ISU #4 in Preseason Polls?

I'm so confused. I thought Kansas won the Big 12?

When it fits positive within ISU's narrative to how they want to spin it they will call it how they want. So since they beat Kansas in the the Big 12 TOURNAMENT, that is spun into "we stopped Kansas' dominance and are Big 12 Champs!"
 
They will be fine....They lose the cancer of BDJ and can replace Hogue. McKay should improve into something special.

Biggest question mark will be rebounding. Especially now that it sounds like Diallo is out of the picture. Niang isn't a great rebounder for a 4 man. I'm sure Fred is trying to land another big who can try to replace Hogue's production on the glass.
 
Biggest question mark will be rebounding. Especially now that it sounds like Diallo is out of the picture. Niang isn't a great rebounder for a 4 man. I'm sure Fred is trying to land another big who can try to replace Hogue's production on the glass.

Rebounding will be fine. They held their own on the glass against UAB didn't they?
 
Fred's success helps his recruiting. It wil be interesting to see if Fran sees any benifit from our NCAA appearance. I expect that he will. He is due to land a big fish. Woody and Gesell were his first catch and now he needs to do that again.
 
Fred's success helps his recruiting. It wil be interesting to see if Fran sees any benifit from our NCAA appearance. I expect that he will. He is due to land a big fish. Woody and Gesell were his first catch and now he needs to do that again.

I'd be pretty pizzed off with Hoibergs recruiting if I were a Clown fan. He brought in several top 125 HS kids over the first few years (Niang, Long, SDW, Morris, Thomas, and Custer). Yet after getting a verbal from Custer in 2012, Fred hasns't signed another HS kid since. After next season Fred is gonna have 1 HS recruit on his roster, which is mind boggling really. He could have been using the last 3 years to stock up on high level HS recruits that would be taking over for the old guard after next year.
 
When it fits positive within ISU's narrative to how they want to spin it they will call it how they want. So since they beat Kansas in the the Big 12 TOURNAMENT, that is spun into "we stopped Kansas' dominance and are Big 12 Champs!"

KU's dominance won't be stopped by any team in the big 12. That being said ISU has won 3 out of the last 4 vs KU.
 
I'd be pretty pizzed off with Hoibergs recruiting if I were a Clown fan. He brought in several top 125 HS kids over the first few years (Niang, Long, SDW, Morris, Thomas, and Custer). Yet after getting a verbal from Custer in 2012, Fred hasns't signed another HS kid since. After next season Fred is gonna have 1 HS recruit on his roster, which is mind boggling really. He could have been using the last 3 years to stock up on high level HS recruits that would be taking over for the old guard after next year.

Whoa, if that is accurate then that's crazy. One day the ice may crack and down goes Freddie.
 
Whoa, if that is accurate then that's crazy. One day the ice may crack and down goes Freddie.

There is a lot more competition for transfers now then there was just a couple of years ago. Michigan State is bringing in two transfers from other schools for next year. When the bigger schools start going after those guys, Iowa State is going to start having to settle.
 
Do you think WVU and Oklahoma were at least ok? I mean they did make the sweet 16.

ISU was 4-1 vs those teams.

ISU was ranked the entire season. They were ranked by every AP voter, and every possible metric. If you don't think ISU was a top 25 team you are flat wrong. I'm sorry

West Virginia and Oklahoma had good teams. ISU had a good team. ISU has a great team, at home. Get them away from Hilton and the top 15 team turns into a pretty average bunch. South Carolina was bad, UAB was bad, Maryland pretty good. All neutral court losses. And yes, ISU had a decent Big 12 Tourney. The reality is they were a missed lay up from being one and done against a pretty damn poor Texas team.

Iowa was 4-0 against Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio State. Iowa was not a top 25 team.
 
West Virginia and Oklahoma had good teams. ISU had a good team. ISU has a great team, at home. Get them away from Hilton and the top 15 team turns into a pretty average bunch. South Carolina was bad, UAB was bad, Maryland pretty good. All neutral court losses. And yes, ISU had a decent Big 12 Tourney. The reality is they were a missed lay up from being one and done against a pretty damn poor Texas team.

Iowa was 4-0 against Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio State. Iowa was not a top 25 team.

OU was ok, they should have beaten ISU as well. ISU pretty much lucked their way though the Big12 tournament, and actually the last several wins they had. I said at the time they were mentally soft, and said it would catch up to them at some point, as luck runs out and they were getting very lucky in many of those wins. Then UAB happens.

I also said only KU, ISU, OU were teams with sweet talent in the Big12. WVU surprised, but showed how overmatched they were by UK. The Big12 proved they were totally overrated as a conference in the NCAA, they inflated their own self worth by convincing themselves that KU, Baylor, ISU, OU, and WVU were top 20 teams, and that OSU, Texas were very good teams, and that even the bottom of the barrel in K-State, Tech and TCU were still good teams. It was Clown level delusion by the national pundits, and it was predictable, as I and many others here said that the Big12 was barely better than other conferences if they were better at all.
 
Their biggest transfer target is a kid who averaged 0.7 ppg and 0.8 rpg last year, not exactly a Royce White/DeAndre Kane type get.

