Iowa beat #4 MSU in year one of Lick....

Ronco

Well-Known Member
That game didn't get into the 40's for either team. I think we may have had 36, but not sure. That win happened earlier in the season and I hoped it was to portend good things to come, but it didn't. I really do believe this win is different, maybe it's the fact it's the last game.
 
That game didn't get into the 40's for either team. I think we may have had 36, but not sure. That win happened earlier in the season and I hoped it was to portend good things to come, but it didn't. I really do believe this win is different, maybe it's the fact it's the last game.

This win definitely feels different. That team also still had quite a few Alford players, who were better than what these players were under Lickliter.
 
That game turned out to be mostly luck. This team has been right there this year vs OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan at home...three teams that will make the tournament. They have looked bad at times too.

We'll see how big this win is down the road...if Iowa gets Cezar Guerrero,I'd say this win and the atmosphere had a lot to do with it.

This is the kind of win, effort, along with the style of play, that can be sold to recruits.

The 43-36 win and scoring 59ppg? Not so much
 
I was at that game. I think Freeman dropped like 20, by just shooting 3's at the end of the shotclock. And MSU traveled like 10 times, along with a variety of other unforced turnovers.
 
That game turned out to be mostly luck. This team has been right there this year vs OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan at home...three teams that will make the tournament. They have looked bad at times too.

We'll see how big this win is down the road...if Iowa gets Cezar Guerrero,I'd say this win and the atmosphere had a lot to do with it.

This is the kind of win, effort, along with the style of play, that can be sold to recruits.

The 43-36 win and scoring 59ppg? Not so much

You should write an article that talks about how big of win it could be!!!
 
That game turned out to be mostly luck. This team has been right there this year vs OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan at home...three teams that will make the tournament. They have looked bad at times too.

We'll see how big this win is down the road...if Iowa gets Cezar Guerrero,I'd say this win and the atmosphere had a lot to do with it.

This is the kind of win, effort, along with the style of play, that can be sold to recruits.

The 43-36 win and scoring 59ppg? Not so much

Who's to say this win wasn't luck? Who's to say those aforementioned losses weren't lucky wins by the other team? This win feels different because we want it to feel different and there's nothing wrong with that.

This win CAN be sold to recruits based on when it occurred and the close losses that came before.

IF we indeed land Guerrero then there's little doubt this win was a contributing factor.
 
MSU completely laid an egg in that game, plain and simple. Ok, Purdue didn't play it's best game today either, but this win has a much different feel than the MSU game. To me, it's mostly because of the fact that this time a year ago, we were down by 20+ at halftime in most games, and this year, the team is competetive, even if it's not showing up in the record. We also won today's game not slowing the game down to a 43-36 crawl. We ran with Purdue, a team with more talent than we have, and still beat them.
 
The feel here is totally different.

Everyone is talking about Purdue struggling, but Iowa didn't play their best game by any means either. They didn't win by getting "lucky" and just having one of those nights. They won by out-hustling and playing tough. Iowa only shot 43% and they had 13 turnovers to Purdue's 7. Throw in the fact that the leader of the team (Cartwright) was out or slowed for most of the 2nd half and you have a completely different feel to the game. This was like Wisconsin, but they closed. That shows the growth in my mind.
 
It's much different when you play a style that is up and down the floor, instead of the style of played against Michigan St. which was keep away, limit possessions basketball. To me it's different when your not "cowarding" away from another team and you go toe to toe with them.
 
The thing is there are varying degrees of playing "not well." Purdue didn't shoot great today, but neither did we. However, the game against MSU where we won 43-36, MSU played atrociously. It was a brutally ugly game. I was optimistic about the future after that game because I am an optimist by nature, but looking back, it had very little to do with us. Winning today does not guarantee that we will continue to improve, but I think everyone can agree this win was not handed to us, we took it. And that, is something to be optimistic about.
 
That game didn't get into the 40's for either team. I think we may have had 36, but not sure. That win happened earlier in the season and I hoped it was to portend good things to come, but it didn't. I really do believe this win is different, maybe it's the fact it's the last game.
you say "we" as if you are NOT an Iowa St. fan.....that's odd.

Different game, different situation. Iowa has been within a handful of points in MANY games this year. This was well deserved and it wasn't like Purdue played a bad game...Iowa just outplayed and outcoached them.
 
And that Lickliter team could have been pretty good, if half of the players hadn't transferred or graduated in the next year after that :)

Also, to take it back a step further, Alford beat #1 Connecticut in his first game of his first season. That was a pretty fun one. He built some good momentum off of that if I recall.

So it's not like these games mean anything intrinsically (Fran can't stop recruiting, for example), as things can get better or worse afterward. Generally speaking, though, it is a good sign.
 
That UCONN team was rated #1 but that was not the best team in the land. The only reason they were #1 was from the year before
 
two TOTALLY different games....imo...Iowa didn't play amazing yesterday (like shoot 80% of anything like that) and we went blow for blow and beat Purdue at their game.
 
Hey we finally hit a big shot and key FTs coulda happened same way against OSU, Wisc, and Michigan. I think if 2 of 3 of those games turned in our favor we'd all be licking our chops to get to the next season. I think this is true progress and oh look the fan excitement is back unlike the Laughable Lickleiter era.
 
I think it is almost impossible to compare the two games when we are still basking in the afterglow of yesterday, while we have to dig through three years of bitterness to remember the jubilation of the win over MSU.

Just looking back, in Lick's first season, we lost to Purdue by one at their house. We beat an OSU team that wasn't great, but went on to win the NIT. So don't think that there wasn't optimism in year one of Lick. Excitement was there until players started leaving.
 
I think it is almost impossible to compare the two games when we are still basking in the afterglow of yesterday, while we have to dig through three years of bitterness to remember the jubilation of the win over MSU.

Just looking back, in Lick's first season, we lost to Purdue by one at their house. We beat an OSU team that wasn't great, but went on to win the NIT. So don't think that there wasn't optimism in year one of Lick. Excitement was there until players started leaving.

That sounds about right. If Fran can keep the players and fans on his side, the future looks bright.
 
That sounds about right. If Fran can keep the players and fans on his side, the future looks bright.

This will be the difference, and it will have a compounding effect.

First, by retaining your players, you retain the "progress" that you made in the previous season. Second, you will be able to get a heck of a lot better players recruiting if the evidence doesn't strongly indicate that it stinks to play for the head coach (which has to be the impression that was given to recruits during Lick's tenure due to the high transfer rate).
 

Latest posts

Top