Williams & Blum Pod: S&P Big 12 predictions and fan questions from Twitter

[ChrisMWilliams]

Enjoy!

Williams & Blum: S&P Big 12 predictions, fan questions from Twitter

We've got a loaded podcast for you in the dog days of summer. Williams & Blum discuss ESPN's S&P predictions for the 2023 Big 12 football season. Blum makes an announcement about Iowa State's NiL beer. Plus, we take a bunch of fan questions from Twitter and cover a lot of ground, all courtes

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[gocy444]

West O! Their cocoa beer is great. I will be drinking this new beer exclusively. Exile is dead to me.

 

[Frog]

I like trying new beer but haven't heard or seen West O. I checked out their web site. I just reached out to the brewery letting them know I unfortunately did not know of them but learned they partnered with ISU collective. I thanked them for the partnership and informed them I will tell my family and friends and I need to buy some of their beer so asked where I can purchase in Quad Cities, or surrounding area.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

Was just at West O yesterday about lunch time. Had their Mexican lager, Bahia. Very tasty, like a less skunky Corona. Only been there twice but was pleased with the beer both times.

 

[danwbarrett]

Enjoy!

Williams & Blum: S&P Big 12 predictions, fan questions from Twitter

We've got a loaded podcast for you in the dog days of summer. Williams & Blum discuss ESPN's S&P predictions for the 2023 Big 12 football season. Blum makes an announcement about Iowa State's NiL beer. Plus, we take a bunch of fan questions from Twitter and cover a lot of ground, all courtes

cyclonefanatic.com

Blum’s understanding is incorrect where he says that the CyTown income will go to ISU Athletics and will keep ticket prices from significantly increasing. CyTown income is exclusively for the maintenance of C.Y. Stevens Auditorium, J.W. Fisher Theatre, and Carl Scheman Continuing Education Building. Cyclone fans will enjoy the entertainment, food and beverage options, and other businesses of CyTown with that “enjoyment” benefiting the Iowa State Center.

 

[brentblum]

Blum’s understanding is incorrect where he says that the CyTown income will go to ISU Athletics and will keep ticket prices from significantly increasing. CyTown income is exclusively for the maintenance of C.Y. Stevens Auditorium, J.W. Fisher Theatre, and Carl Scheman Continuing Education Building. Cyclone fans will enjoy the entertainment, food and beverage options, and other businesses of CyTown with that “enjoyment” benefiting the Iowa State Center.

Thanks for clarification. Well said!

 

[Stormin]

Loved the comments that TJ is a Top 5 recruiter in basketball. Thankful Pollard got the best Coach possible. On the second try.

 

[NorthCyd]

Blum’s understanding is incorrect where he says that the CyTown income will go to ISU Athletics and will keep ticket prices from significantly increasing. CyTown income is exclusively for the maintenance of C.Y. Stevens Auditorium, J.W. Fisher Theatre, and Carl Scheman Continuing Education Building. Cyclone fans will enjoy the entertainment, food and beverage options, and other businesses of CyTown with that “enjoyment” benefiting the Iowa State Center.

For further clarification, isn't the Iowa State Center now technically under the ISU Athletic department? If so, is it fair to say that the money from Cy-Town going to the Iowa State Center will free up money in the ad budget that would have gone to the Iowa State Center operation and maintenance?

 

[Jeremy]

For further clarification, isn't the Iowa State Center now technically under the ISU Athletic department? If so, is it fair to say that the money from Cy-Town going to the Iowa State Center will free up money in the ad budget that would have gone to the Iowa State Center operation and maintenance?

Well the AD hasn’t spent much of anything on it, thus why it is showing its age. This will help prevent the AD from having to spend on it out of other funds while being able to modernize it.

 

[NorthCyd]

Well the AD hasn’t spent much of anything on it, thus why it is showing its age. This will help prevent the AD from having to spend on it out of other funds while being able to modernize it.

