Thank You!

I just want to thank everyone for reading this site, including my two followers. It means a lot to me that I wrote something that someone was actually interested in checking out!



With that said, I now have the opportunity to write for CloneChronicles . On that site I will be writing about all things ISU. I will continue doing previews and post-games (along with a couple of other writings) for basketball, along with recapping wrestling and other sports as well.



It's a good opportunity, but it wouldn't have happened if not for this site.



Thanks again, and I hope to catch you all at http://www.clonechronicles.com/ . It's a great site, lots of fun, and we're always up for an open discussion and debate about ISU athletics!

Big XII Power Rankings XI: 1/25/2009

Things I learned from this week:

• With the exception of Oklahoma, the Big XII is looking more and more mediocre at best. It just feels more and more like Oklahoma is good, Texas and Kansas are decent, a few other teams are average, and then we look really horrible as Colorado is probably the worst BCS team, K-State, and Texas Tech look horrible too....
• ISU only has 1 scorer per game...
• Kansas is on a roll and is finally looking like the team people expected them to
• Kansas State really stinks. I knew they were going to be bad, but I didn't realize they would be THIS bad
• Oklahoma is officially unstoppable....

Rankings:

1. Oklahoma (1) (2-0 this week, 5-0 in conference, 15-1 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-0 this week, 3-1 in conference, 14-4 overall)
3. Kansas (4) (2-0 this week, 4-0 in conference, 15-4 overall)
4. Missouri (7) (2-0 this week, 4-1 in conference, 17-3 overall)
5. Baylor (3) (1-1 this week, 3-2 in conference, 15-4 overall)
6. Oklahoma State (5) (1-1 this week, 2-2 in conference, 13-5 overall)
7. Texas A&M (6) (0-2 this week, 1-4 in conference, 15-5 overall)
8. ISU (0-1 this week, 1-3 in conference, 12-7 overall)
9. Nebraska (9) (0-2 this week, 2-3 in conference, 12-6 overall)
10. Texas Tech (11) (1-1 this week, 1-3 in conference, 11-8 overall)
11. Kansas State (10) (1-1 this week, 1-4 in conference, 12-7 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (0-2 this week, 0-4 in conference, 8-10 overall)

Analysis:

• As of right now, the Big XII is looking like a 5 team NCAA tourney conference with a 6th fringe team.
• Mizzou and Kansas shoot up as they are on a roll. Both teams are playing well now, and I think it's more clear that Mizzou's loss to Nebraska was more a bump in the road than signs of serious trouble... At the same time, Mizzou has only beat the bottom half of the conference (Colorado, ISU, Texas Tech, Okie State), as has Kansas (K-State, Colorado, A&M, and ISU)... It will be interesting to see how these teams fare when they face teams in the top-half of the conference...
• Dissapointed with Baylor. But not really shocked. They are a good team, but inconsistent at times. They were like this last year as well. I think when they play Missouri it will be an awesome game..
• A&M isn't as bad as it would seem. They've lost to Oklahoma, @ Kansas, and @ Texas.. It's just hard being in the South as they still play Oklahoma and Texas again!
• ISU holds steady. Really in the 8th spot by default. Not good enough to move up, but not quite bad enough to move down yet...
• Nebraska stays close. They lost by only 11 @ Oklahoma and they lost to Okie State by 2. I have us ahead of Nebraska since we beat them, but I'd say we're pretty even with them.
• Kansas State sweats it in OT against CU. Which is why they are 11th and Tech is 10th. K-State won, but doing it in OT against this bad of a team is just not good. Tech beat CU more convincingly earlier (for their 1st conference win)

Conference Standings:

• Oklahoma (5-0)
• Kansas (4-0)
• Missouri (4-1)
• Texas (3-1)
• Baylor (3-2)
• Oklahoma State (2-2)
• Nebraska (2-3)
• ISU (1-3)
• Texas Tech (1-3)
• Texas A&M (1-4)
• K-State (1-4)
• Colorado (0-4)

Section 202 Player of the Week: Craig Brackins, F, Soph, ISU

In the past, I had said the team has to do well in order to win POW. I am breaking this rule as Craig's performance was awesome! In case you missed it, he scored 42 points, got 14 rebounds, went 11-19 from the field including 3-5 from 3. He also was 17 of 21 from the charity stripe.

Now, a lot of people on the message boards are thinking Craig is going pro after this year based on this game... Lets temper this a little. Craig dropped 32 against UNI, only to follow up with a 13, 10, and 6 point performance. He has a ton of ability, but isn't consistent. The sky is the limit for him, but he's not going to leave after this year! He needs to add 15 lbs, and develop his outside shot more as he will not be a post-player in the NBA... Lets see how he does against the Griffin brothers before we get all giddy.

My favorite part about Craig's performance was after the game he said "It doesn't matter because we still lost". He has his mind right and knows that winning and the team is what's important.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule:

• 1/26: Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State
• 1/27: Texas @ Baylor; ISU @ Colorado
• 1/28: Kansas @ Nebraska; Missouri @ Kansas State; Texas Tech @ Texas A&M
• 1/31: Oklahoma @ ISU; Oklahoma State @ Texas A&M; Colorado @ Kansas; Kansas State @ Texas; Baylor @ Missouri; Nebraska @ Texas Tech

I hope we can crush CU and that we can at least make it a game with Oklahoma. Other than ISU games, I'm most interested in are Texas @ Baylor and Baylor @ Missouri.

Games to Watch:

• 1/26: Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State - 8pm CST - ESPN
• 1/27: ISU @ Colorado - 9:30pm - CST - FSN RM; ESPN Full Court
• 1/28: Duke @ Wake Forest - 6pm CST - ESPN - I love watching Duke lose, and Wake is a REAL fun team to watch!
• 1/29: Saint Mary's @ Gonzaga - 10pm CST - ESPN2
• 1/31: Oklahoma @ ISU - 12:45pm CST - Go to the game at Hilton!!!! There aren't any great matchups for the rest of the day
• 2/1: Superbowl! I've got Pittsburgh by 14......

Have a good week! I'll be hoping for 1-1 this week from the Cyclones but wouldn't complain about 2-0 lol!

DG Dunks Over Pomlee....

Youtube Diante Garrett Dunk on LA Pomlee....

Can't WAIT to see this in a game!

Brackins 42, Kansas 82, rest of ISU 25.....

Frustrating game to watch to say the least. It was awesome to see Brackins score at will the way he did, but it was frustrating to watch everyone else on the team (except Vanderbeken) lay an egg.

It seems like every single game we lose is like this: one guy steps up and scores a ton and the rest of the team puts up an ofer.

I have to give props to Boozer. I know a lot of people have been critical of him, but his energy, rebounding, and defense helped get the Cyclones back to a 60-66 deficit. I hope to see him play a lot more as he does much more on the defensive end than Lucca, Eikmeyer, or Haluska....

On KU's side, Collins is a very talented player. He hit all sorts of shots that just seemed impossible. There were times we had two guys on him and he still made the shot. KU is just a good offensive team that knocks down shots. There were times when we forced them to take the shot we wanted them to take, but they still made it.

All I can really say is that I hope there is a game where Brackins, DG, and Lucca are all rolling at the same time. We'd win almost for sure.

I hope we can get Buffs as they are not a talented team at all. Would seem to be a good cure to a losing streak....

Big XII Power Rankings X: 1/18/2009

Before I get into it, some brief thoughts about the Nebraska and Missouri Game:

• Nebraska was getting on my nerves. We are still having troubles putting a winnable game away.
• Brackins needs to step up and be aggressive. He was a non-factor against Missouri, and could've really capitalized on Nebraska's lack of size.
• It's going to be a long conference season. In some ways we take two steps forward but then 3 steps back....

On to the Rankings:

1. Oklahoma (1) (2-0 this week, 3-0 in conference, 17-1 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-1 this week, 2-1 in conference, 13-4 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-1 this week, 2-1 in conference, 14-3 overall)
4. Kansas (4) (2-0 this week, 2-0 in conference, 13-4 overall)
5. Oklahoma State (5) (0-1 this week, 1-1 conference, 12-4 overall)
6. Texas A&M (6) (1-1 this week, 1-2 conference, 15-3 overall)
7. Missouri (7) (2-0 this week, 2-1 conference, 15-3 overall)
8. ISU (10) (1-1 this week, 1-2 conference, 12-6 overall)
9. Nebraska (9) (1-1 this week, 2-1 conference, 12-4 overall)
10. Kansas State (8) (0-2 this week, 0-3 conference, 11-6 overall)
11. Texas Tech (11) (0-1 this week, 0-2 conference, 10-7 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (0-2 this week, 0-2 conference, 8-8 overall)

Conference Results (Road Team Listed First)

• 1/12: Texas 63, Oklahoma 78;
• 1/13: Kansas State 71, Kansas 87;
• 1/14: Nebraska 53, ISU 65; Colorado 62, Missouri 107; Baylor 73, Texas A&M 84;
• 1/17: Oklahoma State 92, Baylor 98 (OT); Kansas 73, Colorado 56; ISU 46, Missouri 77; Kansas State 51, Nebraska 73; Oklahoma 69, Texas A&M 63; Texas 71, Texas Tech 49

Analysis:

