The Streak is dead. Long live the Streak

Making a three in 945 consecutive games is a real accomplishment, especially since it started in a time when teams only took 2 or 3 long shots a game, usually out of desperation.

Most coaches didn't consider a three-first strategy as "real" basketball then.

It is odd that a team that brought in four players over the summer with gaudy shooting stats would struggle all season once the lights came on.

Tech was obviously trying to limit attempts from deep, and conceded shots in the lane. They still lost.

But they will always have the hide of The Streak tacked to their wall. Congrats.

Courage

 A wild couple of weeks of Cyclone Basketball culminated if big wins in Kansas City.

The men shook off weeks of bad chemistry to earn two solid wins over Baylor and a decent effort against Kansas. They adjusted to the removal of a key cog in their game plan, and yet returned to the form that won them games up through mid-January. Adapting to sudden change takes both knowledgeable coaching and a willingness to adjust for the better.

The women's conference season and tournament title is just as remarkable. After losing two post players in January, the offensive plan was scrapped and the team reverted to the three-driven offense that had carried them for almost 30 years. This season was one of Fennely's better coaching jobs in his tenure. 

Having the conference MVP goes a long way. It's unfortunate that the best player in the Big 12 flies under the national radar because her game is so understated. She manages to get 21 and 10 every night without a single play that ends up on SportsCenter. It's low-key impressive. 

Now on to the tournaments. Both teams have manageable seeds, and can hopefully find enough offense to get to the second weekend. Regardless of their finishes, both teams earned athletic and mental victories this year.

Game on.

Review

One team surprised all of college basketball and its own fan base by overachieving for most of the season. They pulled two upsets in The Tournament, and came very close to an Elite Eight appearance, a rare bird in Cyclone basketball.

Another team played high level basketball all season, and came within a game of a share of the B12 title. Their season also ended on the cusp of the Elite Eight, an ending most fans would have been happy with in October.

In retrospect, this was a much more entertaining winter than Cyclone fans expected. Next season could be on the same level and, with some breaks, even more interesting.

Enjoy the good seasons when they appear, as we never know when a drought will return.

Astounding

 Of the scenarios we thought could play out this weekend, the one that happened was the least likely. We were clearly wrong on almost every point of our last post. Happy to be wrong.

The men's defensive effort discombobulated both LSU and Wisconsin on offense. Wisky ended their game Sunday with more turnovers than made baskets. Just masterful. Ugly, but effective.

The difference between Friday and Sunday could not have been more stark. The Friday nail-biter was reversed with a Sunday first-quarter avalanche that Georgia was never able to dig themselves out from under. 

Add in the upset on the other side of the bracket, and Iowa State is staring at undiscovered country of their own.

It's a lot to take in, but its a very fun ride.

Bad matchups

 Someone on the seeding committee was unimpressed with the Cyclones last two weeks.

They struggle against quality defensive teams, especially ones that are physical. Who did they draw in their first two NCAA games? Physical defensive teams, both in the top 25 on defensive metrics. They won't survive the weekend even if they find a way to beat LSU.

(The GoBlas, on the other hand, were all but given a free pass to the Sweet 16. They get to play two teams in the 60's defensively. They will hang 90+ in both games and cruise. Figures)

The women didn't fare much better. Potential second round matchup Georgia looks like Texas on paper, and we know how those games went. Add in the potential rematch against TOE, and I think it will be a short tourney run for the women, too.

As usual, I hope to be proven wrong.

70 Minutes of Awful

I watched all 80 minutes of basketball played by Iowa State on Saturday- the women in Ames, the men on my telly. The two teams combined for about 10 minutes of entertainment. The rest was hard to watch.

The opponents were to blame. The Defense First, Defense Second, Offense If We Find It school of basketball played by both Kansas State and South Carolina is a bastardization of the sport. It may win games, but it has to suck the joy from the sport for both spectators and player alike. The prevalence of the style in the women's game is the single biggest factor holding the sport back from wider public acceptance. Like hockey, a couple of goons can reduce a free-flowing sport to a brawl.
 
The reason Iowa State has such a solid following is that when able, they are fun to watch. Too many opponents lace up their sneakers only to start a street fight on the court. But the audience that likes a street fight is going to choose the MMA over women's hoops every time.

The leagues could mandate a change by ordering referees to call fouls, but when a majority of the coaches in a league prefer Brawling over Scoring, no mandate will come. Referees will continue to ignore all but the most egregious fouls, and the sport descends to the level of the most violent and least skilled.

The only thing that will break the Street Fight Defense school of coaching will be sustained success of teams who put offense first. When defensive coaches lose too many games and recruits to offensive coaches they will have no choice but to switch styles.

The switch can't come soon enough.

Fugly

I witnessed ISU's fugly win over Kansas today. It epitomized everything that is wrong with women's basketball.

Little of the ugliness was ISU's fault. Rather, it was the result of KU's hideous style of play, and the ref's collective willingness to allow it. KU's philosophy on both ends of the floor is to imitate
as much contact as possible, whether hacking and pushing on defense or
driving to the basket on offense. When the ref's eat the whistle, it
works, the game slows to a crawl, neither team can score (KU has lousy
shooters, off the dribble or not) and fans, having paid cash expecting
something interesting, have to witness butchery instead.

When used by teams with talent (i.e. Baylor) this plan works well. When you don't have talent, it's just hard to watch.

I
am most puzzled why so many crews reward this style by eating their
whistles. It isn't subtle. Bodies flying, shots missing by three feet,
players piling up in the lane like anInterstate highway on a foggy day,
yet play goes on, or a meek travel is whistled as a pathetic "make-up".
Odd. It's almost as if they don't want to blow the whistle so they
won't be accused of coddling the ladies. Let 'em duke it out; it'll
toughen them up. It's not justKU ; it is the majority of the women's
games I stumble across on the telly. Rough play removes all the joy
from basketball, regardless of gender, but the women suffer the most.

Proper officiating would have put ISU in the bonus in the first 6 minutes of each half. Like not calling the outside fastball, until rough play is mandated out, ISU will continue to suffer at the hands of the goons.

Besides, the rough play isn't helping the Jayhawks.
The present coach has won 18 B12 games in four seasons, which isn't
very good from where I sit. One wonders if her seat is getting warm, or
if, like football ('07 excepted), as long as it isn't a completeembarrassment, the AD doesn't care.

Bring back the touch foul. Over the back would have a welcome return, too.

Peterclone