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.

Double Dingers

Back-to-back nights of wild basketball wins in Hilton reminds us how fun Iowa State basketball can be on cold, snowy winter nights.

#2 Houston? Welcome to the Big 12. 

Ranked West Virginia with a new coach and roster? No lead is safe when the 3s start falling.

Buckle up everyone. This could be great ride.

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.

Double

 Cyclone fans enjoyed a remarkable pair of nights in Hilton. Given how many painful losses we have witnesses to the Goblas, it was fun to hand down a pair of solid wins. 

For the men to hammer the Goblas the way the did was fantastic, especially with Hilton at full roar. If any of the current players didn’t understand the potential of the building at its best, they do now. And the fan base will be returning each night to help carry the team across the finish. 

It’s good to be relevant again. Enjoy the ride.

Disapointment Or Success?

In October, NCAA trips would have been a successful season for both Iowa State basketball teams.

But given how each was playing in early January, fans rightfully raised the bar for the season.

While the women were able to finish first in the Best Big 12 Team Not Named Baylor race, the men stumbled down the stretch. The women's march to the title game and the men's run to the title had fans giddy.

The individual losses that knocked each out of the tournament were uncharacteristically poor shooting nights, yet each had chances to win in the final minute. When you get in that situation you cross your fingers and hope you get the bounces. Neither did.

But the body of work was solid, and compared to the previous year, were solid steps forward. Now the job is to maintain that level of play despite big changes in production. The parts are there. The question is if the parts can improve and mesh.

The winter of 2019-20 should be worth watching.

Feedback Loops

During my time in business school, there was a lot of discussion about feedback loops, both positive and negative, and how they can effect your organization. A manager must be willing to examine every part of his organization and operation to maximize the areas of strength and fix the areas that need repair.

Good managers do this well and it is part of their success. Bad managers ignore weaknesses they are uncomfortable changing, or strike too close to home, and those weaknesses are a drag on the company.

Which brings me to Bill Fennely. I attended dozens of women's basketball games at Iowa State before his tenure, and his program is light years ahead of his predecessors. I assume a program with continued success closely examines everything it does and changes any part that isn't working: an in-bounds play that fails to work, a bad defense against an opposing star, poor match-ups between players, how well an assistant breaks down tape or recruits, and on and on and on. Fix the problems or find a new gig, sometimes out of basketball.

Fennely's public reaction to a racial discrimination suit by a former player gives me pause, however. The "I've done nothing wrong" stance may be a smart legal strategy, and will play well to supporters, but I hope it is not the official line behind closed doors.

Fennely has an opportunity to improve as a coach, as the people around him will be most open at this exact moment. He needs to reach out to as many former players and staff as possible and ask "How can I not cause this level of rancor with a player in the future?". The solution isn't to abandon his coaching style completely and try to be a "player's coach", but I suspect it is in dialing back what he does with individual players a few degrees. Deliver criticism succinctly, and then move on. Demand what you have always demanded, but with a bit more restraint in the delivery.

If an assistant coach was being sued, that assistant would be expected to change or would be dismissed. For a program to be healthy and succeed, the same must be asked of the head coach too.

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.

Bring Back Mirrored Schedules

I'm old enough to remember when the Big 8 basketball schedules mirrored opponents for the men's and women's teams, and each team would be home opposite weeks.

Back before TV completely blew up scheduling rhythm,  games were usually played on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons. The men might be on the road for two games while the women were at home for that week, then they would switch. The convenient part was that each would play the same opponent on the same day- If the men were in Stillwater, you knew the women were hosting the Cowgirls.

That symmetry gave the season a nice bit of predictability.

"Travel partners" only added to this. In the Big 8 days, OU and Okie State went on the road together, as did KU and Mizzou, K State and Colorado, and Nebraska with Iowa State. If you had a home game week, you would play OU on Wednesday and then OSU on Saturday.  When you traveled south, you swung through Norman and Stillwater in the same trip. With 14 games spread across 8 weeks, you then had a built in night off during the week that you played your travel partner. Symmetry.