• Top half are all the same. Oklahoma is clearly the best and Texas being just a notch below. Baylor, Kansas, Okie State and A&M are all close to each other.
• 10-12 is easy to rank. None have won a conference game, and none have looked good all year
• 7,8, and 9 is tough to rank. Nebraska beat Mizzou, ISU beat Nebraska, Mizzou blew out ISU. I gave Mizzou the benefit of the doubt that they are better than Nebraska. Mizzou did go 2-0, but they beat two bottom tier Big XII teams at home which isn't exactly something to brag about. I couldn't put Nebraska ahead of us because we beat them head-to-head! So, by default, ISU is 8, with Mizzou at 7 and Nebraska at 9
  

Conference Standings:

• Oklahoma 3-0
• Kansas 2-0
• Missouri 2-1
• Baylor 2-1
• Texas 2-1
• Nebraska 2-1
• Oklahoma State 1-1
• Texas A&M 1-2
• ISU 1-2
• Texas Tech 0-2
• Colorado 0-2
• Kansas State 0-3

Section 202 Player of the Week: DeMarre Carroll, F, Mizzou, Senior

Carroll averaged 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3.5 Assists, 1.5 Steals, and 1 Block in two much needed wins for Mizzou.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule:

• 1/19: Texas A&M @ Kansas
• 1/20: Colorado @ Texas Tech
• 1/21: Nebraska @ Oklahoma; Baylor @ Kansas State; Missouri @ Oklahoma State
• 1/24: Texas Tech @ Missouri; Kansas @ ISU; Oklahoma State @ Nebraska; Baylor @ Oklahoma; Kansas State @ Colorado; Texas A&M @ Texas

The game on the 20th interests me. We'll see who is the worse in the Big XII... Missouri - Oklahoma State will be a good game, and I'd like to see how we do against Kansas at home. Should be a pretty interesting week..

Games to Watch:

• 1/19: #8 Syracuse vs. #4 Pittsburgh - 6pm CST - ESPN - just some classic Big East, which I find entertaining. Texas A&M @ Kansas - 8pm CST - ESPN - a good mid-tier Big XII game
• 1/21: #23 Baylor vs. Kansas State - 8pm CST - ESPN - I just have a feeling this will be a good game. I could be wrong....
• 1/24: Another riveting day in College Basketball! Kansas vs. ISU - 1pm CST - ESPN; #23 Baylor vs. #5 Oklahoma - 3pm CST - ESPNU; #3 UConn vs. #19 Notre Dame - 6pm CST - ESPN;

Have a good week all! Feel free do discuss as always!

Life is Wayy Too Short

I just want to thank everyones patience in my lack of updates this week. I had a high school classmate and teammate pass away a week ago. I am not getting back in the swing of things.

I just want to encourage everyone to appreciate their family and friendships. You never know the last time you will see or talk to someone. If there's something you've been meaning to say or do, say it or do it....

Big XII Power Rankings IX: 1/11/2009

Not too crazy of a week in the Big XII. Kind of mudane other than the start of the conference season.

1. Oklahoma (1) (2-0 this week, 1-0 in conference, 15-1 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-1 this week, 1-0 in conference, 12-3 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-0 this week, 1-0 in conference, 13-2 overall)
4. Kansas (6) (1-1 this week, 0-0 in conference, 11-4 overall)
5. Oklahoma State (8) (2-0 this week, 1-0 in conference, 12-3 overall)
6. Texas A&M (5) (1-1 this week, 0-1 in conference, 14-2 overall)
7. Missouri (4) (1-1 this week, 0-1 in conference, 13-3 overall)
8. Kansas State (7) (1-1 this week, 0-1 in conference, 11-4 overall)
9. Nebraska (10) (2-0 this week, 1-0 in conference, 11-3 overall)
10. ISU (9) (1-1 this week, 0-1 in conference, 11-5 overall)
11. Texas Tech (11) (0-2 this week, 0-1 in conference, 10-6 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (1-1 this week, 0-0 in conference, 8-6 overall)

Non Conference Results:

1. Oklahoma: Beat MD Eastern Shore 100-64
2. Texas: Lost @ Arkansas 61-67
3. Baylor: N/A
4. Kansas: Beat Siena 91-84 and Lost @ Michigan State 62-75
5. Oklahoma State: Beat Savannah State 83-56
6. Texas A&M: Beat North Dakota 76-62
7. Missouri: Beat Coppin State 88-55
8. Kansas State: Beat Chicago State 99-68
9. Nebraska: Beat Florida A&M 81-56
10. ISU: Beat Houstin Baptist 64-56
11. Texas Tech: Lost @ TCU 80-85
12. Colorado: Lost @ SMU 67-70 and Beat Western State 65-52

Conference Results (Road Team Listed First):

• 1/10: Texas Tech 61, Baylor 73; Oklahoma 61, Kansas State 53; Missouri 51, Nebraska 56; Texas A&M 61, Oklahoma State 72; ISU 67, Texas 75

Analysis:

• Still the same from the top 3. Not much to report here, other than saying that Arkansas is good. They picked off Oklahoma and Texas. If they can put together a decent SEC record no reason they won't dance
• Kansas is 4 by default. With A&M, Mizzou, and K-State all losing conference games, there really wasn't anyone else. Kansas is talented, but too inconsistent so far to really wow me
• Oklahoma State at 5. Since they year started, I thought Oklahoma State was the sleeper this year. At the beginning of the year they stumbled a bit, now they are on a roll winning their past 7 games in a row
• A&M still decent at 6. I still think they're pretty good. They just lost to another decent team on the road. Not really too surprising as the middle of the Big XII is all pretty even with themselves
• Mizzou wow. I can't believe they lost to Nebraska. Has Nebraska scored more than 60 in a game yet this year?? I thought Mizzou was better than this. Perhaps we have a shot against them next weekend?
• Kudos to K-State and Nebraska: Playing close against Oklahoma is tough (K-State), and I really didn't think Nebraska had a shot at all against Mizzou. Both of these teams played better than I expected this week
• So-So for ISU: I was really surprised with us playing a close game with Houstin Baptist. They are arguably the worst team in D-1 and I would've thought we'd be blowing them out, especially since we blew out SIU-E. As far as the Texas game goes, it was closer than I would've thought. We just aren't there yet talent wise, and consistency-wise.
• Thumbs down to Tech and Colorado: Both of these teams have lost some non-conference games that just scratch my head. They just are aweful

Section 202 Player of the Week: Blake Griffin, F, Oklahoma, Sophomore

Oklahoma went 2-0 this week and Griffin averaged 24.5 points, 15.5 Rebounds, 2.5 Assists, 2.5 Blocks, and 2 steals on 57% shooting from the floor.

Anyone on here think he shouldn't be the #1 overall pick???

Upcoming Big XII Schedule:

• 1/12: Texas @ Oklahoma
• 1/13: Kansas State @ Kansas
• 1/14: Nebraska @ ISU; Colorado @ Missouri; Baylor @ Texas A&M
• 1/15: None
• 1/16: None
• 1/17: ISU @ Missouri; Oklahoma State @ Baylor; Oklahoma @ Texas A&M; Kansas @ Colorado; Texas @ Texas Tech; Kansas State @ Nebraska
• 1/18: None

Games to Watch:

• 1/12: #13 Notre Dame @ #21 Louisville - 6pm CST- ESPN; #7 Texas @ #6 Oklahoma - 8pm CST- ESPN
• 1/13: None
• 1/14: Nebraska @ ISU - 7pm CST - WOI-TV/ESPN Fullcourt
• 1/15: None
• 1/16: None
• 1/17: #13 Notre Dame @ #9 Syracuse - 11AM CST- ESPN; Switch over to WOI-TV or ESPN Fullcourt to watch ISU @ Mizzou - 12:45pm CST; When the ISU game ends (around 2:45 or so), I will switch over to #16 Arizona State vs. # 7 UCLA - 2:45 CST - CBS. Should be an offensive showcase. After the Arizona State - UCLA Game, I am then going to catch #1 Pitt vs. #21 Louisville - 5pm CST-ESPN.... Other games to watch instead of above is UNI vs. Drake -11am CST - ESPN2; Kansas @ Colorado - 2:30pm CST- ABC if you want to see how bad Colorado really is. Overall, this day is going to be awesome for college basketball as there are a lot of intriguing matchups.
• 1/18- Watch the AFC and NFC championship games and start predicting the Superbowl Final Score!

Final Thoughts:

• I am really excited we're in the conference season now. This is really where you make your hay and we'll see who's for real and who isn't. Personally I see the Big XII as a 4 team NCAA conference and a 2 team NIT conference. I think there's still some parity in the conference, but it's clear to me that the Big XII is down from last year (at least so far)
• The two teams I'm watching the closest (other than ISU) Nebraska and Missouri. Not because we play them this week but because I really don't know what to expect from these teams. Perhaps I'm looking too much into two mediocre teams, but I thought Missouri would be pretty good and Nebraska games are just painful to watch.
• Saturday is going to be an awesome college basketball day. Now that the football season is over, everyone can turn their attention to the awesome college matchups

Have a good week, and I hope for a couple of Cyclone victories this week!

ISU 67, Texas 75

Well, I didn't get to see any of the game which was a bit of a dissapointment and not planned. From what I read and heard, it sounded like it was a hard fought game on our part which is good. I also heard that we made some bonehead plays at times, which of course isn't all that good.

When you play a top 10 team on the road, you gotta execute and not make any stupid plays. It sounded like the first half was ours for the taking and we didn't take advantage.

Hopefully the guys can learn from this and we can get a win in our home conference opener.

