I admit it. A couple of weeks ago I said the sisters were going to beat both Texas and Baylor in round 2. I really felt they had what it took to do it. I also believed that the "covid week" was partially to blame for the blowout losses they experienced. How I was wrong. In some ways I'm still scratching my head about why.
If all you had seen was the first quarter of this game you'd think wow...what a game! And...you'd be right. This thing started out with two teams feeling each other out, not playing perfect, but battling with the confidence two teams vying for a conference title were expected to exhibit. The one thing that was readily apparent out of the gates though was the sisters were not shooting particularly well. But, they would surely have another great second quarter and exert their muscle wouldn't they? Wouldn't they? Nope. Not a single trace of it. What we saw was the last 3 1/2 minutes of quarter two was utter domination by the Baylor Bears as they broke a one point ISU lead into a 12 point half time lead. Baylor would blow this thing open and many of us were wondering...hoping if the team could come out and finally start making shots in the third. And imagine...the Bears had shot terribly from deep in the first half. It was done on the back of their super athlete NaLyssa Smith who scored 19 in the first half.
So did they change course in the second? Nope. Never happened. The second half was just a continued butt whooping by the Bears as the sisters struggled, again, from the field. It was groan after groan from an amazing crowd as wide open shots just clanked off the iron. In the first half ISU had actually out rebounded Baylor for most of the 20 minutes. In the second half while the rout was on Baylor absolutely owned the boards. So many times we had two or three women stand arms outreached for a rebound as Smith deftly jumped and pulled it away on the way to 20...yes TWENTY rebounds. It was one of the most miserable rebounding efforts I'd seen all season. Now, yes...some were just the luck of the bounce. But the contested ones? They typically didn't go to the ladies in white. In the end the better team won. I don't like admitting it, but in head-to-head matchups ISU is the third best team in the conference. Yes, I admit it. Texas and Baylor have our number. After this game I started to realize what that was. Aggressive defense. Sure. But defense didn't win this game for Baylor. Great shooting? Again, it was part of the equation. Excellent post play? Bingo. Texas and Baylor both have athletic posts that just outclass what we can put against them. Tonight, Smith was literally unstoppable inside of ten feet. As go those posts go Baylor and Texas. Tonight it was a punishing 87-62 throttling.
Observations
It was senior night. The highlight of that was seeing Fred hit a three pointer in the second half late in the game. What? How can I say that when we have one of the most amazing seniors in history on the court? Read on...
Ashley - I really felt for her tonight. I really did. She just couldn't find her shot. She went a miserable 4-19 from the field and 0-8 from deep. Her bread and butter was going 11-12 at the line. And...she...fouled...out. It was so hard seeing the tears on her face...the pure agony as she went to the bench. So very little went right for her on "her" night. But...it happened to the rest of the team as well.
Lexi - our staunch defender was going strong until she went down in a tie up and came up limping. The big mystery was that we wouldn't see her the rest of the half and during that time Baylor broke things open. When she came back in the second half her defense was still on display, but offensively with 9 points on 3-11 shooting. Ouch.
Ryan - The one I think is the best point guard in the country...struggled. 10 points, 6 assists (ok...so far so good) 4 turnovers. 0-1 from deep (you know its not good when she only shoots one) and hitting just 4-11 shots overall. See the trend here? The turnovers weren't all her fault. There were times when players who should be expecting a pass from her seemed stunned when the ball would come flying at them...and usually they were open for a shot.
The posts - the best way to describe what I saw tonight was like watching a race between shetland ponies and thoroughbred race horses. We don't have the race horses. Smith just took whoever guarded her to task all night and the Baylor interior defense just shut our posts down. This more than anything demonstrates the big gap between champion and 2nd or 3rd place in our conference.
I could go through everyone else, but it's all the same story. Can't hit a shot. Can't rebound. As Coach Fen has said before, basketball is a game about putting the ball through the hoop. If you don't, you lose. We didn't. We lost. Total shot selection was 20-56 overall (and several of those makes were at the end when it didn't matter) and a gut wrenching 4-22 from downtown. Again, it wasn't Baylor's defense. We had open look after open look from deep and no one could find the range. It was just an ugly demonstration of shooting skills from a group we all know can shoot. So why is it that against Texas and Baylor we can't make wide open shots? Part of it is rhythm. Part of it is the absence of any inside game to cause flow. But wow...this was ugly.
