Only a smattering of decent wins--KU over Memphis being the best win of the bunch. ISU killing Drake was interesting. Drake has really dropped off in the last two years. 23-5 two years ago, 13-4 halfway through last year, with wins over ISU and Iowa, only to finish ouit 4-12 over their last 16 games. Even so, ISU is 3-0 with no wins by less than 20 points. Last year, Brackins was the whole team, averaging over twice what anybody else scored, scoring over 30% of the team's points, and getting nearly 30% of the team's rebounds, with no one getting anywhere near half of Brackins' total. This year, ISU has 5 guys in double figure scoring, Brackins is second among regulars in scoring, third if you count Dendy, who played in the first game and is sitting out with a knee sprain, and he's a distant second to freshman Gilstrap in rebounding. This isn't due to Brackins sitting long minutes in blowouts--he leads the team in minutes by a wide margin. ISU could be pretty good if they get Dendy back.
Let's get a little deeper into the schedule before we start handing out plaques. Having said that, I do think the league's going to be very tough this year overall.
My Cyclones do seem to be much improved this year. Brackins looks relaxed and happy a he has help around him now and does not seem like he feels the weight on his shoulders that he had last year to carry the team. We have four returning starters from last year and we had a lot of games where we were right there last year and were leading or close at half only to run out of gas in the second half. This year, we have a very solid backup at every position and our depth will carry us to more wins IMO. Gilstrap is actually a senior JUCO transfer. Dendy was a former top 100 recruit that comes from JUCO. He is long and bouncy and seems to really have a nose for the ball. Christopherson is a transfer from Marquette and he has been very good. Good ball handler, shooter passer and a great hustle player. Staiger looks healthy (he was battling an injury all last year) and seems to be moving much better and is in better shape. We really have a solid set of weapons and I expect us to be much improved this year though with as tough as the Big 12 is, it may not show up in the final win loss record. ISU does have a solid non-conference slate playing at Cal, at Drake, home against Northern Iowa, Iowa, Bradley, Houston, North Dakota State and neutral court games with Duke, St Louis and either Notre Dame or Northwestern. We have a chance for a solid RPI and SOS.
So FarmerClone, are you a former student? Have you gone to any of the games this season? Unfortunately I am not apart of cyclone alley this season.
I am a former student and a current season ticket holder. With the wet weather this year in Iowa, harvest has been delayed and I have only been able to make one game so far as we have been in the fields harvesting. We are done now and I should make most all the rest of the games including two games next week in Chicago,