Texas Preview

So if you read my previous post, you'd already see that I have us losing, which really can't be too huge of a surprise. We're on the road, they have a lot of talent, and we're inconsistent. That doesn't make for a good combination when playing a top 10 team on the road.

Also adding to the mix is that Texas got upset by Arkansas. Now, I think Arkansas is pretty decent because they beat both Texas and Oklahoma, but still.

Overall, Texas has a good inside-outside game. They still have Abrams whom you may remember lit it up beyond the arc against us last year.

Here's their probable starting 5:

• A.J. Abrams - Guard - 18.1 Points, 3.1 3pt, 42% 3PT%, 40.9% FG%, 2.4 Boards, 1.1 Steals
• Damion James- Forward- 14.6 Points, 8.9 Boards, 51% FG%, 1.3 Steals, 1.0 Blocks
• Dextor Pittman - Center - 9.1 Points, 4.9 Boards, 60.8% FG%, 0.9 Blocks
• Connor Atchley - Forward - 6.6 Points, 3.4 Boards, 48.4% FG%, 1.6 Blocks, 91.7% FT%
• Justin Mason - Guard- 7.1 Points, 4.0 Boards, 5.6 Assists, 2.8:1 Assist-Turnover Ratio, 1.6 Steals

And their 6th man is their 3rd leading scorer:

• Gary Johnson - Forward - 10.8 Points, 6.9 Boards, 1.1 Blocks

The first thing I see when looking at these stats is these guys can score. If you look at the 6 guys they play the most, they've got 66 points or so. Another thing I see is Justin Mason is a damn good point guard. His assist-turnover ratio is outstanding and it will be hard to force turnovers (although we don't really do that anyways)

One other thing I should note: Abrams and Atchley are Seniors, while James, Pittman, and Mason are Juniors. Johnson is a Sophomore.

How do their guys compare to ours? Lets see what how our starting 5 looks:

• Brackins - Forward - 18.3 Points, 8.5 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 1.1 Blocks, 49.5% FG%
• Garrett - Guard - 10.7 Points, 4.1 Rebounds, 5.1 Assists, 2:1 Assist-Turnover Ratio
• Lucca - Guard - 8.3 Points, 2.2 Rebounds, 2.4 3pts, 43% 3pt%
• Peterson - Guard - 7.0 Points, 4.4 Rebounds, 3.3 Assists, 94% FT%
• Hamilton - Center - 4.6 Points, 2.9 Rebounds

If we did starting 5 vs. starting 5 off of averages, we'd be down 49 to 56 which isn't too bad. Easy to turn that around. The bad thing is that we don't have a lot of offense off the bench. Eikmeyer et. al all averaging less than 5 per game.

It's clear we either need to:

• Play much better offense than in the past
• Play better defense than in the past OR
• Hope that Texas has an off day

Key Stat:
In All of Texas' losses, they shot less than 40%. Seems like if we can force them to shoot less than 40%, we will have a good chance at winning.

I hope we do so, but figuring that Texas is already coming off a loss, I'd think they'd be motivated to do well.

Final Score Prediction: ISU 60 - Texas 75

Conference Record Prediction

Alright! I am back in town which means I will be going back to watching ISU games, and posting here more frequently again!

The bad news is that I likely won't be able to catch the game against Texas. We will see though. Perhaps I'll be able to get it on the radio while it's still on as I'm driving back to Iowa (I am currently in Minneapolis).

Way back before the season started, I said I was going to predict our conference record prior to the season starting. After watching our team play for half a season and being able to watch some conference teams, I think I have a decent idea in predicting how we are going to do... Of course I will be dead wrong in retrospect, but I guess that's the point of these things.

Anyhow, here's our conference schedule along with me putting a 'W' or 'L' by it. L means win and W means loss..... Just checking to see if you're reading. 'W' and 'L' have the obvious meanings:

• 1/10 @ Texas - L
• 1/14 vs. Nebraska - W
• 1/17 @ Mizzou - L
• 1/24 vs. Kansas - W
• 1/27 @ Colorado - W
• 1/31 vs. Oklahoma - L
• 2/3 @ Kansas State - L
• 2/7 vs. Mizzou - L
• 2/11 vs. Colorado - W
• 2/14 @ Oklahoma State - L
• 2/18 @ Kansas - L
• 2/21 vs. Kansas State - W
• 2/24 vs. Baylor - L
• 2/28 @ Texas A&M - L
  
• 3/4 @ Nebraska - W
• 3/7 vs. Texas Tech - W

In other words, in the North I have us sweeping Colorado and Nebraska, Splitting with Kansas and Kansas State, and getting swept by Mizzou.

In the South, I have us losing to Oklahoma, @ Texas, Baylor, @ A&M, and @ Oklahoma State while beating Texas Tech. I think if we played at home to A&M and Oklahoma State we'd have a better chance.

So I'm putting us down for a 7-9 conference record or 18-13 overall. Doesn't seem too crazy. If we really put it together I could see us going 9-7 with 20 wins, but we have to be a lot more consistent.

It will be interesting to see how we play Texas in our opener, and I will be posting a preview of that game shortly.

Big XII Power Rankings VIII: 1/4/2009

Feliz Ano Nuevo! Happy New Year!

These Power Rankings are Puerto Rican style! I have been off of the mainland us for the past week and will be off of it for another 5 days or so. I just prefer 80s and sunny over winter storms....

Anyhow, I saw that we won against Mercer and SIU-Edwardsville. Both those wins were to be expected and I'm glad the Cyclones followed through! It sounded to me like Mercer just didn't show up ready to play and SIU-Edwardsville just didn't play well.

The things I liked about the SIU-Edwardsville game:

• Other Big XII opponents blew them out
• Brackins was held to 4 points, yet we were able to score 91

Anyhow, I'll now go to the rankings:

1. Oklahoma (1) (1-1 this week, 13-1 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-0 this week, 11-2 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (2-1 this week, 12-2 overall)
4. Missouri (4) (2-0 this week, 12-2 overall)
5. Texas A&M (5) (2-0 this week, 13-1 overall)
6. Kansas (6) (2-0 this week, 10-3 overall)
7. Kansas State (7) (2-0 this week, 10-3 overall)
8. Oklahoma State (8) (2-0 this week, 10-3 overall)
9. ISU (9) (2-0 this week, 10-4 overall)
10. Nebraska (10) (2-0 this week, 9-3 overall)
11. Texas Tech (12) (1-0 this week, 10-4 overall)
12. Colorado (11) (0-2 this week, 7-5 overall)

Results from Last Week:

1. Oklahoma: Lost @ Arkansas 88-96 and Beat Coppin St. 93-62
2. Texas: Beat Appalachin State 78-43
3. Baylor: Beat Portland State 79-66, Jackson State 113-78 and Lost to South Carolina 84-85
4. Missouri: Beat Centenary 80-52 and @ Georgia 83-76
5. Texas A&M: Won @ Rice 72-60 and McNeese St. 57-52
6. Kansas: Beat Albany 79-43 and Tennessee 92-85
7. Kansas State: Beat Wagner 82-53 and Idaho State 83-57
8. Oklahoma State: Beat Arkansas State and Northwestern State 76-53 and 122-73
9. ISU: Beat Mercer 67-49 and SIU-Edwardsville 91-55
10. Nebraska: Beat South Carolina State 77-63, and MD Eastern Shore 88-56
11. Texas Tech: Beat Stephen F. Austin 69-55
12. Colorado: Lost @ Buffalo 60-62 and @ Vermont 59-84

Analysis:

• Oklahoma is still #1. Losing 1 non-conference game, especially on the road, is acceptable to me for elite teams. It's basketball. It's hard to win them all. Oklahoma will face MD Eastern Shore before the conference season. If Nebraska can blow out MD Eastern Shore, I'm sure Oklahoma will as well. 14-1 to start your conference schedule is nice.
• Starting to think in groups of three: The way I have these ranked, I think there are 4 levels within the Big XII. 1-3 are the best in the conference and I'd expect them to finish in the top 3 as well. 4-6 are the next level (pretty good level), 7-9 follows (mediocre level), and 10-12 is the final level (the suck level)
• Kansas at #6?? "But mplscyclone, they are the only team in the conference that got a marquee win this past week!" While that is true, the main reason is that I don't trust them yet. I am wary of their losses and they look like a very inconsistent team. Now they did beat a pretty good ranked team at home which is nice. I'd like to see how they do next week @ Michigan State before I decide whether they should be higher or not.
• 7-10 all hold steady. They all went undefeated and look to be playing at the same level with each other
• Colorado is back in the dog house. I put them at #11 since Tech got destroyed by Stanford. Colorado proceeded to lose back-to-back road games and go 0-2. At the same time, if you count last Sunday, Colorado played 3 games in Hawaii which is tough (they went 1-2). It would be hard to expect a team (especially THIS team) to play 3 games in 3 days and do beter than 2-1, but still. They were playing Coppin State, Buffalo, and Vermont.... If they would've beat Buffalo or Vermont, or just played closer to Vermont, I may have held them above Tech for another week.

Section 202 Player of the Week: Cole Aldrich, F, Kansas, Soph

Kansas went 2-0 including beating #19 Tennessee. Aldrich averaged 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks (including 6 against Tennessee). On the season he's averaging 14.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule:

Bascially all of the teams finish their cupcakes on the 5th, 6th, and 7th. The conference season opens up for all teams (except for Kansas and Colorado) on the 10th.