Free throws - before the game I was hoping for decent or at least fair officiating. We didn't get it. But we did get to the line 20 times making 18 of them. That's good. What's sad is we were called for 19 fouls. Some questionable but we all know that happens. But wow...did the officials really blow some calls and outright miss others. BUT...that didn't cost us the game.
Isn't it just strange that other teams that we handle easily can play Baylor and Texas quite close...and in some cases beat them? Somehow Baylor and Texas literally are our kryptonite. When we play them our shooters lose their touch, rebounders can't jump and defenders are a step slow. Very strange.
So, the dream of a conference championship has essentially gone up in smoke. Is there a possibility of a tie? Yes, but the likelihood of TTU beating Baylor in Whacko is not very high. Add to it that the sisters have to get over this hangover in a hurry or WVU will take us to task on Saturday. Anything can happen and it has so the one thing we need to remember is one loss now doesn't take anything away from this amazing and record setting season. There are some honors that probably won't swing our way. POY very likely will be Smith and COY will land elsewhere too. But this team can break the season record for regular season wins with a victory over WVU. They can go into the tourney as the #2 seed. A good showing can still land ISU as a #2 or #3 seed in the dance. That gives us two more home games. Being placed in the Wichita region would give us close access to the next two. There is a lot of good basketball to be played yet. It all comes down to something we've seen over and over again from this team - resilience.
I'm sad. Disappointed. I wanted a game like the first quarter all the way through. But, it didn't happen. So we move on and close the season out strong. We flock to Kansas to finally enjoy home court advantage for the conference tourney. Honestly, I'm hoping for a rematch with Baylor in the final. Sound like a glutton for punishment? Nope...I just have faith that with this team anything can happen. See you all in KC folks. I hope to meet you there. My "Power of the Pops" crew will all be there so look for us in our Pops sweatshirts (https://cyclones.com/news/2008/3/19/1414094.aspx). It's time to party.
If all you had seen was the first quarter of this game you'd think wow...what a game! And...you'd be right. This thing started out with two teams feeling each other out, not playing perfect, but battling with the confidence two teams vying for a conference title were expected to exhibit. The one thing that was readily apparent out of the gates though was the sisters were not shooting particularly well. But, they would surely have another great second quarter and exert their muscle wouldn't they? Wouldn't they? Nope. Not a single trace of it. What we saw was the last 3 1/2 minutes of quarter two was utter domination by the Baylor Bears as they broke a one point ISU lead into a 12 point half time lead. Baylor would blow this thing open and many of us were wondering...hoping if the team could come out and finally start making shots in the third. And imagine...the Bears had shot terribly from deep in the first half. It was done on the back of their super athlete NaLyssa Smith who scored 19 in the first half.
So did they change course in the second? Nope. Never happened. The second half was just a continued butt whooping by the Bears as the sisters struggled, again, from the field. It was groan after groan from an amazing crowd as wide open shots just clanked off the iron. In the first half ISU had actually out rebounded Baylor for most of the 20 minutes. In the second half while the rout was on Baylor absolutely owned the boards. So many times we had two or three women stand arms outreached for a rebound as Smith deftly jumped and pulled it away on the way to 20...yes TWENTY rebounds. It was one of the most miserable rebounding efforts I'd seen all season. Now, yes...some were just the luck of the bounce. But the contested ones? They typically didn't go to the ladies in white. In the end the better team won. I don't like admitting it, but in head-to-head matchups ISU is the third best team in the conference. Yes, I admit it. Texas and Baylor have our number. After this game I started to realize what that was. Aggressive defense. Sure. But defense didn't win this game for Baylor. Great shooting? Again, it was part of the equation. Excellent post play? Bingo. Texas and Baylor both have athletic posts that just outclass what we can put against them. Tonight, Smith was literally unstoppable inside of ten feet. As go those posts go Baylor and Texas. Tonight it was a punishing 87-62 throttling.
