Parrish: The “What if” Game with Wes Johnson

The Iowa State basketball program sure has been getting a lot of national buzz lately. But not for the reasons we all would have hoped for.

Remember Wesley Johnson? That was a stupid question. Of course you do. Johnson, who is now at Syracuse has been tearing up the college basketball world over the past week. On Friday night, Johnson led the Orange with 25 points and eight rebounds as Syracuse knocked off fourth-ranked North Carolina 87-71.

It’s hard to watch a game on ESPN and not here Johnson’s name. It’s even harder when every time Johnson is mentioned, that whole “Iowa State transfer” line follows.

Johnson got some more ink this morning as Gary Parrish of CBS Sports played the “What If” game concerning Iowa State.

HERE’S THE LINK if you haven’t read his blog piece yet.

Chris’ Take:

It’s time to move on Fanatics. I know it hurts to see Wes in orange. I don’t blame anybody for that. Let’s face it. He is a really, really good college basketball player. But bringing him up every time he has a big game does nobody in Ames any good. Gary Parrish played the what if card because he is a national college basketball columnist. He brought up an interesting point that a lot of his national audience probably didn’t even know about.

Cyclone fans have had years to hash this storyline out. Again…it is time to move on. Instead of looking back at Wes’ time in Ames, let’s look ahead to what is here now.

In our CF chat yesterday, a poster asked me if I was upset with how the Johnson saga went down and if I disliked him. That’s not the exact question but you get where I’m going. It is a shame how the Johnson story played out. But do I hate the guy for it? Absolutely not. Why spend so much negative energy on a guy who didn’t want to be in Ames? It makes no sense to me. Maybe he got some bad advice. Maybe he made a bad decision. Okay. But I’m not going to wish ill-will against the young man.

Just my two cents here on a Saturday. I realize that it is inevitable for Cyclone fans to talk about Johnson. It’s a compelling storyline that unfortunately is still very raw in all of our brains. Let’s just hope that it dies down here as the season rolls along.