Who do you want to avoid in the first two rounds?

[mjhavlo76]

I want to avoid Arkansas Little-Rock and Wisconsin.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I guess we shouldn't play our game then because no one thinks we'll win. Sure we aren't deep but we are a very good team who has taken many good teams to the wire. And I don't see a UAB happening two years in a row. But everyone is entitled to their opinion so that's my two cents

I'm not taking it that way (from most). I see certain draws as tougher than others, but I expect a first round win (because Georges said so), and I think we're even tougher to prepare for in a short turnaround.

We beat the overall #1 by 13 points, there's no one we can't beat.

 

[CyCloned]

I think ISU will do well this year if they can come out with a little more focus. GN and MM make this team very hard to defend. The key is guys like Nader and Burton that seem to be beasts or busts. If they both could just play somewhere in the middle ISU would be awful matchup for a lot of teams.

 

[idaclone]

Warriors, Spurs or Cavs. I think Lebron Matches up with Georges better than anyone.

 

[Gunnerclone]

You were pointing to the "best three year stretch in ISU basketball." Which is perfectly valid factual claim the way you conveyed it.

However, what I'm saying is that there are other ways of interpreting this. For instance, in the contrast to the ways some of higher-achieving rivals view "success."

The usual response to my point, esp. people who like to accuse others of "negativity," is usually to the tune of "Well, we're not Kansas or Duke or Kentucky or a blueblood anyway."
This to me is just more lame apologetics.

I believe that if you polled to posters in this thread alone, the majority would be quite happy with a Sweet Sixteen appearance, and even consider that a grand success for this year. That's the viewpoint; real good then.
It's not mine. Esp. given the amount of fan support, financial support, media hype, the emphasis on b.b. here in Ames/ISU, and so on.

In short, I wanna see tangible achievement, more than just loyalty and hype. One of the banners that Hoiberg promised hanging from Hilton is what I h ad in mind.

They would say that now and then when we lose in the sweet 16 would be back to railing players, speculating on what is "wrong" with the team, talking about how "something just isn't right" with this team, telling anyone that would listen about how stupid people were for thinking this was a top 10 team, and talking about how this team is missing every star player from the past 20 years.

 

[heitclone]

Can we please stop acting like this actually means something? Losing close games to good teams does not qualify a team as good. If that was the case Paul Rhoads would still be our football coach.

The only part of it that is relevant is when you compare this ISU to past ISU teams. This team has gotten a ton of slack but they are different from the last 4 or 5 ISU teams in that they never had a night where they just got run out of the gym. Fred's teams were notorious for one or two head scratching dud games a year. This team didn't do that despite playing the toughest schedule an ISU team has played that I can remember.

 

[brett108]

The only part of it that is relevant is when you compare this ISU to past ISU teams. This team has gotten a ton of slack but they are different from the last 4 or 5 ISU teams in that they never had a night where they just got run out of the gym. Fred's teams were notorious for one or two head scratching dud games a year. This team didn't do that despite playing the toughest schedule an ISU team has played that I can remember.

Fred's teams also played well at home. This team doesn't seem to play any different at home versus on the road. We live and die in a soft zone shooting from range. We can beat almost anyone, but we haven't. WVU and Baylor swept us, lets not forget. And OU was 2-1 against this squad. All close but still losses.

If ISU plays a physical, low post team with bodies to spare we will be in trouble. This team is all finesse, and it hurts the production severely in those matchups. This team needed a healthy Long to give us a second option on the perimeter outside of Thomas, or for Cook to find his freshman form from OSU. That didn't happen. We need Darien Williams to come and be the physical presence down low to replace Hogue. That also didn't happen.

This team has been all over the place in terms of their performance. They have had physical and mental collapses throughout the season. Could they turn it around? Maybe, but I doubt that is happening now. McKay needs to play like an AA if we are going to surprise in March. I don't think he has it in him.

 

[MilehighClone]

It's not who but what. And the what is starting the tourney in a morning or day game on Thursday. Would love to us playing Friday night again.

 

[NetflixAndClone]

The new bracketology has us playing SDSU and Maryland after. I think I'd rather have a pac 12 school because they all have losing records on the road and play bad from home.

 

[Rogue52]

It's not who but what. And the what is starting the tourney in a morning or day game on Thursday. Would love to us playing Friday night again.

My thoughts exactly. We need to hope for a night game. We seem to have issues when the spotlight is not on.

 

[erikbj]

Like to see Purdue's 2 big guys try to guard niang or chase McKay down the court. They are slow, but are skilled on the blocks. I think clones them out of the gym