MONDAY MUSINGS: Next year’s hoops lineup, Big 12 revenue and more

With Lindell Wigginton’s decision behind us, there aren’t a lot of newsy items this week. However, allow me to bloviate on a few topics on this beautiful Monday morning…

Next years starting lineup

This is basically the Jordan vs. LeBron conversation for Iowa State fans these days….Tired of it yet? 😂

After Lindell Wigginton made the decision to come back for his sophomore season last week, of course, I took to Twitter and posted what my Iowa State starting lineup would be next year.

Here’s what I have, I’ll explain why and then I’ll analyze.

1 – Lindell Wigginton, So.

2 – Nick Weiler-Babb, Sr.

3 – Talen Horton-Tucker, Fr.

4 – Marial Shyock, Sr.

5 – Cameron Lard, So.

Of course, the comment I got from a lot of fans was, “Where’s Solomon Young?” 

A few thoughts on that:

— Do we love the idea of Solomon and Lard playing together?

— Solomon wasn’t healthy at the end of last year…That’s important to remember when discussing him as a player.

— I prefer small ball. 

— I actually feel like Michael Jacobson would be a better fit in that lineup playing next to Lard.

— Just because Young isn’t a starter doesn’t mean he won’t play a lot. It’s all about matchups.

— I like small ball.

— Prohm will probably start Young because as we’ve seen, he likes to go with veterans for as long as possible. Personally, I like the pure talent that Horton-Tucker brings to the table. It will be difficult to keep off of the floor, in my opinion.  

— There is a lot of depth on that roster. It isn’t all proven depth, but there are warm bodies with loads of potential. 

— ME. LIKES. SMALL BALL. . 

TONIGHT…

…Is the annual YMCA Capital City Draft. 

I’d take Marial Shayok with the first pick for a few reasons.

First of all, he is going to be around all summer, which means he will probably show up most of the time. In addition to that, Shayok didn’t play a lick of competitive ball last year, which means he will be hungry. He also set some sort of a scoring record last year in the league. At 22 years of age, this is a grown man playing pickup ball with a bunch of talented boys. 

Draft Marial first and thank me later! 

We will have full coverage of tonight’s draft upon its completion. 

Big 12 TV money

This news kind of got lost in the shuffle on Friday but the Big 12 announced its 2017 revenue. It was yummy. 

Iowa State – along with every other school in the league – will receive $36.5 million for 2017. That’s up from a $34.8 million figure from 2016. This figure doesn’t factor in tier-three revenue. So Texas, with its $15 million a year payday from the Longhorn Network, will notch nearly $50 million a in 2017. Kansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia will all exceed $40 million. 

It is notable that bringing the Big 12 championship game back added $30 million to the pot, which is where the extra $2 million or so came from. 

For what it’s worth, the Big 12 is currently third in revenue compared to other Power 5 conferences ranking ahead of the Pac-12 and ACC and behind the Big Ten and SEC.

There is an escalator in the Big 12’s television contract, so the number should be even greater – perhaps $40 million or more per school – next season. That’s according to West Virginia president Gordon Gee.

Coming up…

Brent Blum and I will be recording episode one of this year’s Sukup Summer Series of Podcasts tonight. The topic: The anti-Cyclones… Top five enemies of Iowa State. Should be fun…

Also, we’ve been working tirelessly on “Transfer U,” Cyclone Fanatic’s first podcast docu-series for over a month now. I am hoping that episode one will be ready to release next week.