I think you misunderstood my post: I love TJ for our Coach. My question is- can he get our program to the next level?
I believe he can and if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s TJ.
T J
- Thread starter FallOf81
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I believe he can and if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s TJ.
Why I’m a believer?
The attention to detail with how he runs his program is off the charts. He’s not perfect and is growing but you can tell he has a vision and is ahead of the curve, he studies the game and runs his program with an attention to detail the Mike Krzyzewskis, Jay Wrights and Bill Selfs of the world do. This is shown in how his players conduct themselves on and off the court. They play with a championship level connectedness that few coaches get their teams to tap into. His vision to start on the defensive end and make that a strength of the program is an indication he knows what he’s doing. 99% of championship teams excelled on defensive end. I think offensively this team is better than his last two by far and with what he is recruiting I think future offenses will be even better. It’s going to take ISU basketball to levels of success unseen.
The first couple years was laying the foundation with a roster that was patched together in a hurry. This is the first year with a roster built top to bottom with what T.J. envisioned. I think this is just the beginning.
All in on Otz
The attention to detail with how he runs his program is off the charts. He’s not perfect and is growing but you can tell he has a vision and is ahead of the curve, he studies the game and runs his program with an attention to detail the Mike Krzyzewskis, Jay Wrights and Bill Selfs of the world do. This is shown in how his players conduct themselves on and off the court. They play with a championship level connectedness that few coaches get their teams to tap into. His vision to start on the defensive end and make that a strength of the program is an indication he knows what he’s doing. 99% of championship teams excelled on defensive end. I think offensively this team is better than his last two by far and with what he is recruiting I think future offenses will be even better. It’s going to take ISU basketball to levels of success unseen.
The first couple years was laying the foundation with a roster that was patched together in a hurry. This is the first year with a roster built top to bottom with what T.J. envisioned. I think this is just the beginning.
All in on Otz
Remember all that success early in the Hoiberg years, all those recruits?
Now we know where a portion of that came from. Not saying all, because Fred is good too. But I think TJ is next level.
Now we know where a portion of that came from. Not saying all, because Fred is good too. But I think TJ is next level.
Good question. Personally, I don‘t think he was ready to lead our program back then. Things happen for a reason and maybe he needed time elsewhere to learn and grow before he was ready to lead ISU. He’s clearly ready now- these last couple of years have been pretty fun and I think it’s only going to get better.
I know him personally, and the guy you see on the court is not the same outside the gym. He has a great sense of humor, and how can he be wrong if Aus agreed to marry him?
The fact that he completely changed his style of play from SDSU and UNLV is the part that amazes me the most. And yes, I think Coach Green is a huge part of that - a great hire and amazing that TJ bought in on the defensive scheme and focus.
Why? I have a hard time with the whole, ’we’re Iowa State so we can’t do _____’ line of thinking? Why not us?
Look at Baylor before Scott Drew- they were terrible. They aren’t a big school, they don’t have tons of money and they live in the a-holes in Austin’s shadow. Why can’t we do it if Baylor could do it?
I never thought we could get a 5-star recruit, but TJ got Omaha to come here. I think we have a chance with TJ and I think fans should switch their thinking to ‘why not us?’ instead of thinking it will never be us.
They have tons of money. And also because they are private don’t have to disclose anything about their finances.
Not disagreeing that ISU can’t have the same successes that Baylor had.
TJ is an elite recruiter. First things first in P5 conferences you’ve gotta get yourself P5 talent and TJ has no issue doing that. Coaching comes next and he has surrounded himself with a great staff.
I'm also compelled to add that, while I love the NCAA Tournament with all my heart, a six-round single-elimination tournament is a really bad way to determine who is the best team (this is what makes the tourney so fun, compared to for example the slog of the NBA Playoffs), and how far you advance in that tournament on a frequent basis is a really bad way to gauge a coach's ability and success.
Especially in today's college basketball. I can't remember an upset in the first or second round over the last few years that I found all that shocking.
If ISU keeps getting there that really should be good enough or not a low enough bar to run someone out.
I admire the guy. Great coach that loves being at Iowa State. When your head coach starts choking up talking about the fans and how lucky he is to be coaching in Ames..that's TJ. No drama, brings in quality kids and makes them better. TJ is one of those people that make things better around him. Proud to have him as our coach as much as the results.
His recruiting has been exceptional and he has a definite vision for the program's identity and has the assistants to put that into action. I really don't think you need anything else.
Also, I'd say he has already proven through three seasons with three tournament appearances highly likely that he's already just one rung below the elite of the elite (which in my mind is being good for consistent Sweet Sixteens and fairly frequent visits above that).
I'd add to that that he is building for consistency with more freshmen than a lot of programs have, and transfers like this last class that had multiple years of eligibility.
Gotta love TJ, his attitude and demeanor are awesome. He gets Iowa State. He knows how to utilize Hilton and use the momentum of that home crowd to get victories, SP didn't harness that. TJ took us out of the SP debacle so quick.
We are one of the best basketball schools out there. Our fans care, we fill our venue and we travel like crazy to KC. Despite our strong basketball culture we do not have any final 4s. That would be nice, but I would never count on it. However, I think we should be at least on the level of Kansas State who have been to 3 Elite 8s in the last 15 years. What does KSU have that we do not? One would be great! I am confident TJ is good enough to put us in that position, but what I worry about in the NIL era is if we will have the resources to keep enough talent in the program to get us to that level.
We are one of the best basketball schools out there. Our fans care, we fill our venue and we travel like crazy to KC. Despite our strong basketball culture we do not have any final 4s. That would be nice, but I would never count on it. However, I think we should be at least on the level of Kansas State who have been to 3 Elite 8s in the last 15 years. What does KSU have that we do not? One would be great! I am confident TJ is good enough to put us in that position, but what I worry about in the NIL era is if we will have the resources to keep enough talent in the program to get us to that level.
I think our success in KC at times has worn our teams down. Most of those years we had a short rotation. Having the ability to go at least nine deep should help this team.
Fred would get our rotation down to 7, like 2015 when we lost to UAB. He had Edozie, who was super strong and inserting him in against UAB would have won us the game. That was a tired uninspired team that day, UAB got 12 points off of offensive rebounds down the stretch. A fresh Edozie would have prevented that.