“We ran into a buzzsaw today…” — Fred Hoiberg
Ames, Iowa — When the wheels fall off a Cyclone team, they spin out far and wide.
First up, the women against UW-Green Bay, which more recently has been de-emphasizing the “University of Wisconsin” part. Today was the second day I wore a T-shirt and no coat to a basketball game — the first was Jan. 29, in College Station — and the weather was perfect for tailgating if only people had had the idea. Or if the tipoff hadn’t been 5:50.
The first notable aspect of the game was Iowa State’s use of road red jerseys as the lower seed. It was something different in Hilton, although I’ve seen them three times this year in three different states (at Drake, A&M, and Missouri) and two last year (at Iowa and Nebraska).
The Phoenix had the Cyclones cornered all night.
From the opening missed layup, nothing went right. The Phoenix swarmed to the ball and harassed the post players. The turnover bug bit everyone in red. Worst of all, GB kept hitting threes while stopping ISU from doing the same. In the first half, Green Bay made the same number of field goals that Iowa State attempted. At the risk of understatement, that’s bad.
The second half was more of the same, and the best Iowa State could do was cut the deficit to single digits a few times. Final score, 71-57.
NCAA regulations require the removal or cover-up of all advertising, leaving the ribbon and even the scoreboard background bathed in blue. While that theoretically sounds good, it leaves timeouts kind of empty. The “other scores” display should also include the men’s scores; it’s not like the fanbases don’t overlap at all.
The women’s game ended during halftime of the men’s game against Kentucky, and the athletics department started showing the second half with a decent-sized chunk of fans hanging around to watch. The Cyclone men opened the half with a huge run, making the crowd cheer, and when it was 42-all it was almost like the game was right there.
Then Kentucky went and showed why it was the overall top seed, and Iowa State went and showed why it had nine regular-season losses including Drake and UNI. Even when the rebounds came, the shots didn’t.
How bad was it? Fred Hoiberg never got a technical foul in high school, college, or the pros, but he got his first one as a coach. Unfortunately, CBS was not expecting anything unusual to happen and was in the middle of interviewing Ashley Judd. A couple more blinks and Kentucky was up 20, and it was time for me to leave Hilton. The final score, 87-71, was crushing.
So the ISU men’s and women’s basketball seasons ended on the same day, but in a sense both teams were playing with house money. Both did more than expected either before or during the season. Both can add an NCAA tournament appearance to their lists.