1. Good to see Jalen Coleman-Lands back.
Getting anybody back is worth celebrating, mostly because it means they’re through the virus and cleared to play again. Hopefully he and everyone else continue(s) to recover.
2. It’s hard to be mad about the defense.
We knew stopping Mississippi State from scoring inside would be hard. This isn’t a surprise. Iowa State was outmatched, and it stinks that they were outmatched against a team struggling as much as Mississippi State was struggling (even with just two starters missing, really), but that’s where we’re at.
3. The offense should be better.
Five players of the quality Iowa State trotted out tonight should be able to meet up and not turn the ball over 21 times against a team like this one from Mississippi State. 24 three-point attempts were unnecessary when shooting that badly. The numbers in these areas were comparable half-to-half, which is also interesting. And makes me wonder about this next question:
4. Is the team going to give up?
It’s unclear, at least to my eyes, whether this has already happened. I wonder if it will. If it doesn’t—if they keep trying and don’t just jack threes for the sake of jacking threes don’t start treating it all like a pickup game—it’ll be a positive sign for the program. So maybe that’s something to look for.
