Omaha Biliew Commits to Iowa State!

[t-noah]

Reading this recent thread derailment, glad we have Omaha! Pryce will be a nice 4 year player. We'll be lucky to have Omaha for 1 year. Should be fun.

Also, any time I watched film of Omaha, he was often double and sometimes triple teamed. So there's that.

 

[t-noah]

Can someone tell me again how Omaha wound up signing with TJ and the Cyclones? What were his choices, and his thoughts at the time? Some other school (blueblood with more NIL), G-League, ISU?

My only thoughts are that, 1) he likes TJ and wishes to play right away (he will), 2) he wants to be pushed physically and defensively, 3) he got some decent NIL money.

 

[qwerty]

I'm sure Sandfort will be a great player, especially when Mad Fran coaches him up on his totally-proven defensive concepts and strategies.
View attachment 110959

We saw it in the tourney game, Fran's whole championship defense scheme is "run back and put your hands up". I didn't watch the game, but saw several comments about how he kept shouting that during the game.

 

[Jkclone15]

Can someone tell me again how Omaha wound up signing with TJ and the Cyclones? What were his choices, and his thoughts at the time? Some other school (blueblood with more NIL), G-League, ISU?

My only thoughts are that, 1) he likes TJ and wishes to play right away (he will), 2) he wants to be pushed physically and defensively, 3) he got some decent NIL money.

Came down to ISU, KU, Oregon, and the NBA's one-and-done training team. The NBA team's players had disappointing draft positions last year, didn't seem like a great option. Rumor was KU wasn't all in on him because they already had their guys. So it was down to ISU and Oregon, with ISU being the better fit for his style.

 

[t-noah]

The comparison of Omaha to Harrison Barnes is interesting. Both near the top of their recruiting class (I think Harrison was #1 or 2). Both 6-8 dominant pwr forwards. Both won state championships, Omaha as a sophomore. Both McDonald's All-Americans.

I think Harrison (maybe) was a more polished player, better shooter? Omaha may yet have the higher ceiling, perhaps the better defender? Harrison played 2 years at UNC before going pro, and still is playing for the Kings. He's having a very good career. Omaha would do well to do as good. Can he do better?

I certainly don't want to put pressure on a player. Omaha will be himself, and will do very well. I'm excited to see him play next year. I just hope fans don't expect too much out of him. He will need a solid cast to play with, to maximize his potential.

Do most here feel that he will be a 'one and done' player? Is there any chance he might want to play 2 years at ISU?

 

[cyfan92]

The comparison of Omaha to Harrison Barnes is interesting. Both near the top of their recruiting class (I think Harrison was #1 or 2). Both 6-8 dominant pwr forwards. Both won state championships, Omaha as a sophomore. Both McDonald's All-Americans.

I think Harrison (maybe) was a more polished player, better shooter? Omaha may yet have the higher ceiling, perhaps the better defender? Harrison played 2 years at UNC before going pro, and still is playing for the Kings. He's having a very good career. Omaha would do well to do as good. Can he do better?

I certainly don't want to put pressure on a player. Omaha will be himself, and will do very well. I'm excited to see him play next year. I just hope fans don't expect too much out of him. He will need a solid cast to play with, to maximize his potential.

Do most here feel that he will be a 'one and done' player? Is there any chance he might want to play 2 years at ISU?

I played against Barnes.. He owned me.. But I think he was far more polished than Omaha is.. Where Omaha has the advantage is that he is the superior athlete.

Barnes offense >
Omaha defense and rebounding >

 

[t-noah]

I played against Barnes.. He owned me.. But I think he was far more polished than Omaha is.. Where Omaha has the advantage is that he is the superior athlete.

Barnes offense >
Omaha defense and rebounding >

Good assessment. Yes, that was the description that maybe I was looking for, 'superior athlete'.

Thus, Omaha may (repeat "may") have the higher upside. He will need to develop his offensive game.

I'm hoping TJ will allow Omaha (and Milan) the opportunity to thrive offensively, make mistakes, learn and grow.

 

[Drew0311]

If Omaha is two and done and is as good as advertised. We have a serious shot to have a final four run. That team would be loaded, add a transfer to fill a gap that season and we could be very good. That’s a big ask if Omaha stays two years though

 

[allfourcy]

If Omaha is two and done and is as good as advertised. We have a serious shot to have a final four run. That team would be loaded, add a transfer to fill a gap that season and we could be very good. That’s a big ask if Omaha stays two years though

Final four run....thats a 'big ask' period, regardless who stays or comes....

 

[tomar1]

Reading this recent thread derailment, glad we have Omaha! Pryce will be a nice 4 year player. We'll be lucky to have Omaha for 1 year. Should be fun.

Also, any time I watched film of Omaha, he was often double and sometimes triple teamed. So there's that.

He’ll have better teammates around him at ISU

 

[Final42b]

People will be pleasantly surprised by Omaha’s shooting. His rhythm pull up is pretty dirty.

 

[madguy30]

Final four run....thats a 'big ask' period, regardless who stays or comes....

SO much has to go right for a run like that no matter how the overall season went. And any more just getting past the first round is quite a task.

Just keep getting to the tournament and maybe one year the cards fall right.

 

[IASTATE07]

People will be pleasantly surprised by Omaha’s shooting. His rhythm pull up is pretty dirty.

I'm going to need to see it at the D1 level.

 

[Peter]

I’ve just watched his highlights but Omaha reminded me a lot of Julius Randle.

 

[isutrevman]

People will be pleasantly surprised by Omaha’s shooting. His rhythm pull up is pretty dirty.

His shooting isn't bad. I think he was around 40% from 3 this year. The college three is a pretty big adjustment, but I could see him in the 30-35% range next year.

 

[cyclonehomer]

I don't follow Iowa high school basketball. I follow some national recruiting, some college basketball and NBA.

I have never before come across a life form who looks at all the available basketball stats (at any level) and choses to lift up shot attempts as the gold standard by which players are measured or who leaves out all per game or per minute stats.

Catching up on this thread and holy hell, this is so perfect. Talk about telling on themselves by including that lmao.

 

[madguy30]

I'm going to need to see it at the D1 level.

The previous ISU era was a good lesson on how film on a player in a high school game of any level doesn't mean a whole lot.

Still working on CF articles about the Oline and WRs hype.

 

[cyclonehomer]

Everyone within a 45 min radius of Oskaloosa knew Xavier wasn’t going to pan out. He was never the best player on his 3A team and was lazy and dumb. Omaha is better in every area. Only thing Xavier had over Omaha is that he was 7 foot tall, which ended up being useless.

I saw a summer game of his once, was excited for him but never got crazy high on him because I always thought "at that size he should have KILLED everyone but he just... didn't."

 

[ISUcyclones11]

The comparison of Omaha to Harrison Barnes is interesting. Both near the top of their recruiting class (I think Harrison was #1 or 2). Both 6-8 dominant pwr forwards. Both won state championships, Omaha as a sophomore. Both McDonald's All-Americans.

I'd probably disagree on that in terms of recruiting hype. Harrison is still a top 5 rated recruit all time. If there was a "6-star recruit" he would be one.

 

[cyclonehomer]

His shooting isn't bad. I think he was around 40% from 3 this year. The college three is a pretty big adjustment, but I could see him in the 30-35% range next year.

Agreed. He doesn't need to be elite from 3, but enough to keep the defenses honest and it will be completely fine. That range would be really solid IMO, and give him the chance to take bigger players off the bounce or get assigned smaller defenders that he can just out-muscle to the rim.