Confession

I snuck into the Lafester game back in '87.

That ISU-SUI game was the Saturday after Finals, meaning it was a break game, which allowed anybody with a horn to show up and play in the Pep Band. Show up we did. The Band may have pushed 100 pieces that night, which is the size of some college marching bands. In those days the band sat just off the right shoulder of the visiting bench, so when a trainer went to get a cup of water he would bump into the backside of the band conductor. We were that close, and absolutely deafening.

One of the biggest differences since that night Rhodes entered Cyclone lore is the dramatic drop in talent on both ISU's and SUI's squads. '87 was a matchup of monster teams. Today was a matchup of mid-majors.

ISU won for the same reasons it lost at Drake- hustle, defense, turnovers. It was fun watching SUI's guards fumble around trying to start the offense, Cyclone defenders guarding them at the timeline without fear. Rashon shutting down SUI's best player. Juri scoring down low, drawing fouls, making trouble.

Defense like that won't win every game, but it will let you hang around until your offense gets on track.

SUI has some talented freshmen, and ISU will be in better shape next year than this. Perhaps the next couple of ISU-SUI tilts in Hilton will return to Epic status.

Peterclone