Iowa State No. 7 In AP Top-25 Preseason Basketball Poll
How about this week for the Cyclones, right after shutting out Texas for the first time in school history on the football field (Yeah, the Longhorns suck, who cares) the basketball team comes in at No. 7 in the AP preseason rankings.
Hard to put too much stock in the preseason poll, but pretty much any writer who thinks they cover college basketball has Monte Morris, Georges Niang, and Jameel McKay in their Top-50 or so Players in College Basketball.
Niang 15, Morris 26, McKay 60
Niang 8, Morris 25, McKay 59
Morris 10, Niang 16
Niang 6, Morris first player named in “just missed” category
Bleacher Report – I’m not clicking through your ridiculous slide show, knock it off
The proof is above. Everyone and their dog is high on this team across the country. If first-year head coach Steve Prohm is reading these, he has to feel like he won the lottery.
What makes the team good is the starting five. The three that were already mentioned, along with Naz Long/Matt Thomas and Abdel Nader bring back what has to be the most experience in the Big XII.
What will or will not get the team to the Final Four is the depth beyond those six guys. Hallice Cook is available, but is a huge question mark off the bench because he’s never played in Ames. Other than Cook, the bench looks like Lou Brown’s Cleveland Indians Spring Training list; most of these guys I’ve never even heard of.
The schedule looks more like 2014-15 when ISU went 11-2 in the non-conference than it does 2013-14 when the Cyclones won its first 15 games before losing at Oklahoma. A late-November trip to the Emerald Coast Classic will give Iowa State a possible rematch with UAB, and hopefully provide a little solace to the misery that was losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Games against Iowa and UNI will also be a challenge, but two winnable ones. Being 10 days out from game one against Colorado, I can say I’m excited for the season get started, especially as a broken-hearted Cubs fan.