More photos » Randy Snyder - AP

Marshall's Shaquille Johnson is going to be cutting down the nets when they win the CIT! Who you got?

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So who you got? No, I'm not talking about Kansas/Kentucky/Purdue/Cornell. I'm talking about the other action! You know, NIT, CBI, CIT!

Who you got in those office pools?!.... Say what? What do you mean your office doesn't have a CBI pool?! Serious?! You mean you don't throw down $50 predicting who will win the CBI, hoping that the winnings can pay for your ISU season tickets next year? Well then! If you're going to read this feature, just pretend that you've got a lot on the line, or that you really care about the results. It will be more fun interesting that way!

Honestly, all this bracket talk is stressing me out. I mean, I've got Butler winning in the first round, but everyone on TV is trying to tell me they won't! Then you've got Jay Bilas somehow having Cornell going deep, even though they play a good-ass Temple team in the first round! I hate stressing like this, and wish these guys would stop! I mean, if you ain't got Utah St going to the Sweet 16, then you're doing something wrong....right?

At this point, I'm ready for these guys to shutup and see some ball. I mean, it's all a crapshoot for the most part, and these guys get paid to beat this to death. I always use logic, and reason to make my NCAA brackets, and I typically get last in the office pools. While others are talking about Winthrop vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff, I just can't get amped to watch two teams play for the right to get creamed by Duke.

The good news is that some of the attention can be diverted because the NIT, CBI, and CIT all start today. I'm not really endorsing these tournaments, because they remind me of the overpopulation of College Bowl games.These are groups trying to capitalize on March Madness and put on their own tournament, but only the NIT is though provoking (and that may be eliminiated when the field of 65 expands to 96).

I do like the NIT. I honestly can get into it. I think it's quality basketball after the first round, it's covered by ESPN, meaning I can watch almost all the games. The Final Four in Madison Square Garden is as fun to watch (for me) as the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. What's also great is you get NIT during the week, then NCAA on the weekend (with a spinkle of NIT in there),  then NIT during the week. If you're a big college basketball fan like myself, it helps get you ready and hold you over for the NCAA Tournament.

After the jump, I'm going to predict (for real) the "other" tournaments. You might be asking yourself why a Cyclone Blog would be doing this, and the answer is pretty much this: I love talking College Basketball and HATE the fact that my team's season is over.... But am glad they aren't playing in the CBI (more on this later)

Onto the predictions!

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More photos » Charlie Neibergall - AP

Two guys, who will be sorely missed next year.

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30 years from now, when someone's asking me about the '09-'10 basketball season, here are the five moments, I'll remember this season by.

1. Beating Drake 90-70 at the Knapp Center. The team had swagger, along with the ISU fans in attendance (myself included). After this result, every Cyclone homer was thinking this was a NCAA Tourney Team. Was one of the most fun games I've attended in the past few years.

2.  The arrival of Marquis Gilstrap. Think it was a rough year? Imagine where we would've been without Gilstrap. The guy led the Big 12 in rebounding. Had those two awesome dunks on Cole Aldrich at Hilton. Sure he was unpolished, but his ability to take over at times was a lot of fun to watch. After hearing his story about leaving school, and coming back, along with his performance this year, I'll never forget what he did in his 1 year at ISU.

3. Dendy-Gate 1 and 2. Also Colvin-Gate. Lots of random rumors across the ISU fanbase during the season. When things aren't going well, fans need something to talk about I guess.

4. The defections. Including a particular starting Center who's biggest offer other than ISU was St Mary's (3 years ago mind you), developing nicely, to bolt unexpectedly from the program. Also, a particular shooting-guard, who wanted to sit on the bench in a pro-league in Germany, rather than help a team he already had committed to here... After coming off a year where we had 6 new incoming players, we currently have 3 committed players and 3 open scholarships for the '10-'11 season.

5. Last, but not least, beating K-State in Manhattan. Enough of the snarky comments, this was awesome. We kept watching and waiting for ISU to fall behind, but they battled through lack of depth, foul trouble (including Brackins fouling out), and some boneheaded plays to get one of the biggest victories in the Basketball program... Period. The guys kept fighting all year, and it was nice to see something positive happen to that group, during one of the most frustrating years I can remember.

Honorable Mention: The 3 game losing streak to UNI, Northwestern, and Cal. After those performances, I started doubting this team, and figured we were likely in for a longer year than expected.... It's an honorable mention, because 30 years from now, I'll remember the losses, but probably forgot the teams... Ok I lied. I KNOW I'll remember UNI, but there's a chance I'll forget the others.

