My first Cyclone memory is of a Johnny Orr-coached team led by Fred Hoiberg. That was my first game, at 4 years old. I grew up watching Willoughby, Cato, Holloway, Bankhead, and Pratt win us the last ever Big 8 Tournament. I got to see Fizer, Tinsley, Nurse, Horton, Shirley, Rancik, and company become the best Cyclone team ever, one that should have played in the national championship that year. I saw Curtis Stinson and Will Blalock put moves on the court that were just plain sick. The reason I am at Iowa State University as a student now probably has a lot to do with the fact that from a very young age, I was hooked on the Cyclones. We had passionate fans, passionate players, and passionate coaches, and even if we didn't win, we were going to give every team the fight of our lives. And, most importantly, NO ONE ever came into Hilton with a W already written on their schedule.
I like Greg McDermott. Went to school with a couple of his nieces while he was still at UNI, and couldn't help cheering for the guy. Great man, decent, humble...and yet, not passionate enough about his players. At a school like Iowa State, we don't end up with the most talented players. We don't have the best facilities in the country, our weather is really crappy for about half the year, and we've never won a national championship. And yet, I firmly believe that we have the best, and more importantly, most loyal fans in the whole country. We get kicked in the gut almost weekly, it seems, but we keep coming back for more, because we believe in our teams. I think Paul Rhoads really understands this; beating Nebraska this year was truly remarkable, but his reaction after the game spoke to me. It said to me, "I am a Cyclone, and I will do anything for my guys. We will win, and we will never stop believing."
Greg McDermott does not have the confidence of the fanbase, at least temporarily. Now, we're extremists in a way (up and down very quickly). But still, this isn't the first time we've been here in the last 4 years. So, what is it about Coach Mac that just isn't gelling? I think it's very simple: he does not go into each game believing that we will win, and he does not possess the killer instinct that says "we must win, for our fans, for my guys, for our school and our pride." At a school like ISU, we have to have that quality in a coach. Our guys can't just go out and execute without extra effort, and come away with W's every night. We're not that talented, even this year. We've got to have some fight in us, some toughness, and like so many have written tonight, we don't have that...at all.
Now, Coach Mac may still take this team to the tournament. Who knows? And, of course, I, like any true Cyclone fan, want him to. But, I just don't feel like his heart is in the Iowa State men's basketball head coaching job. He doesn't want it enough. It doesn't hurt him as much as it hurts us. And, if it does, then he is still failing not only the fans, who really don't matter as much, but he is hurting his team by not showing it. We have no fire. We have no desire to massacre teams on a nightly basis. We wonder why Roy Williams ends up with Hinrich, Collison, HB, and national titles? Remember a game, ISU vs. UNC, 2005 NCAA tourney? Remember how he continued to let his players run up the score at the end of the game? Roy Williams is a...well, I can't say that here. But, I can say that he is a winner. Good or bad, he wins, and his teams never give in. We need that in a coach, and I, along with a lot of other people (it seems), do not have confidence that Greg is that guy for our program.