Observations
It was senior night. The highlight of that was seeing Fred hit a three pointer in the second half late in the game. What? How can I say that when we have one of the most amazing seniors in history on the court? Read on...
Ashley - I really felt for her tonight. I really did. She just couldn't find her shot. She went a miserable 4-19 from the field and 0-8 from deep. Her bread and butter was going 11-12 at the line. And...she...fouled...out. It was so hard seeing the tears on her face...the pure agony as she went to the bench. So very little went right for her on "her" night. But...it happened to the rest of the team as well.
Lexi - our staunch defender was going strong until she went down in a tie up and came up limping. The big mystery was that we wouldn't see her the rest of the half and during that time Baylor broke things open. When she came back in the second half her defense was still on display, but offensively with 9 points on 3-11 shooting. Ouch.
Ryan - The one I think is the best point guard in the country...struggled. 10 points, 6 assists (ok...so far so good) 4 turnovers. 0-1 from deep (you know its not good when she only shoots one) and hitting just 4-11 shots overall. See the trend here? The turnovers weren't all her fault. There were times when players who should be expecting a pass from her seemed stunned when the ball would come flying at them...and usually they were open for a shot.
The posts - the best way to describe what I saw tonight was like watching a race between shetland ponies and thoroughbred race horses. We don't have the race horses. Smith just took whoever guarded her to task all night and the Baylor interior defense just shut our posts down. This more than anything demonstrates the big gap between champion and 2nd or 3rd place in our conference.
I could go through everyone else, but it's all the same story. Can't hit a shot. Can't rebound. As Coach Fen has said before, basketball is a game about putting the ball through the hoop. If you don't, you lose. We didn't. We lost. Total shot selection was 20-56 overall (and several of those makes were at the end when it didn't matter) and a gut wrenching 4-22 from downtown. Again, it wasn't Baylor's defense. We had open look after open look from deep and no one could find the range. It was just an ugly demonstration of shooting skills from a group we all know can shoot. So why is it that against Texas and Baylor we can't make wide open shots? Part of it is rhythm. Part of it is the absence of any inside game to cause flow. But wow...this was ugly.
Free throws - before the game I was hoping for decent or at least fair officiating. We didn't get it. But we did get to the line 20 times making 18 of them. That's good. What's sad is we were called for 19 fouls. Some questionable but we all know that happens. But wow...did the officials really blow some calls and outright miss others. BUT...that didn't cost us the game.
Isn't it just strange that other teams that we handle easily can play Baylor and Texas quite close...and in some cases beat them? Somehow Baylor and Texas literally are our kryptonite. When we play them our shooters lose their touch, rebounders can't jump and defenders are a step slow. Very strange.
So, the dream of a conference championship has essentially gone up in smoke. Is there a possibility of a tie? Yes, but the likelihood of TTU beating Baylor in Whacko is not very high. Add to it that the sisters have to get over this hangover in a hurry or WVU will take us to task on Saturday. Anything can happen and it has so the one thing we need to remember is one loss now doesn't take anything away from this amazing and record setting season. There are some honors that probably won't swing our way. POY very likely will be Smith and COY will land elsewhere too. But this team can break the season record for regular season wins with a victory over WVU. They can go into the tourney as the #2 seed. A good showing can still land ISU as a #2 or #3 seed in the dance. That gives us two more home games. Being placed in the Wichita region would give us close access to the next two. There is a lot of good basketball to be played yet. It all comes down to something we've seen over and over again from this team - resilience.
I'm sad. Disappointed. I wanted a game like the first quarter all the way through. But, it didn't happen. So we move on and close the season out strong. We flock to Kansas to finally enjoy home court advantage for the conference tourney. Honestly, I'm hoping for a rematch with Baylor in the final. Sound like a glutton for punishment? Nope...I just have faith that with this team anything can happen. See you all in KC folks. I hope to meet you there. My "Power of the Pops" crew will all be there so look for us in our Pops sweatshirts (https://cyclones.com/news/2008/3/19/1414094.aspx). It's time to party.