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We'll Be Back Better Than Ever

swarthmoreCY said:
Numbers wise, no, but having a perimeter mismatch to go with front-court mismatches was huge, and his leadership as the go to guy is best if replaced by one guy imo.
Compare this year to last year- '12-'13 may have been a better roster, but this year had Kane. You need an alpha player like that in the backcourt imo.



Limited in numbers and size. Not many elite defensive teams run with a frontline of 6'6" and a below the rim 6'7".
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Abdel Nader will be a mismatch similar to Ejim. He's 6'6" with a massive wingspan. I guarantee his shot has improved since he transferred here.

We will mis DeAndre's dribble drive but sometimes he completely wasted a possession when he did that. That leads to more 3 point attempts which I am all for.

Also, if Matt Thomas can make a freshman-to-sophomore improvement like Naz Long did this year then we will be just fine.
 
bosco said:
Hard to say but Ejim's role will be the easiest to replace next year. But it'll be done by two players. McKay will be the inside presence that Ejim gave on the boards with the added benefit of rim protector. Nader will replace Ejim's wing ability with better perimeter shooting.
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That is optimistic. Nader will need to improve just to reach Ejim's level.


We will miss Kane as a mismatch and his intangibles. Being able to post-up your pg and having your pg be good for a double-double any night changes the game.
 
My main concern next year is replacing Kane, we need a guard who is physical, strong and aggressive to go with Morris. Also, we don't get McKay until late December. We will have played a lot of games by that point and some of them will be against good non conference teams. It is going to be hard to get resume building type of wins without some help on the front line. We need taller talent than just Hogue, Nader, and Niang. Those guys will be great, but against some teams we will have matchup problems without another taller big that is productive. That is why I hope we get Lee from Temple.
 
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We say we will take a step back every year and we just get better. With Fred at the helm I'm always confident we'll be back n better than ever
 
@CycloneMBB: Dustin Hogue averaged 17.7 pts. 7.3 reb and shot 67.2% from the field (39-58 FG) in six postseason (Big 12/NCAA) games. #Cyclones

I think we will be just fine.
 
swarthmoreCY said:
That is optimistic. Nader will need to improve just to reach Ejim's level.


We will miss Kane as a mismatch and his intangibles. Being able to post-up your pg and having your pg be good for a double-double any night changes the game.
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Optimistic but not unrealistic.
 
I would expect we should be a little more traditional next year, but should also still be able to invert the offense some, this time to let a guy like Nader roam in the paint after Georges and Hogue/McKay rotate to the perimeter. I think Hogue is truley a special athlete that we don't have at ISU very often. Matt Thomas will only improve, quality kid that will work, you can see he has a high basketball IQ, just needs a quicker release and confidence, all of which Fred will give to him this off season. Monte and Naz are ice cold killers in crunch time. You can't coach that.
 
Morris showed us something with his ankle breaker crossover and some of his pull up Js, kid can score and create his own shot. It just wasn't that necessary when we had 3 guys averaging over 16 ppg…unless he was open or in transition.
 
I think we will be really good next year. Equal to or better than this year. I do however think we will be a much different team. I think we will be much more balanced on offense than this year. I think MM will have a much bigger role in the offense next year. With both him and Georges facilitating the offense, I think our offense has the chance to be more efficient than ever. Both have really high IQs and will get the ball to guys in scoring positions. It will be fun to watch Fred create mismatches with the players we will have. We can go small with lots of shooters (MM, Naz, MT, Nader, Niang) or we can go big (MM, Nader, Houge, Niang, McKay). I also think it will be interesting to see if Fred uses more players than 7 or 8 in the rotation or if he continues with a short bench.
 
Hope we're better this year and it's awesome that the loss inspired two of our most touted players for next year, possibly, to go to the gym and put in work.

