Saturday, January 26th, 2013

WE JUST BEAT, K-S-U!!

That's right folks.  Iowa State just defeated a top-25 ranked Kansas State Wildcat team 73-67!  Coming into the game, KSU was ranked #11 by the AP and #13 by the USA Today Coaches poll.  This was the first basketball game that I've attended where the Cyclones have beaten a top-25 team.

Will Clyburn led the way for Iowa State with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Georges Niang added 15 points.  This was a huge win for Iowa State to get back on track after dropping a game on Wednesday to a horrible Texas Tech team.

Before the game, Elizabeth and I had a delicious lunch at Hickory Park. 

Elizabeth with her smoked turkey sandwich and sweet potato fries.

BBQ dinner with baked beans and fries.

KSU won the tip-off...

...but we won the game!!

GO STATE!!

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

I just got back from Hilton Coliseum where I thought I was going to have a heart attack!  I'm happy to say that Iowa State defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers 69-67, but it's really amazing that it was even that close in the end.  At one point in the second half Iowa State was leading by 18 points with about 9 minutes remaining.  That was before West Virginia got hot and made 8 three pointers in the final 9 minutes to tie the game.  Luckily for Iowa State, we have Georges Niang on our team...

So it turned out to be quite the memorable ending to the game when for quite a while it seemed like it was going to be a blowout.  Had ISU ended up losing, it would have been quite the heartbreaker. 

One other memorable part of this game was the great dunks by Will Clyburn.  Here is a youtube video highlighting a couple...

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

Today's highlight was the big Cyclone victory over Texas, 82-62.  This was the third time I've been able to watch the Cyclone men's basketball team play the Longhorns, and I'm glad to say that Iowa State has won all three of these matchups (2004, 2012, and 2013).  I've also seen the ISU women play Texas once before in 2005, a 73-69 Cyclone victory.  I guess the only reasonable explanation must be that I'm the good luck charm the basketball teams need when they play vs. Texas :)

Before the game today I met up with Jeremy Seago to grab some lunch.  We decided on New China, a good local Chinese restaurant located next to the west Hy-Vee in Ames.  Jeremy enjoyed their chicken with broccoli while I ordered orange chicken... mmmmm :)

My orange chicken... I had plenty of left overs to take home!

Texas won the tip-off, but that was about their only bright spot.

Georges Niang led all Cyclones in scoring with 18 points, and Tyrus McGee came off the bench to hit four big 3's en rout to scoring 15 points.  Coming into today's game, the Longhorns were leading the country in 3-point % defense.  That didn't stop the Cyclones from connecting on 11 of their 26 3-point attempts today.  This also marked coach Fred Hoiberg's 50th career coaching victory.  It's worth noting that the crowd today was a sellout.  I'm glad to see the ISU fans come out and support their team, and it was nice to see the players respond well coming off of their heartbreaking overtime loss at Kansas earlier this week.

At the half ISU led Texas, 42-31.

The halftime show was a trick frisbee-catching dog. 

CYCLONES WIN!!

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

Happy New Year!!

Today was my first day back to work this week after a long trip to Memphis over the weekend to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.  Even though the Cyclones lost the game, I still had a fun time going down with Erick Ude, Jamie Hughs, and my brother-in-law Brian Gleason.  After going to Jenny Manser & Francisco's wedding in Des Moines Saturday night I left for St. Louis with Erick and Jamie Sunday morning.  We decided to make it a weekend for BBQ, so after getting down to O'Fallon we went out to Ethyl's Smokehouse & saloon for some ribs. Might as well compare them to Memphis style ribs right? 

Monday morning was an early one as we were on the road just after 5 AM from O'Fallon.  We arrived in Memphis around 10ish I think and were ready for a morning of tailgating.  We had a parking pass that put us right next to the stadium in Silver lot 5.  After carrying our cooler back to where some of Jamie's in-laws were tailgating we began our fun.  Flippy cup galore.  It was also worth noting that there seemed to be at least 5 times as many Cyclone fans around as there were Tulsa fans.  The difference was obvious once we got into the stadium. 

Brian Gleason outside of Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

Here I am during with pregame ceremonies in the background.

The ISU side was quite full...

...while the Tulsa side was much more sparse.

The game itself started out very promising for Iowa State.  We got out to a 10-0 lead following a Jeremy Reeves interception return for a touchdown.  After Tulsa came back to score their first touchdown, ISU was able to quickly answer with a 69-yard touchdown pass from Sam Richardson to our tight end, Ernst Brun, Jr.  At that point the Cyclone fans were going crazy, and our 17-7 lead looked promising.  Oh well.  It wasn't like there was just one thing that went wrong after that point.  Tulsa scored the next 24 points to win the game easily.  It was so frustrating.  I think that we will be in for another quarterback controversy at ISU come next fall.

After the game we made a quick stop back to the room (where Jamie took a momentary nap we'll call it), and the rest of us went out for dinner.  This time we stopped at Charles Vergo's Rendezvous, as seen on one of my favorite food related TV shows, Man v. Food.  There I ordered a full slab of ribs, Erick enjoyed a half-order, and Brian tried a brisket and rib combo platter.  It was all very good, but I think that I still prefer a messy, saucy style of ribs to the Memphis-style dry rub. 

My full slab of ribs complete with baked beans and slaw.

The next stop on our journey through Memphis was to Beale Street where we enjoyed some live music, a few "soda pops", and we stayed out until midnight to ring in the new year.  We had thought about going to BB King's namesake bar, but due to the $35 cover charge we decided otherwise.  We ended up at a place called Wet Willie's that had no cover charge, and it still had very good live music.  At this point it was imprtant to be inside somewhere since it was around 40 degrees and was lightly raining.  In rained during most of the game as well which had us shivering and very tired of the rain.  Jamie ended up meeting back up with us at the bar, where we stayed for most of the night. At midnight we pushed our way onto the crowded street to watch the guitar drop over the next-door Hard Rock Cafe.  

A view down Beale Street

...more Beale Street.

Erick and myself inside of Wet Willie's

The lady who is singing was large and in charge.  She really belted out the songs.

Lit-up guitar above the Hard Rock: high position.

Medium position...

... and bottom position... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We all threw our hands up in the sky... HASA DIGA EEBOWAI!