I realize this year stunk, but what are some moments that you will remember this season by (both good and bad)? You will remember something about this season, and I'd be interested in hearing your takeaways.

More photos » Jim Mone - AP

Don't look so sad, Robbie. Your team will be just fine without you.

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We're getting our fill of bracketology. Talking heads like Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas and Chris Dobberman have made their selections based on a combination of knowledge, intuition and just plain ballsy picks. However, there's just one talking head that I'm listening to this year. And it's a girl.

This girl, by the way, is not known by the "mainstream media" as an expert bracketologist. But her comforting face and superior intelligence has guided the way towards a Purdue national title, despite droves of college basketball fans picking Siena in the first round. Let's see why.

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More photos » Jim Prisching - AP

Bruce Weber and the Illini had their bubble popped.

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Here's an open thread for today's selection madness, from the NCAA's to the CIT.

My official tourney picks will soon appear after the jump.

NCAA Tournament

Midwest 

(1) Kansas (32-2) vs. (16) Lehigh (22-10), Thursday - Oklahoma City

(8) UNLV (25-8) vs. (9) Northern Iowa (28-4), Thursday - Oklahoma City

(5) Michigan State (24-8) vs. (12) New Mexico State (22-11), Friday - Spokane

(4) Maryland (23-8) vs. (13) Houston (19-15), Friday - Spokane

(2) Ohio State (27-7) vs. (15) UC Santa Barbara (20-9), Friday - Milwaukee

(7) Oklahoma State (22-10) vs. (10) Georgia Tech (22-12), Friday - Milwaukee

(3) Georgetown (23-10) vs. (14) Ohio (21-14), Thursday - Providence

(6) Tennessee (25-8) vs. (11) San Diego State (25-8), Thursday - Providence

East

(1) Kentucky (32-2) vs. (16) East Tennessee State (20-14), Thursday - New Orleans

(8) Texas (24-9) vs. (9) Wake Forest (19-10), Thursday - New Orleans

(5) Temple (29-5) vs. (12) Cornell (27-4), Friday - Jacksonville

(4) Wisconsin (23-8) vs. (13) Wofford (26-8), Friday - Jacksonville

(2) West Virginia (27-6) vs. (15) Morgan State (27-9), Friday - Buffalo

(7) Clemson (21-10) vs. (10) Missouri (22-10), Friday - Buffalo

(3) New Mexico (29-4) vs. (14) Montana (22-9), Thursday - San Jose

(6) Marquette (22-11) vs. (11) Washington (24-9), Thursday - San Jose

South

Play-in Game: (16a) Arkansas Pine Bluff vs. (16b) Winthrop

(1) Duke (29-5) vs. (16) Play-in Winner, Friday - Jacksonville

(8) California (23-10) vs. (9) Louisville (20-12), Friday - Jacksonville

(5) Texas A&M (23-9) vs. (12) Utah State (27-7), Friday - Spokane

(4) Purdue (27-5) vs. (13) Siena (27-6), Friday - Spokane

(2) Villanova (24-7) vs. (15) Robert Morris (23-11), Thursday - Providence

(7) Richmond (26-8) vs. (10) Saint Mary's (26-5), Thursday - Providence

(3) Baylor (25-7) vs. (14) Sam Houston State (25-7), New Orleans - Thursday

(6) Notre Dame (23-11) vs. (11) Old Dominion (26-8), New Orleans - Thursday

West

(1) Syracuse (28-4) vs. (16) Vermont (25-9), Friday - Buffalo

(8) Gonzaga (26-6) vs. (9) Florida State (22-9), Friday - Buffalo

(5) Butler (28-4) vs. (12) UTEP (26-6), Thursday - San Jose

(4) Vanderbilt (24-8) vs. (13) Murray State (30-4), Thursday - San Jose

(2) Kansas State (26-7) vs. (15) North Texas (24-8), Thursday - Oklahoma City

(7) BYU (29-5) vs. (10) Florida (21-12), Thursday - Oklahoma City

(3) Pittsburgh (24-8) vs. (14) Oakland (26-8), Friday - Milwaukee

(6) Xavier (24-8) vs. (11) Minnesota (21-13), Friday - Milwaukee

NIT

(1) Illinois vs. (8) Stony Brook

(4) Kent State vs. (5) Tulsa

(3) Dayton vs. (6) Illinois State

(2) Cincinnati vs. (7) Weber State

________________

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More photos » AP

Well, NBC thought it was a good idea. I thought it might be too.