• 1/5: Oklahoma vs. MD Eastern Shore; Texas A&M vs. North Dakota; Nebraska vs. Florida A&M; Colorado @ SMU ; Kansas State vs. Chicago State
• 1/6: Texas Tech vs. TCU; Kansas vs. Siena; Oklahoma State vs. Savannah State; Missouri vs. Coppin State; Texas @ Arkansas; ISU vs. Houstin Baptist
• 1/7: NONE
• 1/8: NONE
• 1/9: NONE
• 1/10: Kansas @ # 11 Michigan State; # 4 Oklahoma @ Kansas State; Texas Tech @ Baylor; Missouri @ Nebraska; Texas A&M @ Oklahoma State; ISU @ Texas
• 1/11: NONE

Have a GREAT week all! Enjoy the rest of the college bowl season and I'm really looking forward to watching the conference season when I get back!

As always, feel free to discuss in the comments!

Power Rankings VII: 12/28/08

I am going to be hiatus for a couple of weeks. I am going out of the country so I won't be able to do Power Rankings until 1/11.

The story of the week is there were some UGLY losses in the Big XII. The conference looks down in general compared to last year, which isn't really a surprise, but it's so inconsistent right now. It's still hard to get a feel of who's good, although it feels like everyone except for Oklahoma is at least a little bad.

Overall kind of a slow week. It will be kind of slow in the Big XII basketball world until the bowl season is over.

Anyhow, I will get to the rankings:

Rankings (Last week's in parenthesis):

1. Oklahoma (1) (1-0 this week, 12-0 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-0 this week, 10-2 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-0 this week, 10-1 overall)
4. Missouri (4) (1-1 this week, 10-2 overall)
5. Texas A&M (6) (1-0 this week, 11-1 overall)
6. Kansas (5) (0-1 this week, 8-3 overall)
7. Kansas State (7) (idle, 8-3 overall)
8. Oklahoma State (8) (idle, 8-3 overall)
9. ISU (9) (1-1 this week, 8-4 overall)
10. Nebraska (11) (0-1 this week, 7-3 overall)
11. Colorado (12) (1-0 this week, 6-3 overall)
12. Texas Tech (10) (1-1 this week, 9-4 overall)

Results from Last Week:

1. Oklahoma: Won @ Rice 70-58
2. Texas: Won @ Wisconsin 74-69
3. Baylor: Beat Hartford 74-59
4. Mizzou: Lost to Illinois 59-75 and Beat SIU-Edwardsville 107-57
5. Texas A&M: Beat Sam Houston St 60-50
6. Kansas: Lost @ Arizona 67-84
7. Kansas State: Idle
8. Oklahoma State: Idle
9. ISU: Lost to South Dakota State 58-65 and Won @ Houston 71-67
10. Nebraska: Lost to UMBC 64-66
11. Colorado: Beat LA Monroe 65-62
12. Texas Tech: Beat Centenary 67-53 and Lost @ Stanford 66-111

Analysis:

• Top 3 held steady: They all won and right low are the only teams that look like legit NCAA teams
• Middle 3 are close: Mizzou and Kansas looked bad this week, while A&M looked good. I am just not sure that A&M would beat Mizzou, since A&M hasn't really played anyone yet. I think Mizzou would beat all teams below A&M right now. I easily could've gone A&M #4 and Mizzou #5, but I want to wait and see how this turns out.
• ISU: After looking like crap and giving 0 effort at home against a borderline D1 team, how do they hold steady? Basically because the bottom 3 are hopeless right now
• Bottom 3: I have decided I think Texas Tech is the worst in the Big XII right now. I mean they got SMOKED against Stanford. Stanford! I think Stanford is decent this year, but there's no way you should lose by 45. Colorado stinks, but I think they're improving. Nebraska stinks, but I think they're slightly better than Colorado, although I think it'd be a close game.

Section 202 Player of the Week: Curtis Jerrells, G, Senior, Baylor

He put up 17 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 blocks in a win over Hartford. Brackins is a close second, but since he didn't play all that inspired against SDSU, I can't give it to him. I try to award it to players on a team that does well. If you play bad in 1 game, but then dominate another game, I don't really know if you're the best player of the week. Baylor has been doing really well and a triple-double is hard to come by.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule:

• 12/29: Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas State; #21 Baylor vs. Portland State
• 12/30: Kansas State vs. Wagner; Nebraska vs. South Carolina State; #25 Missouri vs. Centenary; #4 Oklahoma @ Arkansas; Kansas vs. Albany
• 12/31: ISU vs Mercer; Texas A&M @ Rice; #21 Baylor vs. Jackson State
• 1/1: Texas Tech vs. Stephen F. Austin
• 1/2: #21 Baylor vs. South Carolina; #9 Texas vs. Appalachin State
• 1/3: #25 Missouri @ Georgia; #4 Oklahoma vs. Coppin State; Kansas vs. #16 Tennesee; Kansas State vs. Idaho State; Nebraska vs. MD Eastern Shore; Oklahoma State vs Northwestern State; Texas A&M vs. McNeese State; ISU vs. SIU-Edwardsville
• 1/4: None
• 1/5: Oklahoma vs. MD Eastern Shore; Texas A&M vs. North Dakota; Nebraska vs. Florida A&M; Colorado @ SMU ; Kansas State vs. Chicago State
• 1/6: Texas Tech vs. TCU; Kansas vs. Siena; Oklahoma State vs. Savannah State; Missouri vs. Coppin State; Texas @ Arkansas; ISU vs. Houstin Baptist
• 1/7: Colorado vs. Western State
• 1/8: None
• 1/9: None
• 1/10: Kansas @ Michigan State; Oklahoma State @ Kansas State; Texas Tech @ Baylor; Missouri @ Nebraska; Texas A&M @ Oklahoma State; ISU @ Texas
• 1/11: None

The rest of the non-con doesn't look too thrilling. I am excited for the conference season to see how it all turns out! I will be out of town, but there's no reason why we should lose at home to Mercer, SIU-Edwardsville, and Houstin Baptist.

Before the year started, I thought we'd go 11-4 in the non-conference schedule, so doing that will be par for the course in my book.

Happy New Year to All! I hope ISU does well and that we can play competitivley to Texas. I am not sure about Texas pre-game, but I will do a wrap up! Be safe and I hope 2009 brings a good year for ISU basketball!

ISU 71, Houston 67

What an UGLY game. To be fair, I wasn't able to watch the entire thing because we did a belated Christmas at the mplscyclone family's house today.



The setting of the game looked like garbage. I mean, it honestly looked like there were about 100 people at this game. Both teams were pretty sloppy at times. I didn't think we had much of a chance in this one. I'm not sure if I should be impressed with the Cyclones or dissapointed by Houston. Either way, we got a much needed W and that's nice!



Positives:

• We won! Can't underestimate ANY wins this year!


• Played good defense - yet another opponent we held under 40% shooting


• Little bit of post game - Brackins was able to get inside, get to the line, and make more FTs than miss

Negatives:

• Our offense is pretty weak: We just aren't efficient and it's brutal to watch


• Lack of consistent supporting case: Brackins went off in this game. If he wasn't able to get established inside, we would've gotten destroyed again. Garrett did alright with scoring this game, but Garrett, Lucca , Haluska, and Eikmeyer need to find ways to score

Other thoughts:

• Basketball is a simple concept: If you out-rebound the opponent and have more assists than turnovers, you're going to put yourself in a better position to win. Every game we've lost we've either gotten outrebounded and/or committed more turnovers than assists.


• We're not that great of a perimeter team: Lots of people thought we were going to be a great perimeter team, but we aren't. We shot 17%, 30%, and 35% the last three games. Isn't really all that amazing. Perhaps we're on a cold streak, but if you're going go by the identity of being a perimeter team you have to do better. At the very least, the 3 ball shooters need to find other ways to score.

Player of the Game: Brackins - 38 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks

Next Game: 12/31 vs. Mercer - 4pm CST - Hilton. You can either go to the game, or watch via Clone Zone

I will be out of the country until January 10th. I will try to preview the Texas game, but I have no guarantees.

Happy Holidays

The SDSU game was garbage. Don't read about it. We lost 58-65 to them... We stunk up the joint. To put it simply, we have 0 effort and didn't deserve to win.

I can handle us not being as good as some teams, but I can NOT handle watching a team give no effort to win. If you're playing out there, and you're OK with losing to a borderline D1 team, then you don't deserve to suit up.

It has me worried to say the least.......

If I could give a gift to all ISU basketball fans, I'd give them a gift of forgetting the SDSU game. I was really frustrated about it, but it's the time of year for joy, forgiveness, and all of that.

Enjoy the Holidays with your families! Be safe and be smart!

Big XII Power Rankings VI: 12/21/08

No Big XII games today which means earlier posting of the power rankings!



Kind of slow the past couple of weeks. With different schools having finals week, it's understandable. I focused more on ISU's football coaching search than college basketball anyways. By now, I think you know the format.



