I’d settle for no black magic against us.
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Would you settle for 10 FTs if you could have those guaranteed…?
Looking at our roster I’m really excited… just looks like a cimplete team… just hope they execute to their full potential.
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Yeah… i got nothin’ for that 
That was bad. 
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https://x.com/KcSmurthwaite/status/2051098229949743167?s=20
And people say there’s nothing to do in Ames. What’s the deal with Morgantown 
We also have the smallest arena in comparison.
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Yeah it’s pretty good in that context.
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In that context only
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And… that’s why you build a bigger arena when you renovate your old arena…
Of course, it made complete sense at the time…
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As I recall back when CKS was first hired at UH, the school offered season tickets for $100/each to try to entice some folks to show to at an almost empty 8,500+ seat Hofheinz Pavilion.
My memories of a few 10,000+ SRO crowds at Hofheinz and the PSJ era seemed so distant.
And so any thought of possibly expanding the seating (at that time) would have seemed almost laughable to anyone except for maybe CKS…who was out walking around the campus with a bullhorn trying to get students to come to the games.
My how times have changed!!! Since that time, our group has grown from 4 seats for $400 to 8 seats for $6,000. So assuming about 17 home games per season, our home game ticket prices have gone from ~$6/each to ~$50/each…and to me it’s still a great value for getting to watch the winningest 
program in the country for these past 5-10 years. These are the “good old days!”
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Can’t look at it that way.
Technically Calhoun has 3 returning players that he brought from a top 30 Utah state team
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Yes sir, I remember when it wasn’t much of an exaggeration to say it seemed like you could get a whole section to yourself.
And the Coogs have several more returning players from a Houston Cougars team
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I’ll be 100% shocked if this is the year you guys finally break the losing streak.
My honest diagnosis is that Houston is weaker than in a typical year, but even with us being weaker, I don’t think UC has a single advantage.
Not sure if you saw, but I did a roster breakdown of all the Big 12 teams a few days ago.
Top to bottom, UC is a poor shooting team when you account for volume, not just percentage. We also trap well in the post, so I’m not sure it’s a great matchup for you guys.
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TJ Otzelberger is Not Human.
https://x.com/JakeBrendTV/status/2065886303695098045?s=20
(Rivals has him No. 31 overall, fwiw)
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Looking at the rosters I am seeing a lot of holes heading into next season for the Big 12. I know UH has questions to answer but plugging guys into a winning culture is much different than adding a team of free agents.
Outside of Houston the only teams I think has that is Iowa State.
ISU has three pieces coming back but they lost all their dudes with Moni, Tipsey and Jefferson. They have a couple solid transfers coming in and they will play hard and disciplined but not sure they have enough to make up for their loses.
TT lost everything that made them go. They will try to restock with transfers but the roster I am looking at looks thin. If JT can come back at some point he could be a boost but they seem small and thin and lost everyone except an injured Toppin. I do give Grant a lot of credit for being a good roster builder but for some reason he seems to lose players to the portal.
Then there is Kansas who loses a talented three-headed moster in their backcourt. They also lose a front court duo of seven footers who could have been a problem for opponents.
They don’t have the culture we do here and will be restocking their roster. They will have some talent but seem very dependent on freshmen playing big. They will have 11 newcomers and 7 will be freshmen.
Arizona returns two good pieces but they lose everything that made them the most physical team in the nation and the POY in the backcourt.
The two returning will have to show they can lead and take on expanded responsibilities and they are the only two returning.
Most of the rest of the schools are going through complete reshaping of their rosters.
BYU (I like Wright) and Baylor have some good young talent coming but rosters look thin and too dependent on them.
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Thank you for your fair analysis. Fwiw, the consensus vibe in Ames is we will probably be right around where we were last year, maybe a slightly lower ceiling but higher floor. The production we will have to replace is striking.
But this Cyclone defense really will be even better than before, better than ever really. It will be one of those defenses that is so nasty it has almost an offensive value to it. They’re gonna attack offenses relentlessly and efficiently. They’re gonna completely blow up countless possessions and take it away almost at will at times.
The offense is a fair question mark so there’s a give and take that is easy to see statistically, no doubt. @IowaCoog @NorCalCoog
Personally, I don’t think ISU will seriously contend for the Big 12 title, but I don’t think finishing (tied) 3rd again is out of the question, and depending how things go around the league perhaps another outright 2nd place finish record-wise is a real possibility… our last team who couldn’t score did the same thing in your first year lol.
I would be surprised if ISU finishes lower than 5th, some variation of a tie for 3rd-5th would be my guess at worst.
This is a good observation, it is weird. I think it’s because of the type of character he’s bringing in that Tech readily appeals to, soldiers of fortune.
He does deserve all the credit in the world for making them play so well in somewhat of a rent-a-player environment. Tho last year, they DID struggle early a lot kinda outta nowhere at times. But they also crushed it too, so it was up and down. So maybe we see a little bit of the culture question marks popping up a bit.
But he’s a great coach and seems to ulitmately be able to keep the lid on the boiling pot. Not easy to do.
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Not questioning you but why do you believe the defense is so loaded? Like I said I like Buchanon as a player and Toure has a chance to be good but if he is your go-to option then the transition is still up in the air. He has an NBA ceiling.
Batemon can be a good role player but I do like his prospects as a 3&D guy.
No problem, thanks for the ?.
So talent-wise ISU makes their hay largely with guys that were in HS rankings just outside the top 100, top 150 ish range. Toure fits that bill so did lipsey, so did Tyrese Haliburton for that matter.
Pleta is better than Buchanan, both me and zrf agree there.
I think people are understandably sleeping on guys like Leon Bond, Tre Singleton, and even Jamarion Batemon to an extent… because of the humble routes they took to get here. See the resumes of Joshua Jefferson, Keshon Gilbert, and Curtis Jones when TJ brought them in for precedent why that’s not a knock in my book at all. It’s the rule, not the exception. Like pesik said, someone will emerge as a bonafide star. You can book it.
Those 3 guys alone would be like top 20(ish) talents ALL TIME if we’re going by raw HS recruting rankings.
If that makes any sense.
So Leon Bond and Jaquan Johnson are both mid major DPOY quality players already, and Toure is better than both of them. Batemon was seen as a 3 and D wing guy and really just had a bit of a mental learning curve, not so much physical. Really came on strong defensively.
Pleta is a mobile strong smooth legit 6’11. Tre Singleton is considerably more athletic than Jeff was in raw terms, significantly. Buchanan is like the ultimate try hard right place right time make the unseen play guy. Very mobile himself too.
They’re gonna plug, tag, recover, and straight up guard much better this yr. Guys like Momcilovic and Jefferson, key guys, were average athletes and defenders AT BEST. Losing Lipsey hurts tho, no doubt. So the big 3 was more an offensive thing than defense. At the risk of sounding ungrateful that is kinda automatic addition by substraction defensively for 2/3rds of our big 3 last year.
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Not sure about the higher floor part with this team but I give your program the benefit of the doubt. It’s the same reason I weight Tugler, Miller and Chase returning to Houston so much more than I would as an outsider looking at those same stats elsewhere.
ISU needs another guard to step up in a major way for their ceiling to rise and a leader at the point.
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