It's going to be hard to replace Ejim and Kane obviously. We'll get a partial replacement with Hogue's play and with McKay stepping up on rebounding. Kane's absence will be a shared load. Niang comes back of course and with off season work and conditioning, he'll improve. Big question mark for me is Nader. I know he's good - but HOW good?
 
swarthmoreCY said:
To reach Ejim's level? Sure. To be better? Doubtful.
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I'm am very curious to see how Nader plays next year. One thing he far surpasses Mel in is ball handling. He's a good enough ball handler to run the point forward position. I think Nader will surprise some people next year.
 
bozclone said:
I also think it will be interesting to see if Fred uses more players than 7 or 8 in the rotation or if he continues with a short bench.
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Depends who we get between now and then. Who we know will get significant minutes in likely order:
Morris
Niang
Hogue
Nader
Long
McKay
Thomas
---That's at least a 7 man rotation
*Lee if we get him will see major minutes
---That's 8 and more than got steady minutes this year

Edozie, SDW, Custer, Gibson, empty roster spot are the chances for players to have a 9th or 10th guy that might have a major roll

I am more excited for next year's team than any in my 18 years as an ISU fan…just watch the # of Big 12 players leaving for the draft and transferring out, it's already started and will continue.
 
hard to say from here if ISU will be better next year than this, but anyone thinking NIT is looking at Iowa, not Iowa State. Next year's team will have a fraction of the question marks this year's did. Think back to last fall when ISU was replacing all those seniors with a troubled point guard from a mid-major, a JC forward that averaged single digit points and rebounds, a couple freshman and seldom used soph off guard.

Mel and Kane will certainly be missed, but there are clearly very good players in place to build around, and it looks like there is some good talent waiting in the wings. Anyone Fred can land in the transfer season will be more of a bonus than a necessity this year.
 
I believe they will be better next year. I think Niang will be a monster next year, Thomas and Naz will work on their being more consistent over the off-season, and Morris will make a lot of progress from year 1 to year 2 because he knows now what he needs to improve. Plus, last night ISU found out that Dustin can be a scoring machine, so I think there will be some new plays drawn up for next year. I hope Edozie and SDW develop more offensively for next year. I also am very excited that CFH still has a couple scholarships to give in addition to adding experience in McKay and Nader, plus bringing in another shooter in Custer.

Yes, Melvin and DeAndre will be hard to replace, but let's face it....Fred seems to be a master at taking the pieces he has and at least by mid-season figuring out a way to make the team efficient and dominant in some cases. No reason to believe he won't do it again. He's had four different teams here, with at least 3 different systems of operating. About all that anyone can guarantee for next year is the lineup that starts the year will probably not be the same starting lineup by about mid-season, and the changes that are made will likely benefit the team performance.
 
The Big 12 will be the Big 12 once again. We lose some pretty good players. Will we win as many close game next year as we did this year? I don't know. I like the talent base we have and hope Fred get's some nice transfers(I keep wondering when the transfer bug is going to come and bit ISU? Sooner or later it will happen to us.) I wouldn't trade Fred Hoiberg for any other coach in world and even if we do take a step backwards am confident he'll continue to move the ship in the right direction.
 
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Bobber said:
The Big 12 will be the Big 12 once again. We lose some pretty good players. Will we win as many close game next year as we did this year? I don't know. I like the talent base we have and hope Fred get's some nice transfers(I keep wondering when the transfer bug is going to come and bit ISU? Sooner or later it will happen to us.) I wouldn't trade Fred Hoiberg for any other coach in world and even if we do take a step backwards am confident he'll continue to move the ship in the right direction.
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I think it's pretty clear Fred is doing his due diligence on every transfer he accepts in this program. It's not like he's been careless.
 
Inspired said:
I hope you're right, but it's going to be tough to replace two All-Big 12/All-American-type seniors. I think we'll take a step back. Maybe more of an NIT year.
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:twitcy:

Um, no. We're actually going to be better next year. McKay and Nader are that good. Plus we all know Morris, Long, Thomas, Hogue an Niang will all be better.

I hope you were kidding.
 
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