I'm pretty sure Sam Hill still owns every ISU record that involves the most fouls.
Never Saw That Coming...Basketball
- Thread starter GoClone
- Start date
Brockington. He was okay at Penn State, but no one predicted him being one of the biggest impact transfers we ever had.
Diante Garrett. Under his last season which was Fred's first he really played his best and because of that season he was able to have a cup of coffee in the NBA.
I didn't think he'd play outside the G League. More than happy to have been proven wrong!
Barry Stevens. Worked in the athletic office and thought he would be a decent player, but when a newspaper reporter asked me, I told him that I thought Paul Beene would be better. Barry was an absolute stud.
Ron Virgil. I thought he would be a very good guard. What I wasn‘t prepared for was how well he could play against much taller players. I think he was one of the most underrated Cyclones of his era.
I would add about Barry was he was the most courteous student athlete I‘d ever met. A very decent human being.
I'd argue that his buzzer beater against OSU was the greatest silence-to-jubilation in Hilton history. Maybe just games I've been at, but it was like there was a collective hold your break and then utter pandemonium.
Marcus Fizer. We knew he was gonna be good - we didn't know he was gonna be damn well nearly carry us to the 2000 Final Four and National Championship good.
Really that 99-00 team could fit imo. Picked bottom half of the Big 12 (was it last?) preseason, unanked until February and ended up being the best team in ISU history by quite a large margin.
Stephen A Smith went off on the Knicks passing him up, not years later, but within hours of the draft
"Damn, damn, damn" ...
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I seem to remember us being picked to finish dead last as well. Others have said I remember wrong - but it's more than 20 years ago now so who really knows anymore.
It has become exaggerated through the years ... 99-00 was projected much higher than legend suggests. (Of course, way below what actually occurred).
Media poll, ISU picked 7th:
Fizer Selected to Preseason All-Big 12 First Team - Iowa State Athletics
DALLAS - Following media day last week in Dallas, Big 12 reporters, just as the league coaches last week, have chosen Kansas over defending champ Texas to wi...
Coaches poll (first one I found w/ random search, from OU site)
Sooner Men Tabbed Fourth In Preseason Big 12 Coaches Poll - University of Oklahoma
S - The University of Oklahoma men's basketball team was picked to finish in fourth place in a poll of Big 12 coaches, the league announced. The Sooners, who...
It's possible fans are confusing it with 2000-01 ... Maybe that was the team predicted at 9th (?) I'd have to look into it.
It has become exaggerated through the years ... 99-00 was projected much higher than legend suggests. (Of course, way below what actually occurred).
Media poll, ISU picked 7th:
Fizer Selected to Preseason All-Big 12 First Team - Iowa State Athletics
DALLAS - Following media day last week in Dallas, Big 12 reporters, just as the league coaches last week, have chosen Kansas over defending champ Texas to wi...cyclones.com
Coaches poll (first one I found w/ random search, from OU site)
Sooner Men Tabbed Fourth In Preseason Big 12 Coaches Poll - University of Oklahoma
S - The University of Oklahoma men's basketball team was picked to finish in fourth place in a poll of Big 12 coaches, the league announced. The Sooners, who...soonersports.com
It's possible fans are confusing it with 2000-01 ... Maybe that was the team predicted at 9th (?) I'd have to look into it.
2000-01 we were projected to be near the top of the standings. Yeah, we lost Fizer, but we still had Tinsley and a lot of the supporting cast from the previous year.
I was grasping at straws that the 9th-place projection could've been 00-01 ... didn't make sense when I posted, but I was guessing.
Here are links to that season:
Media poll:
Tinsley Earns Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year by Big 12 Media - Iowa State University Athletics
DALLAS - Iowa State senior point guard Jamaal Tinsley captured the clean sweep of preseason Big 12 honors by earning the league's preseason player of the awa...
Big 12 coaches poll:
Big 12 Basketball Coaches Poll
DALLAS (AP) _ The 2000-01 Big 12 men's basketball preseason coaches poll, with first-place votes in parantheses followed by total points. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams, so points
--> Note: I realize I've cited only the Big 12 media/coaches summaries, it's possible Athlon and others had ISU ranked low both seasons. I haven't scoured the interwebs yet for that. ... as longtime consumer of Athlon et al in the old-fashioned newsstand format, my vague memory tells me that's probably what fans have referenced.
