I hate to say this, but I think this team is just good enough to break our hearts. We are a very good basketball team, but I don't think we are a great team, not at this point.
We have some issues. FTs is a big one. Need to start hitting those at a more consistent clip.
Another issue: we seem to let our foot off the gas too often during games. Against Kansas State, for instance, I think we did it a couple of times. Hoiberg mentioned we did this against Kansas even. KANSAS! Do we get bored, or what? I don't know. Maybe it's just a matter of getting tired because we run such a fast-paced offense that we can't keep it up for 40 minutes.
Fortunately, so far, we have shown a remarkable ability to step back on the gas. That's not always the easiest thing to do. I think it's going to bite us in the butt before we're done.
Slow starts. How can we brick so many three-pointers to start the game, but always seem to bounce back to shoot a respectable percentage by the end of the game? It seems illogical. It seems the percentage should go down the more you play because you're getting tired and don't have as much lift on the shot as you do at the start.
Georges Niang. I've watched him from the start of the season to see how the weight loss would affect his game. To tell you the truth, it looks like he's put a bunch of the weight back on since the start of the season. He looked really skinny to start the year, but has slowly been filling out to my eyes. Does anyone else see that?
Also, he doesn't seem to be nearly the weapon, the closer, that he was last year. He's missing far more of those patented shots of his as he works his way closer to the basket. And I couldn't swear to this without looking up stats, but my impression is that he's turning the ball over a lot more than he did last year. Maybe it's just a matter of other teams keying on him, where they couldn't last year with two equally potent, all-American players playing alongside him. Or maybe he's trying to do too much on his own? This year, I think he disappears a lot in games, especially during the conference season.
I know I should be more upbeat with a team ranked at No. 9 and a sparkling record, and I am thrilled with all that, but it's the way we won that has me a little troubled. Kansas was by far our best game in conference. We show these spurts where I think we might be the best team in the country, but then we play like we did against Baylor for three-quarters of the game and I wonder.
We've won 4 conference games by a total of 15 points now. Which means we're barely winning. Which could just as easily be barely losing. It's a matter of a couple of balls bouncing the wrong way. Last year, I think we would have blown this Kansas State team out of the gym at home, but we struggled to beat them last night.
And all this national hype has me worried too. We can't sneak up on people anymore. People will be gunning for us. Maybe we start believing our press. It all mixes together to form a perfect recipe for either the greatest season ever or one of the worst heart-breaking seasons. We're Cyclones, after all, the Charlie Brown of college sports. We know what disappointment is far too well.
The good news is we can get better. We're still learning how to play together and how to mesh some of the parts together, especially with McKay. When and if we get it all figured out, we could be better than last year's team. I don't think we're there right now, however.
But I am enjoying the ride, despite how downbeat I sound. I didn't really mean to sound this downbeat because I am thrilled with where we are now, but I can't help having this nagging feeling that it's a fragile thing and it's all going to collapse before we're done.
We have some issues. FTs is a big one. Need to start hitting those at a more consistent clip.
Another issue: we seem to let our foot off the gas too often during games. Against Kansas State, for instance, I think we did it a couple of times. Hoiberg mentioned we did this against Kansas even. KANSAS! Do we get bored, or what? I don't know. Maybe it's just a matter of getting tired because we run such a fast-paced offense that we can't keep it up for 40 minutes.
Fortunately, so far, we have shown a remarkable ability to step back on the gas. That's not always the easiest thing to do. I think it's going to bite us in the butt before we're done.
Slow starts. How can we brick so many three-pointers to start the game, but always seem to bounce back to shoot a respectable percentage by the end of the game? It seems illogical. It seems the percentage should go down the more you play because you're getting tired and don't have as much lift on the shot as you do at the start.
Georges Niang. I've watched him from the start of the season to see how the weight loss would affect his game. To tell you the truth, it looks like he's put a bunch of the weight back on since the start of the season. He looked really skinny to start the year, but has slowly been filling out to my eyes. Does anyone else see that?
Also, he doesn't seem to be nearly the weapon, the closer, that he was last year. He's missing far more of those patented shots of his as he works his way closer to the basket. And I couldn't swear to this without looking up stats, but my impression is that he's turning the ball over a lot more than he did last year. Maybe it's just a matter of other teams keying on him, where they couldn't last year with two equally potent, all-American players playing alongside him. Or maybe he's trying to do too much on his own? This year, I think he disappears a lot in games, especially during the conference season.
I know I should be more upbeat with a team ranked at No. 9 and a sparkling record, and I am thrilled with all that, but it's the way we won that has me a little troubled. Kansas was by far our best game in conference. We show these spurts where I think we might be the best team in the country, but then we play like we did against Baylor for three-quarters of the game and I wonder.
We've won 4 conference games by a total of 15 points now. Which means we're barely winning. Which could just as easily be barely losing. It's a matter of a couple of balls bouncing the wrong way. Last year, I think we would have blown this Kansas State team out of the gym at home, but we struggled to beat them last night.
And all this national hype has me worried too. We can't sneak up on people anymore. People will be gunning for us. Maybe we start believing our press. It all mixes together to form a perfect recipe for either the greatest season ever or one of the worst heart-breaking seasons. We're Cyclones, after all, the Charlie Brown of college sports. We know what disappointment is far too well.
The good news is we can get better. We're still learning how to play together and how to mesh some of the parts together, especially with McKay. When and if we get it all figured out, we could be better than last year's team. I don't think we're there right now, however.
But I am enjoying the ride, despite how downbeat I sound. I didn't really mean to sound this downbeat because I am thrilled with where we are now, but I can't help having this nagging feeling that it's a fragile thing and it's all going to collapse before we're done.
