Iowa State hung with Oklahoma tonight for the most part, but in the end lost by 12.  A couple of notes from the game:

• Craig Brackins had the worst game of his career tonight.  He shot 3-12, with around 8 of these shots coming from the block.  You'd think he'd learn after leaving every single shot from the low post area short that he needs to get some more juice on the ball.  I'll recant my comment in the Brackins Vs. Thompson post, and say officially it is time for AT in the starting lineup.
• Jiri Hubalek continued his tremendous play on the offensive end.  What has gotten into this guy?  He has scored 20 points in back to back games against teams with great big men.  Jiri is carrying us right now.
• I have been a pretty big McDermott apologist but my patience is starting to wear thin.  Lets hope that next year, with an influx of talent coming in, we can start winning Big 12 games consistently.  Also, maybe next year with an actual point guard we'll able to fastbreak.  I mean if McDermott lets them.  I think this year we have a combined 10 fastbreak points.  

We gave a good effort tonight but we just don't have the horses to stick with the big guys of the Big 12 right now.  I can't wait for the centennial celebration Saturday, but can't help but be depressed knowing Marcus Fizer isn't coming back from Spain for it.  At least I'll get to see Chris Alexander.  He's on the all-century team right?  

Let me preface this by saying a game like that should have been expected sans Wesley Johnson.  Should we have suspected something that bad though?  Couldn't we have at least taken care of the ball?  A few game notes:

• Brackins, Petersen, and Garrett combined for 13 turnovers.  Brackins contributed six to the cause.  This was coming from a guy whom the announcers of the game called, "one of the best passers on the team."
• Sean Haluska and Alex Thompson each regressed back to their terrible early season form.  Thompson wasn't even able to hold the ball.  
• One of the few bright spots was Hubalek's offensive game.  He was struggling mightily in the low post area lately and it was nice to see him have a decent game.  
• Whoever predicted Aleks Maric was going to be a first round pick probably should be fired.  That guy is just big and slow, and if he makes it in the NBA I'll be upset.  
• One last note, the entire CTN telecast was terrible. The announcers, commercials, halftime, and even the camera work during the game nearly made me gouge out my eyes.  Anybody who was watching knows exactly what I mean.  I never want to see another Phillip's 66 commercial again.  
• Game MVP - Brock Jacobson.  He was the only one who didn't suck.

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CrossCyed - I was one of those students to go on the Cyclone Alley road trip today, and I was pretty underwhelmed by the BOB, and especially by their fans. Unfortunately, we didn't get to leave with a win. Our big guys played a little better than I thought they would, but some really weak backcourt play did us in. Of course, not having Wes Johnson really hurts. All that being said, Nebraska is a bad team, and this was a bad loss.

Both of our starting guards in Diante Garrett and Bryan Petersen both had major issues shooting, as well as taking care of the ball. With Haluska and Lee being incapable of adding any offense, we were pretty much boned from the outset. Our team is so incredibly thin that losing a guy like Wes, especially on the road, is hard to overcome.

Fizer is joining the crew here as a writer at CloneChronicles. Feel free to read and comment on his articles while I slave away at my studies. :) - CC

This diary is in response to a supremely bad article I read in the Iowa State Daily this morning.  The article, which was written by Ryan Frederick detailed his take on the vast emptiness of the balcony area of the ISU Student Section.  This came as a response to a piece on Tuesday in which A.D. Pollard expressed his disappointment with the empty seats.

Frederick starts the article off by saying, "Mr. Pollard, you've disappointed us."  Wait, what?  Who is he disappointing?  I am certainly not disappointed that our A.D. is upset about us not coming to the games we bought tickets for.  Next he begins to rant about how the university exists because of the students.  Really Ryan, I had no idea?

In paragraph three he begins delving into the problem of ticket pricing.  In one sentence he claims many of the "more loyal" Iowa State students are sitting in non-student seats.  I was at the game yesterday Ryan and I'm pretty sure the loyal fans were sitting around me in Cyclone Alley.  

Perhaps the worst part of the article was this gem, "Who is scheduling these ball games, anyway? At 12:30 on a Saturday, more than a few college students, for whatever reason, are hardly out of bed yet. It can be reasonably assumed that most of the capacity crowds in NCAA basketball are playing in primetime, rather than in the midst of the lunch hour."  Hey Ryan, before you write this stuff how about you check out some other team's schedules.  Kansas, Duke, and many other powerhouse teams play the same amount of 12:30 home games as us.  Don't try to put that one on Pollard too.  

Later he claims that incentives should be given to students who attend games instead of threatening to take away a portion of our tickets.  No examples of such possible incentives are given, however.

Jamie Pollard couldn't have been more right.  This is a simple problem.  Students, if you bought tickets go to the games!  If you aren't going to the games, don't get tickets next year.  It is embarrassing how many students elect not to go to the games despite having tickets.  That is like slapping the team in the face.  

I'll close this with a statement by Frederick that needs no comment,
"There’s nothing more exhilarating than Brian (sp) Petersen bringing the ball down the floor..."