Saturday, March 15th, 2014

Let's see, what words am I looking for... oh yeah... HELL YES, HELL YES, HELL YES!!!  Yep, those words sum it up pretty well.

I'm very excited right now because the Iowa State Cyclones just defeated Baylor 74-65 to win the Big 12 tournament championship!  This is only the second time that Iowa State has won the Big 12 tournament, the first since the 1999-2000 season.  Iowa State trailed for most of the game but ended up finding enough ways to score on the pesky Baylor zone defense down the stretch to pull out the win!  Five Cyclones finished scoring in double figures (Kane 17, Niang 13, Long 12, Hogue 12, Ejim 10).  To win the title, Iowa State had to defeat Kansas State on Thursday, Kansas on Friday, and finally Baylor today.

I've said it before, but March is definitely my favorite month.  College basketball is a big part of why.  Also... my birthday, St. Patrick's day, and just seeing the snow thaw is always good for the morale.  Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year, Selection Sunday.  It is always fun to see who Iowa State will be paired up with in the "big dance".

Besides the awesome win for the Cyclones, today was an enjoyable day because my parents Eben & Lynn came down to visit along with my grandma Natalie.  We had a good time playing with Nolan.  He is still kind of shy around them, and he tried not to wander too far away from me.  We did get a cute video of him "blowing kisses" at grandma Lynn and great grandma Natalie. 

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

Yesterday was Senior Day at Hilton Coliseum, and it turned out to be quite the memorable game.  Oklahoma State led for most of the game, and at one point in the second half the Cyclones trailed by 16 points.   It was almost too stressful to watch.  However, the Cyclones used a big 12-0 second half run and eventually took the lead.  Oklahoma State responded and had a chance to seal the victory when they sent Phil Forte to the free throw line for two shots leading 70-68 with about 5 seconds to play.  Forte, who is about a 90% free throw shooter, made the first shot but then missed the second.  That's when Hilton Magic kicked in.  Matt Thomas grabbed the rebound, found DeAndre Kane who passed it up court to Naz Long, and a desperation three pointer was true which sent the crowd at Hilton into a frenzy as the game was headed to overtime.  Despite having both Melvin Ejim and Georges Niang fouled out, Iowa State found a way to win in overtime, 85-81. 

The Cyclones controlled the opening tip.

Iowa State wins, 85-81!

Saturday, February 22nd, 2014

Congratulations to Nolan for CRAWLING FOR THE FIRST TIME today!!  He even did this while grandpa & grandma Eben and Lynn were watching him :)  He is 223 days old now just in case you were wondering...

Nolan with his prize after crawling

It was early in the morning when everyone was finishing up with breakfast when he crawled.  I was eating an apple, and Nolan was sitting on the living room floor looking up at me like he wanted the apple.  So I held it down at ground level and said "Ok, Nolan.  You can have it if you crawl over here".  Amazingly, he lunged forward from sitting onto his hands and knees, then actually crawled a little ways towards the apple!  He has been so close to crawling for a couple of weeks now, but until today he hasn't coordinated the arm-leg pattern to crawl forward.  We were all so proud of him for finally crawling!! 

Nolan having fun with grandpa Eben.  Nolan was really pulling on his hair quite a bit!

Grandpa and grandma enjoyed their visit and played quite a bit with Nolan.

We all went out to eat at Red Lobster for lunch today. 

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

Today we had Nolan try a new type of baby food... spinach and carrots.  I thought that he was going to hate the flavor, but surprisingly he loved it!  He ate all of it without hardly letting any of it get on his bib.  He's getting to be such a good eater :)

Taking his last bite...

...and still smiling afterwards :)

Who knew that he would like spinach? 

Tuesday, February 18th, 2014

Another blog post, another CYCLONE VICTORY!!

This evening I enjoyed watching my 17th ranked Iowa State Cyclones defeat the 19th ranked Texas Longhorns, 85-76.  It was a complete game for Iowa State as three different players scored at least 20 points (Ejim 25, Kane 22, and Niang 20). 

This was the third time that I have witnessed a top-25 showdown between ISU and another ranked school (the other two were this season against Iowa and Oklahoma).  This was also the fourth basketball game that I have seen played between Iowa State and Texas (2004, 2012, 2013, and today).  I'm happy to say that the Cyclones are 4-0 against the Longhorns in those games!!

The Longhorns controlled the opening tip.

Way to go STATE!

Saturday, February 8th, 2014

After tonight, we should probably celebrate February 8th each year as "National Melvin Ejim Day".  Well, at least a state-wide holiday if not a national one. 

48 points, 18 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist. 

That was Ejim's official stats for the game against TCU today.  He was an amazing 20 of 24 from the field including 2 for 2 from long range and 6 for 6 from the free throw line. His 48 points were a record for the Big 12.  It seemed like quite a few of his points came from alley-op dunks, and the Horned Frogs simply could not guard him. 

Tonight Elizabeth and Nolan came with me to watch the game.  This was Nolan's second time watching the men's basketball team at Hilton, and it was the first Big 12 conference game that he's been to. 

Tip-off between ISU and TCU

We had Nolan wear head phones so the noise wouldn't be too loud for him.

Tuesday, February 4th, 2014

Wednesday, March 2nd, 1988.  I would have still been 3 years old.  That was the last time that Iowa State won at Oklahoma State in basketball... until last night!

I am pretty exhausted right now because I stayed up way too late yesterday watching a thrilling basketball game.  Tip-off was at 8:00, so it was a late game anyways, but the fact that the game went to triple-overtime really kept me up past my bedtime!  Coming into the game, ISU was ranked #16 in the country while Oklahoma State was ranked #19.  There was so much drama in the game that it is hard to fully describe.  The biggest shot made by a Cyclone all night was the only field goal that Naz Long made.  Trailing by three points (89-86) at the end of the second overtime, Matt Thomas missed a three pointer, Kane picked up the long rebound and found Naz who amazingly hit the game-tying three pointer with 1.4 seconds left.  Before that basket, Long had not played for a majority of the game, and he has been in a shooting slump where he has not made a three for multiple games.  That was gutsy to say the least for a bench player to step up at such a key moment.

Here is a video of the SportsCenter highlights of the game.

I am so excited for the rest of the ISU basketball season!  Chances are that they will end up with a much better seed in the NCAA tournament than they have had the last couple of seasons :)