Rankings (Last weeks' in Parenthesis):

1. Oklahoma (1) (1-0 this week, 11-0 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-1 this week, 9-2 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-0 this week, 9-1 overall)
4. Missouri (4) (1-0 this week, 9-1 overall)
5. Kansas (5) (1-0 this week, 8-2 overall)
6. Texas A&M (6) (3-0 this week, 10-1 overall)
7. Kansas State (7) (1-0 this week, 8-3 overall)
8. Oklahoma State (8) (2-0 this week, 8-3 overall)
9. ISU (9) (1-0 this week, 7-3 overall)
10. Texas Tech (10) (1-1 this week, 8-3 overall)
11. Nebraska (11) (1-0 this week, 7-2 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (1-0 this week, 5-3 overall)

Results from Last Week:

1. Oklahoma: Beat VCU 81-70
2. Texas: Beat Texas Southern 88-72, Lost to #19 Michigan State 63-67
3. Baylor: Beat Texas Arlington 79-76
4. Missouri: Beat Stetson 78-44
5. Kansas: Beat Temple 71-59
6. Texas A&M: Beat Florida A&M (67-57), SMU (66-56), and LSU (72-61)
7. Kansas State: Beat Centenary 73-51
8. Oklahoma State: Beat Mercer 104-74 and Rhode Island 86-82
9. ISU: Beat Jacksonville State 66-60
10. Texas Tech: Lost @ UTEP 78-96 and Beat New Mexico 86-78
11. Nebraska: Beat IPFW 75-48
12. Colorado: Beat Prairie View A&M 72-47

Analysis:

Nothing much to report. A majority of these teams played cupcakes at home this past week. No one looks any different to me compared to last week. See Power Rankings V to see why I ranked the teams where they are.

Section 202 Player of the Week: ISU's Craig Brackins

28 Points, 17 rebounds, and 2 blocks in a win over Jacksonville State. Hopefully ISU will get back on track now.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule (12/22 - 12/28):

Not a very eventful week, but that's the way it goes. The good news is that conference play is starting in the new few weeks!

• 12/22: #21 Baylor vs. Hartford; #4 Oklahoma @ Rice
• 12/23: Missouri vs. Illinois; ISU vs. South Dakota State; Texas Tech vs. Centenary; Nebraska vs. UMBC; Colorado vs. LA Monroe; #5 Texas @ Wisconsin; Kansas @ Arizona
• 12/24: None
• 12/25: None
• 12/26: None
• 12/27: Missouri vs. SIU-Edwardsville
• 12/28: ISU @ Houston; Texas A&M vs. Sam Houston State; Texas Tech @ Stanford; Colorado @ Coppin State

Games to Watch:

Not much in the basketball world. I'd recommend watching some College Bowls instead.

• 12/23: ISU vs South Dakota State - 7pm CST - Mediacom/ESPN Full Court. If not available and you can't make the game, then Texas @ Wisconsin - 8:30pm CST-ESPN2
• 12/27: West Virginia @ Ohio State - 3pm CST - CBS. Ohio State is ranked, but if you look at Sagarin Ratings, you've got the #8 (Ohio State) vs. # 11 (WVU)
• 12/28: ISU plays Houston but it doesn't look like there is any TV for it.

As always, feel free to tell me what you think in the comments! I'm glad to be back, posting about ISU and Big XII basketball!

ISU 66, Jacksonville State 60

It was nice to be in Hilton after what seemed to be a long layoff. What wasn't nice was walking outside before and after the game. It was COLD!!!!!!! I wonder what the Jacksonville State team thought of Iowa. I'm sure they just wanted to get out of here to get back in some decent weather!

Anyhow, I was happy with a win but the game was just so-so.

Positives:

• We didn't lose. I was a little worried before the game, and was glad to see us get a win
• Brackins came back! He wasn't much of a factor against Drake and Iowa, and it was nice to see him have his way at times in the post. We need Craig and he played well in a time when the rest of the team's shots weren't necessarily falling. He was aggressive offensively in the post and with rebounding. I saw him go after some rebounds that he wouldn't have even tried to go after earlier in the season which is good. I like to see the hustle!
• Closed out the 1st half strong. Good teams finish the half strong. Both teams were pretty even for a while, but ISU went on a run to lead by 13 at the half. Petey hit a 3 at the buzzer. There's something SO FUN about watching the ball go in at the buzzer. It's hard to explain but it just pumps everyone up. It was a nice exclamation point.
• Played a variety of players. At one point in the first half, we saw Haluska, Eikmeyer, Hamilton, Mann, and Buckley. As you can guess, not a lot of points came in. Hamilton had some easy looks, but he's such a work in progress. I do wonder why we saw no JVB? I'm not sure if he's in the dog house or what.
• Got to see the new coach. Paul Rhoads came out at halftime and said what's up to everyone. He seems like a good guy and it was something fun to look forward to. Nice to turn the page and focus again on basketball

Negatives:

• We keep trying give the game away. Either that, or we just don't know how to stay aggressive when we have a lead. We were up 42-27 at one point, and then it got to 60-56. If a couple of key plays went another way, Jacksonville State could've tied it up.
• Not enough offense from everyone: Lucca, Eikmeyer, etc, have the ability to shoot well and put up lots of points. The problem is they aren't consistent. Too many times they score like 10-18 and then another game they get 3 or 4. I understand that there are times when the shot isn't falling, but they have to look to do more. We play good defense, but I don't see us being able to hold any of the teams in the top 5 under 60 points. We need to put up points. I'd like to see us score 75 or so, and allow 60-65, but oh well.
• The weather. Mad cold. Not the teams fault, and Hilton was nice and warm!

It was nice to get a win. With all of the drama and negativity going on in Cyclone Nation, it was nice to leave with something somewhat positive. We're lost to worse than Jacksonville State, so it's important not to take anything for granted.

Player of the Game: Craig Brackins, 28 points,17 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Nice to see him do well offensively and defensively.

Next Game: Tuesday, 12/23 vs. South Dakota State 7pm on Mediacom. Lets win the mythical Cy-JackRabbit Series Trophy!

Big XII Power Rankings V: 12/14/2008

I will put the rankings, analyze, and pick a player of the week. I won't do the whole schedule and TV thing as this is a week behind.

Rankings (Last week's spot in parenthesis):

1. Oklahoma (1) (2-0 this week, 10-0 overall)
2. Texas (2) (2-0 this week, 8-1 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-0 this week, 8-1 overall)
4. Missouri (5) (1-0 this week, 8-1 overall)
5. Kansas (4) (0-1 this week, 7-2 overall)
6. Texas A&M (6) (1-0 this week, 7-1 overall)
7. Kansas State (8) (2-0 this week, 7-3 overall)
8. Oklahoma State (10) (1-0 this week, 6-3 overall)
9. ISU (10) (0-2 this week, 6-3 overall)
10. Texas Tech (7) (0-1 this week, 7-2 overall)
11. Nebraska (11) (0-1 this week, 6-2 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (1-0 this week, 4-3 overall)

Results from Last Week:

1. Oklahoma: Beat Maine and Utah 78-52 and 70-52 respectivley
2. Texas: Won @ Villanova 67-58 (at Madison Square Garden) and Texas St., 81-73
3. Baylor: Beat Prairie View A&M 90-63
4. Missouri: Beat Murray State 75-64
5. Kansas: Lost to UMass 60-61
6. Texas A&M: Won @ Alabama 86-78
7. Kansas State: Beat Southern Miss 74-55 and Gardner-Webb 107-48
8. Oklahoma State: Won @ Texas A&M C.C. 82-59
9. ISU: Lost to Drake 63-66 and @ Iowa 57-73
10. Texas Tech: Lost @ Lamar 79-85
11. Nebraska: Lost @ Oregon State 63-64
12. Colorado: Beat Colorado State 75-56

Analysis:

• A little bit of shuffling in the top 5. I watched Kansas lose to UMass at home. That was unimpressive on Kansas' part.
• I still think Oklahoma is better than Texas. I think they're more a complete team, even though Texas is ranked 5 vs Oklahoma's 11. Texas is a nice team, but they're more 1 dimensional from what I've seen
• A&M is looking pretty decent. They beat Arizona, Alabama, and LSU. No they aren't powerhouses, but it's fun to see a BCS team play other BCs teams in the non-conference schedule. I could see A&M giving Kansas a run, but that remains to be seen
• It's hard to tell what we've got with K-State and Okie State. They are teams that have some upside potential. Okie State had some set backs, but I sort of saw them as a sleeper in the Big XII. K-State hasn't beaten anybody yet, but their 3 losses were to decent teams
• How does ISU move up even though they went 0-2? Because Texas Tech lost to Lamar, a team rated below ISU in the Sagarin ratings. Also, Nebraska lost to Oregon State, a team that ISU beat. For those two reasons, I had to put Tech and Nebraska below ISU.
• Colorado stinks. They beat Colorado State, but they're still no good. They will give Oregon State a run for worst BCS team this year

Section 202 Player of the Week: Cory Higgins, Sophomore Guard, Colorado

First off, any week Colorado goes undefeated is pretty dang good (even if it's 1 game). Also, he got 33 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists against Colorado State. I would've given this award to Lucca if he was ANY factor against Iowa. If you're going to win Section 202 player of the week, you have to bring it every game you play in that week.

Catching Up: Iowa Recap

I never really wrote about the Iowa game. This whole thing with Chizik leaving and the coaches football search was really taxing. I spent all of my free time reading about potential football coaches and such and it took me away from writing about College Basketball. The Iowa game and the whole coaching ordeal went down in a weekend I call one of the worst in Cyclone History (at least to me lol).

Anyhow, I wanted to write some brief notes about the Iowa game. First off, I was OK with how we played in the first half. We matched Iowa's intensity, and although we didn't control the pace of the game, we kept up with them which was nice.