I would guess they still spend a surprising amount of money on it. Obviously not as much as they will with the money from Cy-Town, but just keeping buildings of those size functional at a base level costs a lot of money.

 

[BCClone]

For further clarification, isn't the Iowa State Center now technically under the ISU Athletic department? If so, is it fair to say that the money from Cy-Town going to the Iowa State Center will free up money in the ad budget that would have gone to the Iowa State Center operation and maintenance?

What I was going to mention. The AD has to take care of those buildings, so having something that pays to upkeep those now will free up cash to use elsewhere. So I’m essence, it’s going to the AD

 

[Sigmapolis]

CW let his tongue slip a little during the section on why basketball recruiting is so good. I am paraphrasing here, but he said something to this effect about Hoiberg and Otzelberger --

"T.J. Otzelberger is one of the top-five recruiters in college basketball. That's why Fred brought him back here to replace him." I don't think I've heard it said so unambiguously before.

This has always been the rumor, but it seems it was the truth: Fred knew he was leaving, TJ was brought back expecting to be handed the head job when he did, and Leath screwed it up and went off and hired Prohm even if it wasn't Fred and Pollard's plan. I'm glad it worked out in the end and there were no hard feelings about it, but yet another example of something Steven Leath screwed up for Iowa State.

 

[alarson]

I'm glad it worked out in the end and there were no hard feelings about it, but yet another example of something Steven Leath screwed up for Iowa State.

Its one of those unknowables though. Coaching hires are such crapshoots that even when you have the right guy, sometimes it doesn't work out. Maybe things keep rolling and we never miss a beat from the Hoiberg era. Maybe in that alternate universe where TJ gets hired then he gathers a different staff that is less successful. Maybe he grew as a coach during his stints elsewhere during the Prohm era in ways that allowed him to be more immediately successful here, and without that experience he makes some missteps here that cause things to not work out (I'm sure he'd say he was a better coach in March 2021 than he was in June 2015, every successful coach is working to improve themselves). We'll never know, obviously.

Plus there's the benefit of not being 'the guy after the guy'. If TJ had come in here straight after Hoiberg, with no head coaching experience, and without the absolute crater of Prohm in between he'd get much less patience from the fanbase whenever we hit a rough patch.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Its one of those unknowables though. Coaching hires are such crapshoots that even when you have the right guy, sometimes it doesn't work out. Maybe things keep rolling and we never miss a beat from the Hoiberg era. Maybe in that alternate universe where TJ gets hired then he gathers a different staff that is less successful. Maybe he grew as a coach during his stints elsewhere during the Prohm era in ways that allowed him to be more immediately successful here, and without that experience he makes some missteps here that cause things to not work out (I'm sure he'd say he was a better coach in March 2021 than he was in June 2015, every successful coach is working to improve themselves). We'll never know, obviously.

Plus there's the benefit of not being 'the guy after the guy'. If TJ had come in here straight after Hoiberg, with no head coaching experience, and without the absolute crater of Prohm in between he'd get much less patience from the fanbase whenever we hit a rough patch.

This is all true. All of this is informed speculation at best. Counterpoints --

-- TJ has basically had to rebuild the roster three times in three years in the modern transfer world. He turned the smoldering crater into a Sweet Sixteen team (even if a plucky, overmatched one) in one offseason and has now managed to assemble the most talented Iowa State roster since at least the Shayok year if not since Fred left. TJ has done as well as he had with nothing else to sell but hope up to this point. Imagine if he had the momentum of the late Fred era to build on and immediately started landing guys like Biliew and Momcilovic to replace the Morris and Niang generation once it aged out of college ball and made its way to the NBA.

-- TJ probably fills in the gaps in the 2016 roster better than Prohm did (e.g., one more quality guard as an insurance policy for the Naz injury and a depth big man, like Max Bielfeldt... that roster was great but very top heavy with six dudes but nothing behind it... just needed a little more depth that year).

