1. We hope everyone’s ok.
We don’t say this as much anymore with the virus, given how used to it we’ve become, but hopefully everyone in the DePaul program recovers smoothly and fully, and hopefully the program at large is able to contain the virus within itself and its surroundings.
2. This hurts the nonconference strength of schedule.
We’re a long way from this being a relevant concern, and how NCSOS is treated by this year’s selection committee is a matter of uncertainty, but Iowa State’s nonconference schedule has a lot of dead weight at the bottom end. Should the Cyclones somehow manage to find their way to the bubble, this figures to be an issue.
3. This is a missed opportunity.
Gone is a 60%ish chance at a win in a season in which wins are at a premium. Hopefully ISU can find a replacement opponent—maybe Western Illinois in that Christmas/New Year’s gap? Though the Leathernecks would not help NCSOS. It’s also a missed opportunity as far as improvement goes. And goodness knows the Cyclones could have used that. Gaming this out, seems like the best bet is no game added unless one gets thrown together for tomorrow night.
4. Finishing at .500 is a reasonable goal.
To do this, Steve Prohm’s team would have to outperform their current projections by three games (all of this is barring more coronavirus cancelations, which is of course unreasonable, but what else should we do?). Unfortunately, that doesn’t just mean finding three more wins in games they should lose. It means finding six or seven wins in games they should lose, because the way probability works, when you’re going to be an underdog as often as Iowa State will be an underdog, it’s expected that you’ll win at least a few you shouldn’t. As of right now, the only games Iowa State should win are the two against Kansas State, the Jackson State/Chicago State pair, and the home game against TCU. So we’re hunting six on top of those, plus probably a first-round win in the 8/9 game in Kansas City. Iowa’s not a great candidate for one of these wins, but it’d sure be nice.
We’ll see.