The 2nd half was a different story. Iowa made some good halftime adjustments and just rolled. They opened up the lead, as I think we only scored 4 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

The story of the game was that Iowa was much more physical than us in the post. Tate pushed Brackins around, and Brackins couldn't get into the post. He'd be catching the ball at the free throw line (or the high post) when he was trying to get in the low block.

Since we couldn't establish a post-presence, we settled for poor, low percentage shots and they didn't fall. On the defensive end, Brackins was getting pushed around as well. Another thing we couldn't stop was Iowa's dribble-drive. It seems like of there's a guy who can play off the dribble well, we allow him to get in the paint pretty easily and often we foul him as he scores. We must do better at defending off the dribble.

It was a pretty crappy game to watch. This combined with the coaching news made my stomach just sick. There aren't a lot of postives to take from the game, but it's clear we can't handle bangers. It could be a conference play season.

Hopefully the guys learned from this and work on being aggressive.

The final score was 57-73, with the game being pretty much over after 5 minutes into the 2nd half. I have to give the game MVP to Iowa's Cyrus Tate. He scored 10 points, got 8 rebounds, 2 steals and totally shut down Brackins.

I will catch up this week

The Chizik departure has been really getting to me this weekend. That coupled with ISU's blowout loss to Iowa in Iowa City, has made it tough for me to write. I will bounce back though. I will do an Iowa recap and Power Rankings sometime during the week.

Thank you for reading, and I appreciate your patience and support.

-mplscyclone

Iowa Preview

I am sorry.

I will not be able to post a preview prior to the game. It's in Iowa City, 7pm CST, Big 10 Network. They are favored by 8 points.

I don't have too much confidence in our team, but when two mediocre teams play each other, you never know who will win.

I hope we do well. Just know that no matter what, the Hawks suck!

ISU 63, Drake 66

WTF?????

That's really what summed up the night last night. I mean seriously! How can you be leading for 37 minutes of the game, and find a way to lose??? This felt like Hawai'i all over again, yet we can't blame the long trip or the wack announcers!

This was at HOME! Playing at HOME is supposed to be an advantage in that the home team gets all pumped from the crowd and battles through the rough periods. We didn't see any of that down the stretch of the basketball game.

In the scheme of things for the world of mplscyclone, everything is all good. A lot of people at my work got laid off and I knew some of them. Being thankful for having a good job, certainly outweighs the shortcomings of the basketball team.

Anyhow, here's what I took away from the game:

Positives:

• ISU built an early lead. Mainly led by Lucca. He was just unconscious from 3 point land. I think he scored 15 of our first 20 points. Basically he hung out in the corner. Drake was playing a 3-2 zone, and sort of gave Lucca the 3; there was no one pressuring him when he had the ball; they were giving him the open shot. This was the case at the start of the first half: Lucca motioning to the corner, and him hitting an open 3. We were up 20-9 at one point in the first half which was great. With a team we're dead-even with, you want to build an early lead. In the 2nd half, Drake made sure to get a hand in Lucca's face. To be fair though, you can't really expect more than what Lucca did. When he started 5 for 5, we knew he likely was going to cool off a bit. At the very least, you had to figure Drake would eventually guard him
• Great showing by the student section: I think they had an awesome turnout, had tons of energy throughout the game, and that was awesome to see. Section 202 was about the same. I certainley did some extra screaming, but often times felt like I was the only person in the stands cheering (I lost my voice lol)

Not many other positives. When you give the game away, it's hard to find a ton of positives. Not trying to be a downer, but there is NO excuse. We should've won this game.

Negatives:

• "The team doesn't know how to win games". I actually hate that say lol. That's the negative. It just sounds so stupid, contrived, and too Digger Phelps or Jay Bilas.
• ISU doesn't know how to play with the lead. This is what I would say as opposed to "the team doesn't know how to win". ISU built a 20-9 lead in the first half. What did we do? We started to play timidly. We didn't run an efficient offense; guys were content with a bad looking shot, and guys didn't move around. There was a stretch in the first half where we had Petey, Haluska, Eikmeyer, Hamilton, and JVB all on the court. I am not certain if we scored at all during that stretch. All 5 of them hoovered on the perimeter and took turns throwing up garbage shots. No offense was being created, there wasn't really any screens being set. Guys were just standing around, not knowing what to do. Hamilton tried to go inside, but he showed us how he's a very big work in progress as he looked horrible trying to finish in the post. When we have a good lead, instead of trying to find ways to extend the lead, we seem to wait for the other team to do something. We go from being aggressive to being passive with the lead, and this has to stop.
• Rebounding. Drake isn't a good rebounding team, yet they out rebounded us significantly. Actually if you look down the stretch, they caught up and took the lead from getting 2nd chances from offensive rebounds. I've been saying it all year (and will continue to do so). If you don't rebound well, you don't control the game. It's such a rally killer to have a good defensive stand and give it all away by allowing an offensive rebound. Drake got 40 rebounds to our 32, including 11 offensive rebounds. Their rebounding put them in a position to win.
• Maintaining intensity. It ties into my 2nd bullet point, but we need to stay aggressive throughout the game. We play better when we have a small lead then we do when we have a decent lead. In the first half, we lead by double digits and Drake cut it to 4 in the half. In the 2nd half, we lead by double digits with 8 minutes left, and Drake took the lead with 3 minutes left. All of it stems from being content with shooting a crappy shot, playing sloppy D, and not rebounding well. When a good team gets a 10 point lead, they try to extend it to 20 points. If you have a 20 point lead, you extend it to 30 and so on. It's easier said then done, but look at the Drake game last year. Drake kept piling it on, and they weren't too shabby. I understand when you get a good lead, you tend to sub guys, but there's no reason why the guys coming off the bench shouldn't be intense. In any effect, it's their chance to show Coach what they can do.
• Post presence. Brackins was a non-factor in this game, and we couldn't establish anything in the post. Drake isn't even known for it's post players. Wait until we play Mizzou and Oklahoma. Those teams have some All-Big 12 type bangers and Brackins is going to need to man up! You heard me! I am calling out Craig Brackins! I think he's a great player with a lot of potential. I think people are allowed to have a bad game to an extent, but there are other things you can do. For example, if your shot isn't falling, you can still try to grab some rebounds and block some shots. There is a lot of ways great players contribute to their teams even if they aren't putting the ball in the hole. Don't get me wrong, I love Brackins. The problem is that he's supposed to be a leader on the team, and during dry spells where we can't make a shot, he needs to find a way to put the ball in the hoop. This may sound rough, but we need him. I think most of it is mental (although hitting the weight room a little may help). It just seems like if things aren't going well for Craig, he checks out of the game

Areas of Improvement: We need to fix all of the above negatives to improve as a team.

I will stop there. Replaying this game is just frustrating to do. As a team, we regressed during this game. Drake definitley turned it on at the end, but a couple of made baskets in the last 8 minutes of the of game would've put it out of reach.

Even though Drake is down from last year, they played like they wanted it more. It would've been easy for Drake to mentally check out after we were bombing threes in the first half, but they really hung in there. When we were only up by 4 at the half, I started to be a little nervous. I thought if they could withstand us shooing 60%+ from 3, then we were in trouble.

We started out like we wanted it more, and that was awesome to see! Unfortunatley, it's more about how you finish than how you start.

Key Stat:

Rebounding. Drake outrebounded us by 8, and they had 3 key offensive rebounds in the last 3 minutes or so of the half. You need to outrebound bad rebounding teams.....

Thought of the night:

For the desperation 3, why did we have Lucca inbound? He just hit 8 3s in the game? Don't you guys think it would've made more sense to have Brackins or AT inbound? I just feel like if we had Lucca out there, they may have put 2 or 3 guys on him, while we could've possibly gotten it to Eikmeyer or someone. If they didn't put a ton of guys on Lucca, I'd rather have him throw up the desperation since he was hot earlier..

I also wish Peterson didn't throw up that 2nd 3 pointer after he got his own rebound, and we were able to get a timeout in. I will say that I love his effort though. You could tell he wanted to win the game, and sometimes in the heat of the moment, you can't make the best decisions he had the confidence and effort to throw up a 3, get his own board, and throw up another one. Even though it didn't go in, I wish we had the intensity more in the 2nd half. If we played like Petey did down the stretch, we would've been fine.

Do you realize that when Drake took a 64-62 lead with 3 minutes left in the game, no more points were scored until 29 seconds left in the game??? Both teams had chances to put it away and just flat out did not.

Section 202 Player of the Game: The student section. Part of me is tempted to give it to Lucca, but he really played well the first part of the first half. That's not a knock on him, but a player of the game award (at least mine) is going to weight the end of the game more than the beginning. The students brought it the entire game, even when people were getting negative and starting to get to their cars. I know some people bag on them, but if it wasn't for the student section, Hilton would be much quieter.

Next Game: Friday 12/12 7pm @ Iowa - Big Suck (10) Network. I hate to say it, but Iowa is looking tough. I will do some more research and post my pregame report tomorrow.

I hope we can rebound and play well in Iowa City. I guess we will see on Friday!

Drake Preview

Originally Posted Last Night. I wanted to repost above the Power Rankings. The Power Rankings is supposed to close out the last week and get us thinking about the next week; basically the transition. This story is more applicable when you're in next week mode.

Info: Tuesday, 12/9, 8PM CST, Hilton, ESPNU

Drake:

Basics: They are down this year compared to last. They beat us by 35. They have a lot of returning players, so they were part of it, and we need to get redemption!

