Some Jon Rothstein tweets from ISU practice
- Thread starter Dryburn
- Start date
Am I missing something when people say we're losing an end of game clutch player in Ejim? I absolutely love the guy, but disagree that he belongs in that category.
You could say we lost more in previous seasons than we this last year.
(3) Royce, Cristopherson, Allen = one unique talent and first round draft pick with an incredible skill set and two very good college players
(4) McGee, Lucious, Babb, Clyburn = one of the best shooters in school history, a very good college point guard, a lock down defender "3 and D" guy who played in the NBA for a short time, and a very useful combo forward and college player
(2) Kane and Ejim = goes without saying what these two were
If you fill the bench with the same guys for each squad (give each team the some compliments), do Kane and Ejim win that game? Royce could do quite a lot almost alone, that second team has a lot of shooting on it to rain threes, and watching Babb guard Kane would have been interesting to say the least, and Kane and Ejim are missing a lot of the key compliments (Naz, Niang, Hogue) that allowed them to be so good last year. I'm not sure that's quite as much the case with the first team (a sophomore Ejim and then Babb, both of which were good, but had a lot of development left in them) and the second one (a junior Ejim and freshman Niang before both really hit their stride somewhere in the middle of last year). Last year wasn't a bad team dragged into the top ten by two stars--it turned out to be a well-built, well-managed, complimentary squad with three true stars, one who shone close (Hogue), and good offensive role players (Naz, Thomas) and defensive helpers (Edozie) ready to go on the bench.
Didn't we lose plenty with those previous teams and not retain nearly as much as the previous supporting cast? Sure, Kane and Ejim might be the best two individual players on that list save Royce, but Fred's kept the ball rolling and improved with teams that lost more and retained less in the supporting cast compared to what we have coming in (if only because we only lose two out of our rotation this year instead of 3-4).
Remember, too, Fred has started to lengthen his rotation as we went on...
Year 1 = really five men (DG, SC, Anderson, Ejim, JVB)
Year 2 = basically six (Allen, Babb, SC, Ejim, Royce) + some McGee
Year 3 = basically six again (Lucious, Babb, Clyburn, Ejim, Niang, McGee)
Year 4 = seven + 1/2 (Morris, Thomas, Naz, Kane, Hogue, Ejim, Niang) + some Edozie
So we are losing less of what is becoming a longer, deeper bench for us every year. Kane and Ejim are definitely from some heights, but there is a lot more remaining this year than the (relative) devastation of the rotation from years past.
Bad luck and injuries could always get us, sure, but there's no reason to think we can't pick up about where we left off at the end of last season with what we have now.
Swarthmore sounds like an Iowa fan because they never think we are going to be able to replace our graduated players each year then cry when we get much better.
In year 1 Godfrey played 29 games/20 min and Bubu played 32 games/14 min so there is at least 6 if not 7 players.
Last year Edozie played 24 games/5.8 min so if you are going to count him as half there are a lot of other players that are going to have to count in other seasons as well.
I agree that the depth is growing, though.
I see your point there. I think you could probably split it 6 (include Godfrey), 6, 7 (definitely 7 last year). Even then, point remains, we're losing much less of our rotation and what remains, 1-7, was much better than in years past. And that's before we add BDJ, McKay, Custer, and friends.
Ejim and Kane were good. Really good. But there's all the potential in the world to replace them.
Watching this video from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPy4HHoOF_Y
Abdel Nader and Dustin Houge Look noticeably stronger from a year ago, Tomas and Morris as well. Come the big twelve grind having Nader on our team will be a luxury, the guy is built like a bear!
If you haven't seen it, head over to cyclones.tv and watch the "Newcomer Feature" for this year, It is worth every moment of your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPy4HHoOF_Y
Abdel Nader and Dustin Houge Look noticeably stronger from a year ago, Tomas and Morris as well. Come the big twelve grind having Nader on our team will be a luxury, the guy is built like a bear!
If you haven't seen it, head over to cyclones.tv and watch the "Newcomer Feature" for this year, It is worth every moment of your time.
Compare 2012-13 to 2013-14.
Both had good coaching, check. Both had good talent, check (heck, 2012-13 won the same number of Big 12 games despite losing so many close games). Much different close game outcomes, including in the post-season. "Luck" and circumstance have a significant impact on close games, and ultimately the season. This is where defining what determines "good" comes into play. Imo this team could be just as "good" or even slightly better but have a worse record.
The most important thing is making the tournament and avoiding a team like Kentucky in the second round, if we can this team, like the past three, should have the talent to make a run. By the end of the year that 2011-12 team was good enough to make a deep run had it had any other seed. Baylor and KU, teams we beat, both were sent home by UK too, but they earned the seed to avoid UK until later rounds.
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You're "not a Hawk fan" but you're concerned about depth. Keep digging a hole bud
No concerns at the point. We have Custer. Niang can also bring the ball down and Naz has played the point before as well, so no idea what you're talking about. You should worry about your point guard being able to make free throws at the end of games.
