Last night sucked. I figured Iowa State would get blown out by Mizzou, heck I even had it in my preview of the game. Still, losing by 33 points, and being down 48-26 at the half was not quite the way I had it pictured in my mind. There's really no way to get around it: the team just flat out stunk. Missouri's goal is to make life hell for their opponents, and the Cyclones were definitley in hell the entire game. Missouri even put in the token white-guy off the bench who never plays, and he even nails a 3 in this one. It was that kind of a night for Iowa Staate.
Some of what happened was just stupid. The halftime margin should not have been as large as it was. Something more in the range of 10-12 points, not 22. I do not know how many times DG, Ejim, and Godfrey put the ball up and had it just rim out or get swatted away. Although Mizzou did force turnovers, I don't know how many were just unforced, weak passes. I would say at least 5 because Vanderbeken had 5 turnovers. Jake Anderson scored 20 points in 30 minutes of play, and was the only Cyclone in double figures.
If there's any kind of a positive to takeaway from the game, I would say it was the fact that some of these guys got some rest. Vanderbeken and Ejim played around 22-23 minutes, and Jake played 30 minutes.
The Cyclones will finally make their way back to Ames after being on the road for 5 days. Iowa State plays at home to Texas Tech on Wednesday and Oklahoma on Saturday. Both of these games are winnable,and actually both are "must-wins". I just hope confidence is not lost, and these guys can play two solid games to get to 3-4 in the Big 12.