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So, the executives have met and the sheer numbers have spoken. Despite increased views and hits for CloneChronicles since my departure, I will be returning at the 10 PM slot here to take back what is rightfully mine.....

No, not really.

But, Mark and I have been talking a bit, and we decided I'd hop back on CloneChronicles as an occasional columnist and author. With a rare bit of free time over Spring Break, I'd like to write a couple of posts, but we'll see. I'll be sort of an author emeritus, if you will. I missed writing about Iowa State athletics, and while I certainly can't be back in the role I was before (due to a lack of free time and a job and school and whatnot) I'm going to be back in some small way.

Let me know if there's anything you all would like to see out of me upon my return, and thanks again to Mark for letting this happen.

With Hamilton and Buckley announcing their transfers (along with the expected departures of Brackins and Gilstrap), although ISU already has 3 incoming players for 2010, they still have 3 open scholarships.

Doing a quick Rivals search for uncommitted guys with offers out there from ISU, there are 3 guys that pop up:

• John Wilkins: a 6'9, 215lb PF with offers from Providence, Indiana, and Iowa State. He's a JUCO out of Southeastern CC in Burlington, Iowa. He apparently hasn't been playing at all, as he's a native of France and had some eligibilty issues with the NJCAA, similar to Lucca's situation. Either way, when he goes D1, he will have to sit out the first 5 games of the year, but will have 3 years of eligibility. He originally committed to Bradley coming out of high school.
• Will Clyburn: a 6-6, 185lb SF out of Marshalltown CC, a teammate and friend of ISU signee DeMarcus Phillips. Clyburn has offers from Central Michigan, Duquesne, UNI, Saint Louis, Utah, Wichita State, and ISU. I have think we're towards the top of his list. First, we're the only BCS program that offered him, and second, he has a friend on our team.
  
• Darrell Haley: a 6-11, 225lb C out of Palmdale High School, in Palmdale, CA. I don't know much about him other than he has a 3.8 GPA in High School, and has offers from ISU and Wyoming.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Clyburn seems like a slam dunk (but I have no inside info on this), while Wilkins seems like a good player. At the same time, looking at the roster right now, with Wilkins and Clyburn possibly coming in, we would have 5 guys on our roster who had some JUCO playing time, with 2 or 3 likely starting.

JUCOs can help fill some voids when you're first building a program, but we're hitting the reset button here again.  The Iowa JUCOs are our recruiting pipeline, and that isn't the main pipeline you want to have. I think it's fine to bring in 1 JUCO per year, and the JUCOs in Iowa are solid programs, but you can't build a NCAA Division I, BCS Conference program by relying on JUCOs. These guys are JUCOs either because of academics, flaws in their game, or flaws in their size/athletic ability.

I'm not ripping on the guys above. If I were in their situation, I would do the same thing.

I don't want to make this a especially long post, but recruiting and retaining players is the biggest problem. It's weird. Players typically commit to the coach, not the school. I have no idea what the guys we have are committing to, because for most it's apparently neither.

Either way, we could potentially have 6 new guys coming in for next year. I hope they bring nametags.

Last night, without Allison Lacey, the Twister Sisters fell to 7th seeded Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Tournament.  Kind of a bummer, but they just aren't the same team without Lacey. The women will find out how this affects their seeding on Monday, and of course they have the First and Second Round of the NCAA Tournament right here at Hilton, next Sunday and Tuesday.

Also, Lisa Koll, arguably one of the greatest athletes in Cyclone history, won the NCAA Championship in the indoor 5,000 meter. She ran it in 15:39.65, which beat the person in 2nd place by 11 seconds! Props to her.

McDermott issued a release confirming Craig Brackins' departure to the NBA (no surprise there), along with Buckley transferring (not a big suprise there) and Hamilton (a larger surprise).

With Buckley, the writing was on the wall. Even when Colvin was suspended, I don't know if he played more than 10 minutes a game. I think he's a good player, and he'll do some nice things. I don't really understand why it didn't work out, but I haven't been able to see much of him to know.

With Hamilton, I have mixed feelings on. He improved a lot this year, and he gets props for that. I'm still not sold that he's a Big 12 starter. It's going to hurt our depth a lot in the front court, and I really would like to see guys come in their freshmen year, develop for 4 years.

People talk about wanting to build the program the "right way". I'm down with that too. Problem is, you actually have to keep your players to do that. Yet again, we are going to have an almost completley new look to our team.

I hope McDermott and his staff can work on player relationships, or find someone they can add to their staff to help in that department. I want to support the program, but this is almost laughable (and not in a good way).  

