*** Official Viterbo vs IOWA STATE Game(day) Thread ***

[JohnnyFive]

I'm sorry, I passed out after Edozie's lob dunk. Did we win?

 

[atlantacyclone]

Since I couldn't watch .... I watched the Big 12 tourney from last season... We won!

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

 

[HFCS]

I hope this game didn't count toward the holy revered Kenpom ranking. I'm sure we scored too many points and gave up too many at the same time.

 

[ISUCubswin]

[video]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/7ACDE6E75B1142708260407857152_3cb94da5745.0.1.5242312739439523537.mp4?versionId= TMpDkSqvhQUETYu12aRDLj61vXAKywr3[/video]

Vine of Edozie's ridunkulousness

 

[clonedude]

CW will probably do something like this, but here are my ten takeaways from this display:

1.) Viterbo looked like a glorified high school team--the Palo/McD/Barnes era AHS teams could have probably beaten them handily, so we will have to see somebody with a backbone to really make some judgements. That Georgia State going is going to tell us a lot.

2.) That starting five--Man Man, BDJ, 3sus, Georges, and Hogue--looked like the 1995 All-Madden team. They do whatever they want with the ball. Again, remember the level of competition, but they looked like they could have scored 150 if they stayed in and played hard.

3.) I can only imagine Naz shifts back into his Sixth Man/bench scorer role once maybe Darth Nader is eligible and, certainly, once McKay is part of the rotation. But he looks like he is picking up right where he left off in nailing the deep ball and keeping the hustle up.

4.) BDJ looks legitimate. The side story about BDJ's level of play at ISU versus what's-his-face at UNLV is going to be interesting, but I cannot think we would want to trade him for much of anybody at this point. If he lives up to his talent and experience, he might be the much better one-year rental this season. Less "power" than Kane (who played basketball like a charging bull into the lane, and took a beating like a tank while doing it... so many times he hit the floor hard), but more fluid and even quicker, and he might even be better than Niang just because he is so quick and long he is going to be more of a plus defender than I thought he would be.

5.) Edozie is a valuable big body and five fouls on the bench, but, unfortunately, his clumsiness on offense is going to hold down his potential for playing time. I'm sure we might see him as a stopper, occasionally, but he looks to be about where he was last time.

6.) The Greek looked the better "fourth" post (after Niang, Hogue, and McKay), to me, at least. His height was disruptive, but not sure he quite knows how to use it yet, and he's some flexibility in moving the ball, distributing, shooting well, and has a post move or two.

7.) I heard Custer wasn't quite the shooter as the other guards, and hearing he was behind everybody else because of the mono wasn't good to hear--we have multiple options at 2-5 easily enough, but we really only have two point guards on the team. I am sure he is going to see minutes (though maybe limited ones behind Morris), but having him is going to be really nice ere we shift a scoring guard (Naz, BDJ) into handling the ball or use Niang as a point forward. That is a nice shade in small doses, but having a second point guard who seems he might be in the same class as a shooter as the other ones will be a huge help.

8.) Hogue had trouble making the ball go through the hoop, but we all know what he is capable of. He had seven boards in 21 minutes, which, hey, ain't bad. He's going to be more of himself and more of Ejim this year--little bit of everything on the stat line, crashes boards like crazy, manages to rebound over guys bigger than him, "broken play" specialist with put-backs and rebounds.

9.) Defense has always been a weakness of Fred's teams. It's then NBA game, or, at least, one style of the NBA game--go fast, outscore your open first, try to push the pace and the spacing to keep opponents from settling-in on defense. However, there seems more general "potential" for defense on this team than some of the past ones. For instance, the team of Lucious/Babb/Clyburn/Ejim/Niang had its troubles stopping people (outside Babb), but we might have a starting lineup of at least three plus defenders (Morris, Hogue, McKay), one with a lot of potential who seems to be a ball hawk (BDJ), and an improved Niang (who looks to improve there).

