I love Iowa State athletics, but something that always gets me jacked up is the start of basketball season.  I love basketball.  I love to watch it, I love to play it, it's just my favorite athletic endevor.  I watched about an hour and half of the Warriors and Pistons last night people.

Iowa State officially kicks off their season tonight.  No more exhibitions.  No more closed scrimmages.  If Diante Garrett wants to get the most assists in a season he needs to turn it on tonight.  Plus, this game will probably mark the ascension of the Chosen One from his NCAA enforced purgatory.

This is the smirk of a man released after a year in bondage... Behold!

I don't know what kind of player Lucca is going to be but I will be grateful for him sticking with the team.  The guy could go on to average 2 points for his whole career and I'd be loving him.  He's exactly what you talk about when you want the right kind of people involved in your program and I am just so excited to see him on the floor even if he will be hobbled from the knee surgery.  As he rains in three point daggers from Deutcheland I'll never forget what he did for the program.

Listen I don't really care about UC-Davis.  Here's what I know about them - Drake wing Adam Templeton transferred from there; their RPI last year was 303.  That's pretty much all I need to know.  Tonight is about the young guys putting on the uniform for the first time in a "real" game for the ISU Cyclones and I'm going to love every minute of it.