This isn't a joke, or a sarcastic post here. This is 100% how I feel right now. Say what? The dude that just ripped a Pollard e-mail is now signing his praises? What gives?

I didn't necessarily like the decision made regarding the Men's Basketball team, but it was more the reasoning (or lack of reasoning) behind the decision that bothered me. I just felt like we were being told that what has happened on the court hasn't been a problem, and that everything is a-ok. I just feel in general that there is a lack of responsibility taken for the results on the court this year. If Rick Barnes can say "this year was the worst coaching job of my life" when talking about Texas' season this year (when it isn't necessarily his worst coaching job of his life), why can't our guy at least acknowledge any fault?

Well, this e-mail exchange between Pollard and an ISU fan really made me think about things a little bit more. I've had teachers and other adults tell me before that if you don't vote, then you don't have the right to complain about the President/Governor, etc. It's kind of the same way with college athletics. If you aren't doing anything to try and help the situation, you don't really have room to be as judgemental.

At the end of the day, though it's about money. If you look at the info here from 2007-2008, you will see that ISU's revenue is ranked 63rd. It isn't shocking that the football team has probably been the 70th-100th best program, and the basketball team has been somewhere in that range as well.  If you look at the list, there is a high correlation in terms of success and dollars brought into the department. I don't know the latest figures, but I wouldn't be surprised if the gap between ISU and programs at the top to be even larger.

If ISU can generate more revenue, the athletic programs will be able to go where we'd like to see them go. 

It has absolutely made me sick watching ISU Men's Basketball not be at the level I was hoping to see it at. All I've been wanting to do is something to try and make an impact. I certainly do not want to see the program fail. I'd much rather have this staff be successful and make it. I'm not going to say it's going to happen, but it definitley won't happen if fans bail on the team.

This is our program, and since we aren't players nor are we coaches, the only thing we can do is step up.

Which is why I am happy to announce that for the first time ever, I am now a member of the National Cyclone Club!

I really think that if you are a fan, and haven't been one in the past, that you should join me! You can spread out the donation over the course of monthly payments, or quarterly payments if making the lump sum is inconvenient. I'm not a rich guy, so if you're in a situation where you can't contribute a lot at once like me, you can donate $10, $20, or $30 (or more) a month. It's better than nothing. I'm no accountant, but I believe that you can write this off on your taxes as well, which may help you out come April of next year.

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More photos » Charlie Neibergall - AP

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According to Bobby La Gesse, McDermott told Gilstrap after the game. I'm a little bit suprised how quick how the result came from the NCAA, as they  only got the paperwork, what, a week or so ago? I'm disappointed in the result, because of how far Gilstrap had come along, and the sacrifices he made. At the same time, he's good enough to play pro ball somewhere, and he may have gone for that, even with a 6th year (4th year of playing basketball).

According to Fox Sports, Craig Brackins is going to declare for the draft. Also they said that according to an executive they talked to, although Brackins' stock has fallen, he's still a first round draft pick. Not too suprised with this move. The body language from Brackins, McDermott, and the other players when he was taken out of the game, told me everything one needed to see.

For Cyclone fans, it's just better to get in the mindset that Brackins is going to be gone. It's time to move forward with the next group of guys we have. Brackins made sacrifices to come back and play for ISU this year.

Looking at the Rookie Salary Scale for the NBA, you can literally see the millions that Brackins gave up to play for Iowa State. Let's say that Brackins was in fact a lottery pick last year, and he would've gone 12th. we're talking about $5.2 million guarenteed over the first 3 years. I honestly think the lowest Brackins would have gone last year is 16th to the Chicago Bulls. Looking at the 16th pick salary, it's about $4.2 million over those 3 years.

Now let's take a quick look at where Brackins could fall this year. mynbadraft.com has him at 41st overall. DraftExpress has him at 37th. Either way, he's being projected as a 2nd round draft pick right now. 2nd round draft picks get signed to Rookie Minimums of about $457k a year. Sometimes that first year is not guarenteed (meaning he can be cut from the team at anytime), and typically the 2nd year of the deal is a team option.

So Brackins pretty much turned away $4.2-5.2 million guaranteed for about $457k guaranteed.

I'm not saying you have to feel sorry for the guy or anything like that, but just realize that he gave up a lot to come back and don the Cyclone Uniform another year. It sucks that this year wasn't as good as hoped, because not being able to play in the NCAA Tournament or NIT isn't going to help his draft status either. You see a lot of guys' draft stock go up based on performance on the big stage. Craig is just going to have to try and wow some NBA scouts at those Rookie Prospect Camps.