Between work and other things going on, I have been absent for a bit. I plan to catch up on some things tonight on tomorrow morning, but since I know many do not check this site over the weekend, I thought I'd give my take on a few bolded topics below
OKLAHOMA STATE LOSS:
The loss stunk. It really did. We were up by 9 with 3:00 left, and we were up by 6 with 1:00 left. There were a lot of reasons why the game turned out the way it did, from rebounding to lack of defense to other things. For me, I am not as fed up with rebounding. Iowa State grabbed 37.5% of the available offensive rebounds, which is about 4-5% higher than their season average. The problem of the 15 offensive rebounds they got, I think they scored only 9 points off of those 15 rebounds. Oklahoma State on the flip side, grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and scored 23 second chance points.
What lost this game was crucial turnovers in the final minute of the second half. Iowa State is up by 4 with 45 seconds left. Jake Anderson committs a costly turnover that not only results an a breakaway basket for OSU, but Ejim fouled while trailing on that play, giving OSU an extra point. Then Bubu hits the FTs making it a 3 point game, OSU goes down and nails a 3. Then, with 7 seconds left, Iowa State has a chance to make the final shot, and commits an offensive foul to go the other way. OSU had a great chance to win it in regulation.
Bottom line is this: 2 turnovers and 1 unnecessary foul in the final 46 seconds lost the game for Iowa State. Yeah the rebounding was not great, but we are not ever going to have great rebounding performances against a team with an interior presence.
More Thoughts After The Jump!
"LEARNING HOW TO WIN":
Speaking of OSU, I went over the CycloneFanatic because the epic ways some fans meltdown and their lack of logic is so entertaining that it picks me up after a tough loss like this. I saw a lot of the "learning how to win" type of rhetoric on there.
What I'd like to know is who teaches the course in "winning"? A majority of Iowa State's minutes are used by 3 seniors, and a junior. This team has played 4 games this year in which they were in a position to win, but lost. Two of those guys (DG and JVB) have been in situations time and time under McDermott where they let leads slip away. This whole "growth", or "learning how to win" is the type of jargon somebody who knows nothing about sports uses.
How is Ohio State winning so much right now with having such a young team? Did they take the "winning" course over summer orientation?
The team is losing games because they are getting tired. It is evident. You do not give up the type of turnovers Iowa State has done unless you are tired. Also late in games, the shots were falling short, and the silly fouls is a result of not having the legs under you to play defense. It is hard.
Iowa State plays 7 guys, but is better in an transition game as opposed to a half-court game. At the same time, it is hard to run when you have 7 guys and the other team plays 10 guys like Oklahoma State did. Iowa State faces Mizzou next. Mizzou likes to run and they also play 9-10 guys. If Iowa State tries to play like that, I'd expect to see the team hit the wall late in the second half again.
The team is playing great given their talent level and depth. This narrow losses stink, but it is a result of not having enough guys who can contribute. "Learning how to win" is BS. If that was the case, then the same team would win the championship every year.
OUTLOOK FOR THE SEASON:
I expect Iowa State to get blown out by Mizzou. I've watched every Big 12 team play now, and Mizzou is the team we match up with the worst. I will be thrilled if we can be in a position to win the game. This team has surprised me time and time again, and maybe they just will tomorrow night as well.
As far as the rest of the season goes, I am still in the 6-10 camp. I think Iowa State could win all of their home games, but get the feeling they will lose at home to either Missouri or Colorado. I do not expect this team to win any road games. Being up by 10 on the road in the second half against a team that is pretty much your equal is as good as somebody could ask for, and they could not get the win. I could see them playing close on the road, but as I talked about above, they just do not have the horses to get over the hump in a close game.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING:
Things are going down. Updating the commitment list and giving my take on what is going on is on my "to-do" list either tonight, tomorrow, or sometime on Sunday. All I will say right now, is if you think you know who will QB this team next fall, think again. From what I am seeing on twitter, Rhoads is recruiting this Joshua Grady kid hard, and Iowa State is in his final 3/4 teams or so. The interesting thing is, we have a JUCO QB (Steele Janz) who has already enrolled for the spring semester, have our two year backup (Tiller), our third stringer last year going into his redshirt sophomore year (Capello), and a sophomore who was thought of as a solid recruit (Barnett), and we are bringing in this Sam Richardson who is another 3 star QB this year as well.
We are going to have 5-6 guys competing for the job in Fall Camp. I have to think Janz is the leader as of right now, because you do not bring in a JUCO if you believe Tiller or Capello is your answer. Barnett may even surpass Tiller or Capello on the depth chart if they think he could be a starter one day. I would think this Grady could be converted into a WR or brought in as a QB for special packages, and Richardson could redshirt his first year if they think he could project as a solid #1 or #2 down the road, since there will be so many bodies in the position next year, and none of this includes the practice-squad types of guys.
I just hope we find a solution at QB from one of these guys. It doesn't matter to me who, as long as the guy can play. It would stink to have 6 viabile QB options and to have 0 be the solution over the next couple of years. I trust the staff is recruiting the right guys to fit into the offense though.
WINGS:
I do not eat meat very often. My wife is a vegetarian, and I pretty much follow suit, although I do stray from time to time. Well, this weekend I'm straying big time. I'm joining WRNL in their wing challenge. Basically we're going to a lot of local places to see who has the best wings. It goes down all day tomorrow and sometime next week, I put a recap on here.
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