10.) SDW shot it well, which was nice, but not sure I saw anything out of the line change that would pop out at me. Assuming Nader is really the "best scorer" Fred has ever had and that those reports of Thomas taking over in practice on offense are true, we probably still have eight guys with 25+ minutes per game (MM, NL, MT, AN, GN, BDJ, JM, and DH) with only spot minutes for the remainder. The Greek looked the best out of them, to me, and even if SDW played better than Custer, the latter's position as a true point guard fits better on the roster. Really huge logjam at the scoring guard/wing position with BDJ, Thomas, Long, and Nader around.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except I think Edozie might get in the game before the Greek kid.

If we're going that deep into the bench I think it's going to be for defense and some toughness, and I think I like Edozie better for that. Edozie is one tough SOB. People just bounce off of him. He does a great job on the glass too.

The Greek kid just gets tossed around with ease right now and is not physical at all. The only way I see him getting meaningful minutes right now is maybe if Fred wants to try to create a mismatch on offense with him standing out at the 3 pt line (because he can knock those down), so it forces the opposing team's big man to step out an guard him out there, which opens up the driving lanes to the hoop for our other guys.

 

[jmb]

Dear College Basketball,
Prepare your anus.
Love,
Hoiball

Very, very odd thing to say.

 

[cyinne]

With the expected depth in the middle should there be legitimate talk of redshirting The Greek?

 

[jkclone]

I don't know about you guys but I'm already in withdrawal. Can't wait until Friday.

 

[bigdaddykane]

imo the Greek as a long way till he's going to start. As for the Nigerian nightmare he needs to get more minutes.

 

[bawbie]

With the expected depth in the middle should there be legitimate talk of redshirting The Greek?

No

 

[whirlybirds]

imo the Greek as a long way till he's going to start. As for the Nigerian nightmare he needs to get more minutes.

Anyone got video of Edozie's sick alley oop?

 

[CycloneErik]

That was a great time watching a loaded Cyclone team.
Like a junkie, I got a fix, but now I want more. It's on again tomorrow, right?

Also, our daughter likes to cheer for the good guys, so that's a proud bonus.

 

[Mtowncyclone13]

edozie was a man among boys out there

 

[HoibergIsMyHero]

We looked great out there. Edozie looked great. We are going to need him to help defend some of those bigger Big 12 posts. Hoiberg said in the post game he is maybe our best inside defender.

 

[cycfan1]

edozie was a man among boys out there

Now if he could finish/score, might have been the best player on the court.

Very impressive game for him.

Naz is going to get a bunch of Pt as well. See many of these minutes threads only have him at 10-15mpg. Spacing, spacing, spacing.

 

[HoibergIsMyHero]

Now if he could finish/score, might have been the best player on the court.

Very impressive game for him.

Naz is going to get a bunch of Pt as well. See many of these minutes threads only have him at 10-15mpg. Spacing, spacing, spacing.

Didn't he have 13? I know you probably mean during the regular season.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Anyone got video of Edozie's sick alley oop?

[video]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/7ACDE6E75B1142708260407857152_3cb94da5745.0.1.5242312739439523537.mp4?versionId= TMpDkSqvhQUETYu12aRDLj61vXAKywr3[/video]

Vine of Edozie's ridunkulousness

Best I had. Never got the finish as I thought the transition was just as impressive.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Didn't he have 13? I know you probably mean during the regular season.

He had like 15 of his own offensive rebounds though.

 

[ForeverIowan]

Now if he could finish/score, might have been the best player on the court.

Very impressive game for him.

Naz is going to get a bunch of Pt as well. See many of these minutes threads only have him at 10-15mpg. Spacing, spacing, spacing.

Naz is going to have an enormous year. I think his confidence level has gone to the next level. Intrigued by a morris.thomas.long.nader.niang lineup. All of those guys are dead eye shooters that'd put some serious stress on a defense.