried what teams learned by watching the press against us last night. Granted, WE will learn from it as well.
Our offense is going to struggle sometimes. It just will. The defense will win us some games...already has. So impressive.

 

[BoxsterCy]

While TJ deserves loads of credit I wonder what this team would be without Green on the staff. I wonder if TJ would have targeted him as an assistant then and if so would Green have taken the job.

Good point. And part of going from the guy being hired as an assistant to the guy doing the hiring of assistants.

 

[cyfanatic13]

Some of those Grill threes were Tyrus McGee-esque last night. If he can be that instant offense three point sniper off the bench, that raises this team's potential a ton

 

[madguy30]

I'm worried what teams learned by watching the press against us last night. Granted, WE will learn from it as well.
Our offense is going to struggle sometimes. It just will. The defense will win us some games...already has. So impressive.

Yeah and Iowa will be a problem since they play like 40 players and usually have some length in their press.

At times last night ISU did well against it, just got a little hurried a couple of times.

From a coaching perspective it's good for TJ to have plenty to work with for improvements.

I'm not sure how you teach finishing at the rim but that would be a nice improvement.