-- From what CW and others have told us, TJ isn't just a great recruiter of players but also a great recruiter of coaching talent and one of the most-liked men in the business. I'm sure he would have assembled a killer staff then as in now. Kyle Green was already sitting there waiting for him in Cedar Falls.

Most of my points are relatively short-term ones, though. Your points kick in the longer TJ is in charge, like Prohm resetting our expectations to give TJ time and leeway to build the program and TJ having a chance to learn in Brookings and Paradise in a lower-stakes environment before taking over in Ames. We'll never know if it is better this way (even if we had to suffer through the bad Prohm years along the way) compared to Fred's plan coming to fruition. I just found it interesting that was indeed the plan until Leath.

 

[NorthCyd]

Remember when Niangs mom wasn't all that happy that TJ was coming back. Still not quite sure what that was all about, but most figured it was probably about Fred leaving if he did come back.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Small addition --

TJ being hired in 2016 and bringing in Kyle Green means AJ Green is a Cyclone.

He would have been an excellent 4- or 5-year lead guard in the Big 12. He wouldn't have had the ceiling of guys like Haliburton and Wigginton but would have been around a lot longer.

Yes, he's only one guy, but one top-notch guard brings you a long ways towards being competitive in basketball. Assuming TJ fills in around him, then those teams are probably pretty good.

 

[ChrisMWilliams]

Small addition --

TJ being hired in 2016 and bringing in Kyle Green means AJ Green is a Cyclone.

He would have been an excellent 4- or 5-year lead guard in the Big 12. He wouldn't have had the ceiling of guys like Haliburton and Wigginton but would have been around a lot longer.

Yes, he's only one guy, but one top-notch guard brings you a long ways towards being competitive in basketball. Assuming TJ fills in around him, then those teams are probably pretty good.

Personally, I think it worked out the best for everybody the way it went down.

TJ wouldn't have been as good of a coach had he not gotten the experience he did at SDSU and UNLV. Fans wouldn't have been patient at all with a first-timer. It worked out.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Personally, I think it worked out the best for everybody the way it went down.

TJ wouldn't have been as good of a coach had he not gotten the experience he did at SDSU and UNLV. Fans wouldn't have been patient at all with a first-timer. It worked out.

Agreed. Things are great now. Big supporter of Cap'n TJ.

But speculation and conspiracy theories are fun, too.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Its one of those unknowables though. Coaching hires are such crapshoots that even when you have the right guy, sometimes it doesn't work out. Maybe things keep rolling and we never miss a beat from the Hoiberg era. Maybe in that alternate universe where TJ gets hired then he gathers a different staff that is less successful. Maybe he grew as a coach during his stints elsewhere during the Prohm era in ways that allowed him to be more immediately successful here, and without that experience he makes some missteps here that cause things to not work out (I'm sure he'd say he was a better coach in March 2021 than he was in June 2015, every successful coach is working to improve themselves). We'll never know, obviously.

Plus there's the benefit of not being 'the guy after the guy'. If TJ had come in here straight after Hoiberg, with no head coaching experience, and without the absolute crater of Prohm in between he'd get much less patience from the fanbase whenever we hit a rough patch.

People are quick to forget that TJ kind of stunk it up at UNLV. Glad he got to smooth out the wrinkles there rather than here.

 

[Sigmapolis]

People are quick to forget that TJ kind of stunk it up at UNLV. Glad he got to smooth out the wrinkles there rather than here.

TJ's tenures in Brookings and Paradise did not scream "ready to move up to P5." A very vocal minority on here was upset Pollard hired him and argued -- not without basis -- that TJ wasn't qualified to be handed a Big 12 job like that and only got it because he's one of Pollard's favorites/outright favoritism.

Did TJ learn how to be a good coach before coming to Ames or is there just some synergy between coach, AD, basketball program, town, and state he has in Ames he didn't in those other places? Is the "fit" just that good that everything else falls into place and they win? Hard to say, but I bet the latter factor is at least as strong as the former. And the fit in 2016 would have been at least as good as it was in early 2021.