This is gonna be the first year that Freddie boys Transfer U strategy shows the weak/downside to this way of recruiting. Nothing is jumping off the page for ISU in the transfer market this year. If they ink Babb's Lil Bro, and not much else, then that is a big YIKES on recruiting for the year. Clowns are really starting to turn on Abdelmassiah and the Williams things, calling him a bag man......but Bryce told me ISU didn't need to worry, Otz was back and gonna start hitting up all those high school kids again.
 
http://cyclonefanatic.com/basketbal...ly-the-best-bet-in-picking-next-year-s-champ/

Anybody an ESPN Insider that could shed a little more light on this guy's reasoning? I just don't see it happening.
Defensive efficiency of last 14 national champions per Kenpom
2002 - 7th
2003 - 14th
2004 - 5th
2005 - 12th
2006 - 6th
2007 - 17th
2008 - 1st
2009 - 21st
2010 - 8th
2011 - 13th
2012 - 8th
2013 - 3rd
2014 - 10th
2015 - 12th

Defensive efficiency of Iowa State under Hoiberg per Kenpom
2011 - 120th (8th in Big 12)
2012 - 54th (4th in Big 12)
2013 - 133rd (7th in Big 12)
2014 - 72nd (5th in Big 12)
2015 - 71st (9th in Big 12)

Hoiberg's style of play, as fun as it may be to watch, is not conducive to winning a national title. Championships are won on defense and rebounding first and foremost. When you play an undersized lineup like Hoiberg does, you're going to struggle getting stops against really good teams. I don't see any additions that will really change this trend for the clones. A player like Diallo would have helped but I don't know if it would have magically solved all their problems anyway.
 
I'd be pretty pizzed off with Hoibergs recruiting if I were a Clown fan. He brought in several top 125 HS kids over the first few years (Niang, Long, SDW, Morris, Thomas, and Custer). Yet after getting a verbal from Custer in 2012, Fred hasns't signed another HS kid since. After next season Fred is gonna have 1 HS recruit on his roster, which is mind boggling really. He could have been using the last 3 years to stock up on high level HS recruits that would be taking over for the old guard after next year.

You'd be ****** off about recruiting that would yield a preseason top 5 team? Okaaaaayyyy. I hate to bump this but no you wouldn't.
 
You'd be ****** off about recruiting that would yield a preseason top 5 team? Okaaaaayyyy. I hate to bump this but no you wouldn't.

Anyone who really believes that Iowa State is a legitimate top 5 team for next year is pretty naïve. Your reply makes me think that your worried about how the Iowa State recruiting is going. You got to remember that it is only a basketball game. It really isn't that important.
 
Last edited:
This is probably true, obviously they have the head to head victory. But had they played like they did against UAB against Iowa the Hawks would have smoked them.

Look, I read here daily and typically don't post. Maybe most of you forgot this but I sat in Carver and watched them throttle us on our home court. Most hawk fans left the game 5 minutes into the second half. Stop talking like Iowa is even close to the level of ISU right now. The preseason ranking is way inflated but it is based on who the writers know is coming back. The blue bloods could loose a ton of players to the NBA. When that is resolved they will drop outside of top 10.
 
Look, I read here daily and typically don't post. Maybe most of you forgot this but I sat in Carver and watched them throttle us on our home court. Most hawk fans left the game 5 minutes into the second half. Stop talking like Iowa is even close to the level of ISU right now. The preseason ranking is way inflated but it is based on who the writers know is coming back. The blue bloods could loose a ton of players to the NBA. When that is resolved they will drop outside of top 10.

On a given day anything can happen. Iowa smoked Maryland last year too. I don't know if they will be in the top twenty when the season starts next year, but I'm sure there are a lot of teams better than Iowa State on paper. I don't know how many times Iowa would beat Iowa state if they played them ten times, but I'm pretty confident Iowa would win some.
 
Defensive efficiency of last 14 national champions per Kenpom
2002 - 7th
2003 - 14th
2004 - 5th
2005 - 12th
2006 - 6th
2007 - 17th
2008 - 1st
2009 - 21st
2010 - 8th
2011 - 13th
2012 - 8th
2013 - 3rd
2014 - 10th
2015 - 12th

Defensive efficiency of Iowa State under Hoiberg per Kenpom
2011 - 120th (8th in Big 12)
2012 - 54th (4th in Big 12)
2013 - 133rd (7th in Big 12)
2014 - 72nd (5th in Big 12)
2015 - 71st (9th in Big 12)

Hoiberg's style of play, as fun as it may be to watch, is not conducive to winning a national title. Championships are won on defense and rebounding first and foremost. When you play an undersized lineup like Hoiberg does, you're going to struggle getting stops against really good teams. I don't see any additions that will really change this trend for the clones. A player like Diallo would have helped but I don't know if it would have magically solved all their problems anyway.

I don't think ol' KenPom realizes that they have the Defensive POY in "The Best Conference in College Basketball"©.
 
On a given day anything can happen. Iowa smoked Maryland last year too. I don't know if they will be in the top twenty when the season starts next year, but I'm sure there are a lot of teams better than Iowa State on paper. I don't know how many times Iowa would beat Iowa state if they played them ten times, but I'm pretty confident Iowa would win some.

I love when people point out one game like it proves a point. I guess all Rutgers fans (if there are any) have Wisconsin chalked up as a win since they proved they are better than them when they don't have Kaminsky.
 
Just my 2 cents -> once all the recruiting classes finish up, i think ISU will fall out of the top 10 in most polls. It's mostly based on what we have coming back (the "known") vs the "unknown" of the teams that haven't yet signed all their recruits. Personally, as long as we are ranked all next year, I'll be happy :)

As for recruiting, I am concerned about what the team will look like in 2 years with the lack of 4 year players. While we are "transfer U", the 4 year guys have always seemed to be the "backbone" of the team that provides the consistency in allowing the transfers to come in and prosper. But CFH has earned our trust via his history in putting teams together, so i'll just trust he has a plan until proven otherwise for now.
 
Top