These schedules arose in the days of trains and buses, when a trip from Ames to Oklahoma was a project. Now that every road trip involves an airplane and is paid with a TV rights check economizing travel costs is less important. But two-game road trips with your travel partner conveyed, even subtly, that everyone was working together to make lives easier.

That ethic evaporated about the same time as basketball shorts stopped being short.

Non-Story Story

There are two ingredients for the "Bill to Wisconsin" Non-Story to emerge: Success and Status.

Bill definitely has the success. And Wisconsin views its coaching job as a step up, even though it hasn't been to the NCAA Tourney '02. This was probably a reporter or blogger putting his/her finger in the air and saying "Here's a list of coaches UW could probably poach from some school that's beneath us" and Bill was on the list.

Now, Wisconsin would be stupid not to call and gauge interest. And Bill would be stupid not to listen. UW is a better job for two reasons: he may be able to wrangle a bigger paycheck and its a much easier place to win because of the Big 10/11/12.

According to Real Time RPI, The Big 10 ended the year with 4 teams int he top 50. The Big 12 had 7, with 4 in the Top 25. While this may have been a down year for the B10, I suspect it was a typical year in the B12. Life would be easier in Madison.

But I suspect Bill is happy in Ames. Expectations are reasonable. Fan support is crazy. He may not be interested in another rebuild. Sometimes when things fit, you don't mess with it.

Peter

Filthy

If you have the filthy skills needed to reverse a previous opponent by 50 points, you need to learn how to impose your will on the road.

Bill's team has put together a better season than I expected- but road losses to KU and CU are really going to hurt their seeding in the B12 and NCAA tourneys.

Peter

Cash

CU has no cash to fire Hawkins, but enough to can the WBB coach.

Then again, the buyouts are different by a factor of 20, but the income difference is a factor of 50.

Gotta look like you are trying.

Peter

Boom

Beating the #11 team by 24 doesn't suck. Using 16 threes to do it was fun, too.

Good luck in Lincoln, ladies.

Peter

Overwhelming

I caught both sides of the double-header Sunday, and Iowa State overwhelmed Bradley (men) and UNI (women) in the same manner: tough D and good shooting.

I thought both teams looked sharp, and BF had the luxury of going deep into the bench early, trying some odd combinations.

The men were surprising in how quickly they dispatched the Braves. It was good to see how immediate Brackins responded to a weak-side double team by dribbling away from the basket and rotating the ball to the open man. While the double did get the ball out of his hands, ISU scored enough points to send the message: that's not going to work.

Not that others won't try it.

Peter

Big Step

The Fighting Fennellies added an impressive notch to their NCAA belt Sunday, downing Minnesota in Minneapolis.

That's the kind of win that The Committee likes to reward teams for scheduling.

Peter

Slow

Let me get this straight.

A long-time Rag sportswriter and lifelong SUI fan waits 13 years to ask Bill Fennelly a question, and he gets pissy that Bill doesn't give him a response he likes.

Bill's a smart guy, and knows every member of the working press by name- I've seen him in action. I suspect Bill mistook Ron for the retiree that he is, assumed he wandered into the press room looking for free cookies, and took a "who-the-heck-is-this-guy" tone. Ron got what he deserved.

Ron probably had a chance or two to play the serious journalist with Bill back when he was working. Now that he has retired, he should stay in his comped seats in the stands.

Funny how Ron finds a reason to hate every ISU coach he runs into. It's just amazing.

Peter

Trophies

Iowa State moved closer to Trophy They Should Never Win by thumping (is the term "Manhandle" inappropriate in WBB?) SUI tonight. It was close for the first 8 minutes, then ISU got up eight, and jumped to 14 just before halftime. I think they hit a 30 point lead before emptying the bench.

Wish I could have been there in person- that would have been a fun one.

With any luck the warm ISU shooting will carry over to tomorrow night. I like the template: Iowa starts out strong, hanging with or leading early, but better talent and depth pushes the lead out to a comfortable margin int he second.

Don't be shy, boys. It's OK to be better than someone.

Peter

confidence

Bill must have some confidence there isn't a talent drop off if he's scheduling the likes of Duke. (cue applause)

Peter


update: So it appears it's the laddies who get Duke, not the ladies.

Good thing there are some other winnable games in that trip.

Peter