Yes, we’re leading with Iowa State for the third straight day. We’re going to savor this. Iowa State is Having a Moment, dammit.
With Brock Purdy quite possibly watching from California, Iowa State welcomed Tyrese Hunter and the Texas Longhorns to Hilton Coliseum last night and rendered the basketball arena unusable for future games due to ITS inability to keep rain off the court. Let’s take a look:
The night went as well as any Cyclone sympathizer could have possibly hoped. There were no known incidents where fans went too far in their treatment of Hunter, things got chippy but didn’t boil over, Hunter came out firing but Iowa State roared back and then some, ultimately burying the team previously poised to be the second squad in this year’s Big 12. To add more gravy to the potato, Kansas State took down Kansas in overtime in Manhattan, creating a three-way tie for first place and putting Iowa State’s destiny definitively back in Iowa State’s hands, at least for a few days. One third of the way through conference play, the Cyclones are tied for first, and their only loss came on the road to one of the teams with whom they’re tied.
I do have a few questions coming away from the game, almost all revolving around Gabe Kalscheur. Did he dislike Tyrese Hunter last year too? Does he have beef with Marcus Carr from when they played together at Minnesota? Is the absence of a high-usage non-point guard opening up this offense after two straight years of hero-ball side quests held it hostage? (Iowa State’s about to pass Rasir Bolton in KenPom if they keep playing like this.) Any theory stating Kalscheur’s professed anticipation of the Texas game stemmed from Carr alone and not Hunter was squelched when Kalscheur gave Hunter an earful under the basket right before the Tre King technical, but other questions remain. The bottom line is, Kalscheur is on some sort of revenge tour, and we can only hope it keeps producing the same offensive results.
I said this on Twitter last night, but I loved and appreciated how T.J. Otzelberger handled the situation, playing the good cop to Kalscheur’s bad cop. Otzelberger told Hunter he was grateful for him and respected him and wished him the best, and that’s exactly what you want a head coach to say, and exactly how you want someone who is not an active 23-year-old athlete to view something like Hunter’s transfer out of Ames. But I also love and appreciate Kalscheur taking the transfer personally. I love Kalscheur having that sort of pride in Iowa State basketball. There’s a lot of this that went down behind the scenes, and we don’t know what shape that took at all, but from our vantage point, Kalscheur has a ton of pride in being a Cyclone, and that’s exactly what you need if you’re going to do special things in a mid-high-major program like this one.
As for the basketball:
Iowa State was aggressive. Iowa State was physical. Caleb Grill got away with a bad hip check on Dillon Mitchell. However much was by design, it worked. Iowa State turned up the emotion and Texas responded by packing their bags. The Longhorns didn’t quit, but they didn’t rise to meet Iowa State’s intensity, and the end result was that Iowa State looked like the better team in all phases of the game, which is mind-blowing when you compare where these two offenses stood one month ago. Iowa State looked deep, Iowa State looked confident, Iowa State looked capable. Iowa State soundly beat a good team who didn’t play all that badly. These Cyclones are, borderline unbelievably, capable of winning the Big 12.
Our last ISU thought for the moment is that Osun Osunniyi looks quick out there. It most shone on the trap that led to his steal, right before Jaren Holmes cut it to a one-possession game late in the first half, but it happens on both ends of the floor and it happens a lot. He’s not the fastest person on the court or anything like that, but for a big man? He’s fluid. He’s nimble. What a great pickup he’s been for this team.
Kentucky, Kansas, Kansas State
The three biggest stories elsewhere in college hoops last night were really just two: Kansas State took down Kansas, and Oscar Tshiebwe put up monster numbers as Kentucky won another basketball game, one that should be thoroughly routine but isn’t and therefore led certain peers of ours to do the “Is Kentucky back?” bit that isn’t a bit. Kentucky is not a nationally competitive team. They beat a sub-NIT team at home after trailing by eight at the half. Could these peers not wait more than a week after the South Carolina loss to start the turnaround narrative?
More consequentially, Kansas finally lost its second game. There isn’t much cause for concern for the Jayhawks from it specifically—better Kansas teams have lost to worse Kansas State teams in that arena in recent years, it’s a thing that happens—but four one-possession games out of six to open conference play is a lot for a team that should be far and away the best in the Big 12. We still don’t know if this has been Kansas answering the bell or Kansas getting lucky, and that’s probably a false choice (it’s probably both), but now that they’ve lost, let’s use this as a reminder not to play with fire. We’ve still got Kansas up there with Houston and UCLA as a believable eventual national champion, but right now they’re the worst of those three teams. They have the most necessary growing left to do.
In the national scene tonight, UConn’s at Seton Hall (without Dan Hurley, who tested positive for Covid) and Virginia hosts Virginia Tech, but the biggest action is probably Providence’s trip to Marquette with second place in the Big East on the line. At the moment, Xavier leads at 7-0, with the Friars 6-1 and the Golden Eagles 6-2. Xavier and Providence have yet to play, but each has beaten Marquette at home, which is good for Marquette in that they haven’t lost a home game or lost to anyone outside the top three but bad in that they’ve missed two chances to push a contender off the raft. Are these three alone in the title race? No. UConn’s still around, and Creighton’s actually closer to the Musketeers than UConn is. But Providence and Marquette are each involved, and they’re playing one another, and Marquette won’t be eliminated from Big East contention with a loss but it’s hard to see a good path for them without winning this game. It’s a similar position to where Iowa State was entering last night.
Gronk’s Right About Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers said yesterday on the Pat McAfee Show that he wants to play somewhere he can win another MVP, and he seemed to be saying it as pressure on the Packers front office to bring back his friends (it was in the context of talking about building a locker room of professionals who know how to win), but it was odd that he said “MVP” instead of “Super Bowl,” and Rob Gronkowski, ever the New England Patriot, pointed that out this morning in a clip now making the rounds online. There isn’t much more to it than that—Gronk is right, and echoed the thoughts of millions who’d listened to Rodgers yesterday—but it gets at a persistent tendency from Rodgers to say things that make it sound like he only cares about his own performance and accolades, and not as much about winning. Does he think that way? I don’t know. But the statements are weird.
**
Viewing schedule for the evening, second screen rotation in italics:
College Basketball (games of interest)
- 6:30 PM EST: UConn @ Seton Hall (FS1)
- 7:00 PM EST: Virginia Tech @ Virginia (ESPNU)
- 7:00 PM EST: TCU @ West Virginia (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: Ohio State @ Nebraska (BTN)
- 7:00 PM EST: Auburn @ LSU (ESPN2)
- 8:30 PM EST: Xavier @ DePaul (FS1)
- 9:00 PM EST: Providence @ Marquette (CBSSN)
- 9:00 PM EST: Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State (ESPNU)
- 9:00 PM EST: Arkansas @ Missouri (SECN)
- 10:30 PM EST: San Diego State @ Colorado State (FS1)
NBA (best game)
- 8:00 PM EST: Cleveland @ Memphis (League Pass)
NHL (best game)
- 9:30 PM EST: Colorado @ Calgary (ESPN+)
Australian Open
- 7:00 PM EST & Onwards: Intermittent Tennis on ESPN+ and ESPN2