2008-2009 Game Summary:

• 11/15: Butler, L 48-58
• 11/19: Morehead St, W 86-70
• 11/23: South Dakota State, W 75-65
• 11/29: Vanderbilt, L 57-72
• 11/30: New Mexico, 68-62
• 12/3: Lincoln (Division 2), W 75-50
• 12/5: Texas Pan-AM, W 59-57
• 12/6: North Carolina Central, W 89-46
  

As you can see, they played 2 good teams and lost to both

Bulldogs Projected Starting 5:

• Guard: Craig Stanley - Junior - 6.6 Points, 4.8 Assists, 2.6 TOs, 56.3% FG%
• Guard: Josh Young - Junior - 15.1 Points, 2.9 Rebounds, 2.3 3s, 1.5 Assists, 2.5 TOs
• Forward: Adam Templeton - Junior - 5.9 Points, 2.4 Rebounds
• Forward: Brent Heemskerk - Senior - 6.3 Points, 6.3 Rebounds, 1.0 Steals
• Forward: Bucky Cox - Senior - 12.1 Points, 8.0 Rebounds, 2.4 3s, 48% from 3, 48% overall

I have no clue why Josh Parker isn't starting above Stanley. He's their 3rd leading scorer, and their best 3 point shooter. Perhaps they want that energy coming off the bench.

ISU's Projected Starting 5:

• Guard: DG - 11.4 Points, 5.1 Rebounds, 5.6 Assists, 0.85 Steals
• Guard: Petey - 5.4 Points, 4.9 Rebounds, 4.0 Assists
• Guard: Lucca - 5.6 Points, 2.6 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists
• Forward: Brackins - 18.0 Points, 6.7 Rebounds, 49% FG%
• Forward: AT - 3.9 Points, 3. 7 Rebounds, 1.1 Blocks

How We Match Up:

• Scoring: Drake Averages 69 points per game vs. ISU's 68.1 Points Per Game. Drake averages 10 3s while ISU Averages 8.4. We throw up 21 3s, while Drake throws up 25 - Slight Advantage to Drake
• Rebounding: Drake is +4.1 rebounding margin vs. ISU's +1.0 - Advantage Drake
• Defense: Drake is holding opponents to 42% shooting, while ISU holds their opponents to 35% shooting. Drake averages about 6 steals to our 3. Overall I think opponent FG% is a better indicator than steals - Advantage ISU
• Ball Control - Drake has a 1.2 Assist to Turnover Ratio vs. ISU's 1.4 - Slight Advantage ISU

As you can see it's going to be a close game. If both teams play thier best, it will be a nail-biter.

Keys to the Game:

• 3 point shooting: I think this game comes down to who shoots the 3 better. Drake is going to throw them up, no doubt. I get the feeling that ISU will try to keep up with Drake and launch a bunch of 3s as well. Who ever makes more 3s will win this game
• Rebounding: I think Drake is a little better at rebounding than we are. If we can win the rebound margin, it's easier to control the game,and it will limit Drake's 3 point opportunities
• Defense: ISU is holding opponents to 27% 3 point shooting. That's pretty good considering UNI is a decenet 3 point shooting team. At the same time, many of the other teams we've face haven't been 3 point shooting teams. We play good zone defense. We get in trouble when players try to drive. Since Drake relys so much on the 3 ball, I'm not sure if they will attack us too much inside. Thier post players like to shoot 3s as well, but I guess we'll see
• Inside Game: We have to rebound and I think Craig, AT, JVB, and Hamm can expose Drake inside. I wouldn't mind seeing another UNI-like performance from Craig. If we can get going inside, I think Drake will have a hard time trying to stop us.

Prediction: ISU 66, Drake 64

It comes down to the wire in this one. I think Drake will have confidence they can beat us and that will help them - they won't be phazed from the home crowd. I see a lot of 3s going up, but I don't think a lot will be made which will keep the score relativley low. I think this game will look like the UNI game.

If Drake isn't hitting their 3s, I think we'll run away with it. I hope I'm right.

I hope that people come out on Tuesday night. It will be a big game and should be fun to watch. Please don't use 8pm start time as an excuse not to go. Take a nap for an hour if it ends too late for you, or go to work an hour late. If you have kids, they can handle staying up that extra hour. Just make them go to bed early the next day!

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Big XII Power Rankings IV: 12/7/2008

It was a fun week for the Big XII! The Big XII/Pac 10 Hardwood Series was this week. I enjoy watching this series as teams in the conference play some non-conference games against a BCS conference that they likely wouldn't play many games with (unless it was some tourney).

I know the series will continue for at least 2 more years, and hopefully ISU will get to play someone other than Oregon State. My initial gut feeling is OSU will play Colorado, and ISU will get Oregon or Stanford but I guess we'll see.

Anyhow to the rankings! This will be the same format as last time

Rankings (Last week's spot in parenthesis):

1. Oklahoma (1) (2-0 this week, 8-0 overall)
2. Texas (2) (1-0 this week, 6-1 overall)
3. Baylor (3) (1-0 this week, 7-1 overall)
4. Kansas (4) (3-0 this week, 7-1 overall)
5. Missouri (5) (2-0 this week, 7-1 overall)
6. Texas A&M (8) (1-0 this week, 6-1 overall)
7. Texas Tech (10) (1-0 this week, 7-1 overall)
8. Kansas State (9) (0-1 this week, 5-3 overall)
9. ISU (11) (2-0 this week, 6-1 overall)
10. Oklahoma State (6) (0-1 this week, 5-3 overall)
11. Nebraska (7) (1-1 this week, 6-1 overall)
12. Colorado (12) (0-1 this week, 3-3 overall)

Results from Last Week:

1. Oklahoma: Beat USC 73-72 and @ Tulsa 69-44
2. Texas: Beat #12 UCLA 68-64
3. Baylor: Won @ Washington St. 58-52
4. Kansas: Beat Kent St., New Mexico St., Jackson St, 87-60, 100-79, and 86-62
5. Mizzou: Dominated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 95-41 and Cal 93-66
6. A&M: Beat Arizona 67-66
7. Texas Tech: Beat Wichita St., 72-69
8. Kansas State: Lost @ Oregon 70-75
9. ISU: Beat UNI 71-66 and Oregon State 63-50
10. Okie State: Got rolled @ Washington 65-83
11. Nebraska: Beat Alabama St., 80-51 and was embarrassed @ 19 Arizona State 44-64
12. Colorado: Got blown out by TCU 46-62. Man does Colorado stink!

Analysis:

• The top 5 all remained the same. All the top 5 did was seperate themselves from the rest of the Big XII pack. I have a feeling that Mizzou could be better than Kansas, but it's too early to tell.
• 6, 7, 8 are all interchangable. It's hard to tell who's better at this point in the season. None of them have a marquee win. While A&M beating Arizona sounds nice, this isn't the Arizona I grew up watching. Tech hasn't beat anyone to speak of which is why they are at 7, but they haven't looked any worse than A&M or K-State. For K-State, the Oregon game was winnable, but its one of the hardest places to play in the Pac 10, and the game was close (which I would've expected it to be).
• ISU bounced back. Good to see us beat UNI on the road, although I would've liked to see us put the game away. Glad we beat Oregon State as they stink. If we beat Drake and Iowa, I will be pumped and ISU will be moving up! I feel better about these upcoming games compared to last week and I am starting to see improvement from ISU. I put ISU 9th because I feel like we could beat the teams below us right now, but I'm not entirely certain about teams I put just above us.
• Okie State is dissapointing. Prior to the season, I thought they might be a real sleeper in the conference. They still can be as a lot of slate is wiped clean going into conference play. Their first two losses were tough (Gonzaga and Michigan State) and I gave them a mulligan due to a hard schedule. I didn't expect them to get rolled by a weak Washington Team. There's a long way to go, but they aren't playing inspired basketball right now
• Nebraska fooled me. I thought it looked good to beat a decent Saint Louis team and to beat Creighton. But as a poster pointed out, Creighton was without their best player that game. Now after seeing Nebraska get blown out by Arizona State it's clear they aren't as good as I thought they were. Since Creighton is better than UNI, I put Nebraska slightly ahead of ISU. "Chuck" who posted in the comments pointed out to me that Nebraska is weak and he was right. I was wrong.
• Colorado is still bad. Beyond words that can be expressed. I'm glad I'm not a Buffs fan!

Section 202 Player of the Week: ISU's Craig Brackins

He averaged 22.5 points and 13 rebounds this week, including leading us in a big road win. I think it's clear what Craig is capable of, and I hope he continues to step up and play hard.

Upcoming Big XII Schedule (12/8 - 12/14):

While the ISU games are big for us, it's not exactly Marquee in the landscape of college basketball. Not a whole lot of big matchups this week. We'll get to see how good or bad Nebraska is as they play Oregon State

• 12/8: None
• 12/9: Drake vs ISU; #8 Texas vs. #17 Villanova
• 12/10: Maine vs. Oklahoma; Colorado St. vs Colorado
• 12/11: Southern Miss. vs. Kansas St
• 12/12: ISU @ Iowa
• 12/13: Texas St vs. #8 Texas; UMass vs. Kansas; Prairie View A&M vs. #24 Baylor; Utah @ #6 Oklahoma; Murray St. vs. Missouri; Nebraska @ Oregon State; Texas A&M @ Alabama; Texas Tech @ Lamar
• 12/14: Okie State @ Texas A&M C.C; Gardner-Webb vs. Kansas State

Games to Watch:

A couple of big ISU games, but other than that, this week isn't looking all that entertaining.

• 12/9: Drake vs. ISU - 8pm CST - ESPNU. If you can't get the ISU game, #8 Texas vs. #16 Villanova at 8pm CST on ESPN should be a good matchup
• 12/12: ISU @ Iowa - 8pm CST - Big 10 Network
• 12/13: Lots of games on TV but none are really all that good both in and outside of the Big 12. If you were going to watch 1 game this day, I'd probably have to go with #18 Memphis @ #20 Georgetown - 1pm CST - CBS. Traditionally Indiana vs. Kentucky on CBS after this would be good, but these two teams are pretty weak. You could also watch Blake Griffin just dominate Utah at 3pm CST on ESPN2

Feel free to comment below and I hope ISU goes 2-0 this week!

Got Bored So I Worked Ahead!

I got a little bored this evening so I posted a bunch of things ahead of schedule. See the Drake preview, player report cards, and OSU wrapup below.

I will do Power Rankings on Sunday night (technically tonight)

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, and I'm getting excited for Tuesdays game against Drake!


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Player Report Cards - End of 1st Quarter

Now that we've got 7 games under our belt, we're about 1/4 of the way through the season. Technically we won't hit the 1/4 mark until halfway through the Drake game, but oh well.

As said before, I will also do something similar to this at the halfway point, 3/4 way poing, and then after the season (including Big XII tourney and postseason if applicable)

I'm going to list each player, give a letter grade, say some positives, and some areas they can work on.

A quick note about the letter grade - these are relative to the players potential. Brackins grade vs. Garretts grade are not related. If I give Peterson a better grade than Brackins, it doesn't mean I think he's a better player. It means I think Peterson is playing more to his abilities than Brackins is.

• Craig Brackins: B; Positives: doing a good job of scoring, has shown he can finish in the post, seems to be OK with being a leader on the team, tries hard, and plays big for us in big games. Improvement Areas: Sometimes too emotional. He allows mistakes or frustrations to affect his game too much. He needs to score consistently in the post. At the same time, he needs to make smart decisions in the post. Needs to do a better job of kicking the ball out when double teamed. He isn't good enough in the post to take on two guys at once. Sometimes it takes him half a game to figure out how he's going to score. Needs to rebound more consistently. There's no reason why he shouldn't average a double-double a game. Needs to play better defense so he can block shots. He's sometimes too passive on defense to try to stay out of foul trouble. Overall, he has a lot of potential and is a good player. He's just 1 dimensional, although I feel like he can be multi-dimensional.There's just so much more untapped potential, and I hope to see him improve throughout the season. We will go as far as Craig takes us this year.
• Diante Garrett: B; Positives: more of a floor leader than last year, takes good care of the ball. He also rebounds better than I had expected. He's turning into a more complete player, and fills up the stat sheet in all sorts of areas. Last year he seemed out of control at times, and this year he really doesn't. Plays better defense, and is one of the only players on the team to get steals on a consistent basis. Improvement Areas: Needs to improve his scoring. He had a great game against Hawai'i and part of that is due to his leadership. His shot still needs some work, however, as he hasn't been consistent. When he drives, it's clear he isn't looking to score when he's in the lane. He's a pass-first player, but sometimes when he's in the lane he should be aggressive and go for the basket.
• Bryan Peterson: A-; Positives: Peterson knows his role. He's a leader and can be a calming source on the team when things are going wild. Knows when to take the shot, and when to give the ball up. He's a much better player when he doesn't have to be the primary ball handler. Last year he got pressured alot and turned it over often. This year, DG takes a lot of the pressure off of Peterson which allows for him to have open shots. Since he's a good passer, if the pressure does come, he has the time to pass it to someone else. Even though he's so small, he's one of our best rebounders and isn't afraid to go down low to try to grab some boards. Improvement Areas: Defense. When guys get moving on him, he commits fouls. There's not a whole lot more I think he can really do as I think he's playing as good as he can on offense.
• Lucca Staiger: C; Positives: He's actually playing! He can shoot the 3 ball pretty well. He started slow, but had a big game against Oregon State which is a good sign. He hustles for loose balls, boxes out decently (when he actually does it), and trys to play defense. Improvement Areas: Scoring consistently and driving to the hole. The couple of times he drove it's looked pretty unnatural. I'd like to see him box out more consistently and swarm to the basket when the shot goes up. He has some size, especially against other 3 guard lineups, and I'd like to see him use it more.
• Alex Thompson: B; Positives: Plays really hard. Plays good post defense as he blocks shots, and is decent at rebounding. Provides good energy, as he hustles for loose balls. Improvement Areas: Scoring. He has some decent post moves but has a hard time finishing. He has a hard time putting the ball in the hole when he has easy looks. I think a lot of the scoring issues are mental, but I'm not sure if he'll get past it. He's a decent role player to have and you can tell he tries his best.
• Sean Haluska: C; Positives: Fundamentally sound offensivley. Passes well and shoots well. Improvement Areas: Defense. He does not defend well at all and gets called for fouls a lot. Rebounding. He's undersized and doesn't really go for the rebounds as he hovers on the perimeter. He's losing playing time to Lucca and Eikmeyer due to lack of upside in scoring and lack of rebounding.
• Jamie Vanderbeken: B+; Positives: Provides some bad-ass-ness to the team. He seems all passive and everything, but then does something thugged out like make a big swat or slam put backs in. He's a nice surprise (to me), and provides some value coming off the bench. I thought we'd hardly get anything out of him because he's so stoic and sometimes seems out of it. He has some decent range, although his jumper looks like a knuckleball. He also hustles for loose balls and is often times the only Cyclone on the floor going for an offensive board (often times the rest of the team is running back to play D). Improvement Areas: Defense on the go, and away from the ball. When he's established in the post, I think he does a good job blocking. When guys are moving or when they don't have the ball, his defense isn't as good. I've heard coach screaming at Jamie to "MOVE YOUR FEET!", so that's influencing my grade a little bit lol.
• Wes Eikmeyer: B; Positives: He is a scorer and has a great jump shot (although it looks like a set shot). Is good at spreading out on the floor. His defense is improving as well which is also a good sign. If you can play good defense, you will get playing time in the McDermott system. Areas of Improvement: Continue to improve defensivley. He gets steals which is nice but if he can guard well and prevent guys from driving, that would be great. Sometimes makes bad decisions and is too much of a scorer first. He'll throw up a shot even if there's 30 seconds left on the shot clock and a guy in his face. He needs to understand the situation. During Hawai'i, he was running hard and throwing up tons of shots as if we were down by 13 instead of up. He needs to improve his passing. Sometimes he makes some sloppy, errant, passes. In sum, I think he tries to do too much and needs to let the game come to him. He is another guy with a ton of potential, and could do some big things in his career.
• Justin Hamilton: C; Positives: Provides some size when needed. At times has been able to play decent post offense. He works his tail off. Areas of Improvement: Speed/footwork. He's a bit slow. He has a hard time defending players and just moving around. Basketball is relativley new to him, so he's a work in progress, but coming along OK. I think if we were more of a veteran team, he wouldn't be getting any playing time, and he might be redshirted. I think he has good potential and is improving. He is decent in limited minutes, but he couldn't carry a load if needed. I think by the end of year, he might be in the discussion for most improved player on the team, since he works so hard.
• Dominique Buckley: C; Positives: Good ball handler, has a decent shot and is a decent passer. Areas of Improvement: Defense. Really it's hard to find anything. He's not getting a lot of playing time due to the guard position being crowded and Garrett's ability to log a ton of minutes. I think he's a confident ball handler, but I don't expect much from him this year. Not his fault, just the situation. He will be a big factor for us next year and beyond, however.
• Cameron Lee: D; Positives: Hustles, can pressure the opposing ball handler. Areas of Improvement: Offense. He looks unsure when he has the ball. He is a defensive specialist, but isn't really getting any clock this year. Again, he's a bit of a victim of a crowded guard position, but there are times when I would think he'd come in. Perhaps it's attributed to our other guards improvement on defense, or perhaps Lee has regressed. Hard to tell at this point.
• Charles Boozer: D; Positives: Does a better job of knowing when to pass and when to shoot. He actually tried to drive a couple of times in a game instead of launching some crazy threes. Has improved his passing as well. He's a good rebounder as he has some size for his position Areas of improvement: He needs to do more when he doesn't have the ball. He just stands behind the 3 point line and doesn't do much. It'd be nice to see him try to move inside, set some picks, or something. Defense. It's non-existent. Needs to continue to understand the situation and not do anything crazy. I think he either gets nervous or tries too hard during games, and that's hurting his perception and playing time.
• Clinton Mann: D-; Positives: None really. Not trying to be mean, but he hasn't played enough to really warrent anything to talk about. Since I don't see practice, I don't know what he's good at. Areas of Improvement: He needs to bulk up if he's going to be a Big XII forward. In the Exhibition game, he got pushed around a lot against smaller guys. Hard to tell other than that, as his minutes have been very limited. I have him graded so low because prior to the season I thought he would be a contributer. I thought he'd rebound well and have an inside-outside game. After watching him against UNO, I realized that this might be the case at a mid-major but not at a BCS school right now. The good news is that he can always improve and get better. I hope he does, and if so, I will note it. I'm not trying to hate, but he's been a dissapointment from the fan's expectations thus far.
• L.A. Pomlee: N/A; He's redshirting this year. I just wanted to make a note of it in case you missed it.