Monday, March 2nd, 2015

I love the month of March.  It's hands-down my favorite month of the year.  Of course my birthday is in March... St. Patrick's Day is always fun... and then you have college basketball.  As it so happens, I saw a memorable game tonight on Senior Night.  The Cyclones erased a 21-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Oklahoma Sooners, 77-70.  They call it Hilton Magic, and it was at it's finest tonight!

Iowa State trailed at halftime 18 to 37.  The 18 points were the lowest amount of points they had scored in a half all year.  I was texting with my brother-in-law Brian, and I told him that it was the worst half of basketball I had ever seen Iowa State play at home.  It just so happened that Iowa State played the best half of basketball I had ever seen in the second half!  Their 59 points in the second half was the highest scoring half that Iowa State has had all year!  Simply incredible.  The momentum really started to swing Iowa State's way after a technical foul was called on Isaiah Cousins with 14:55 left to play.  Oklahoma was leading 48-28 at that point,  Iowa State would score the next 22 points to take a 50-48 lead with 9:36 left to play, and the Cyclones never trailed again.  It was an amazing turn-around over a five minute span!  According to Cyclones.com, the 21-point come from behind victory tied for the largest come back win in Iowa State history.

George Niang was the player of the game for Iowa State.  He led the team with 23 points and collected 8 rebounds.  Monte Morris played well in the second half, and he ended with 19 points.  Jameel McKay had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.  This game marked the fourth time that I had seen Iowa State play Oklahoma (2014, 2013, and way back in 2003 were the others).  Iowa State came into tonight's game ranked #17 in the AP top-25 poll, while Oklahoma was ranked #15.  This was the 8th time I have seen Iowa State play in a top-25 showdown, and the Cyclones are now 7-1 in those games.  Let's see if I can even name all of those games at this point...

1) Last year's game vs Iowa (#17 ISU 85, #23 Iowa 82)
2) Last year's game vs Oklahoma (#16 ISU 81, #23 Oklahoma 75)
3) Last year's game vs Texas (#17 ISU 85, #19 Texas 76)
4) This season vs Arkansas (#20 ISU 95, #18 Arkansas 77)
5) This season vs Kansas (#11 ISU 86, #9 Kansas 81)
6) This season vs Texas (#15 ISU 89, #19 Texas 86)
7) This season vs Baylor (#19 Baylor 79, #12 ISU 70)
8) Tonight vs. Oklahoma (#17 ISU 77, #15 Oklahoma 70)

Looking back at those earlier blog posts I see that I made an error in counting on a few of them... it's been hard to keep track of them all this year!

Daniel Edozie, Dustin Hogue, and Bryce Dejean-Jones all got the start for Iowa State on Senior Night.

Cyclones win!!

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

Well, crap.  I guess all good things must come to an end.  Tonight I watched as Iowa State's 21-game home court winning streak came to an end at the hand of the Baylor Bears, 79-70.  It was two years ago to the day, 2/25/13, that I last saw Iowa State lose a basketball game in person.  I believe that includes 23 straight games that Iowa State had won in which I had attended during that span.  Going into tonight's game, Iowa State was ranked #12, and Baylor was ranked #19.  This was the sixth time that I have witnessed a top-25 showdown in Hilton Coliseum, and Iowa State is now 5-1 in those games.  This was also the second game that I have seen the Cyclones play against Baylor (2013 was the other).

Iowa State played pretty well tonight, but there was a stretch in the second half where it just seemed like Baylor could not miss.  Baylor finished the game going 14-26 from 3-point range, but there was a decisive stretch where they made 5 or 6 threes in a row.  I couldn't believe it.  This overshadowed a good performance for Jameel McKay for Iowa State, who scored 21 points for the Cyclones.  Joining McKay in double figures for Iowa State was Georges Niang (14) and Matt Thomas (13).  Even though they lost, Iowa State should still have a decent seed in the NCAA tournament in March.

Here is the view from my seats in section 216.

Saturday, February 7th, 2015

Today I took Eben along with me to watch the Iowa State men completely dismantle the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 75-38.  The 37-point margin of victory was the third largest in Iowa State's history against a conference opponent (and it was the biggest I had ever seen in person against a conference foe).  It's still hard to believe that Iowa State lost to this terrible team two weeks ago on the road... oh well, at least the natural order of things was restored today!

Jameel McKay led Iowa State in scoring 17 points, and this was his first career start for the Cyclones.  Naz Long added 15 points for ISU, including three 3-pointers.  It was fun to see a lot of the bench players get some quality playing time during the blowout win... my favorite part of today was watching our 7-1 Freshman, Georgios Tsalmpouris, play for 5 minutes.  He scored 3 points including a driving hook shot along with going 1-2 from the free throw line.

This was the third time that I have seen the Cyclones play against Texas Tech.  The other two games were victories for Iowa State in 2013 and 2012.

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

Here I am with my usual scoreboard pose.  Good guys win, 75-38.

Here is dad posing with the scoreboard.  This was the first game he has been to in about 3 years.  

Friday, February 6th, 2015

Well, today officially marks my last day of work at SportsPlus Physical Therapy in Marshalltown, IA.  I've spent over three years working here while commuting back and forth between Ames and Marshalltown.  I eventually got used to the drive, but I will definitely NOT miss the drive.  With good roads it took me about 45 minutes one way, and at times in the winter the trips were much longer.  I can't wait to start working for McFarland at the West Clinic in Ames!!

There were plenty of good... and interesting moments for myself here at SportsPlus.  The staff was always very friendly, and I will miss them.  There was a time when a sparrow got inside the building and flew around all afternoon, there were a couple of different days when the lights went out and we treated patients in the dark, and there was even a tornado warning once where we had to take everyone down and hide in the basement.  There was also one time where the back of my pants split open when I was showing a patient how to do a lunge :)  I'm sure my form was good for the lunge, but my pants were just not going to cooperate...

Today for lunch I bought everyone a sandwich from Sub City which is just down the street here.  It's a pretty good place to eat, and they give you big portions for the price.

Tonight Eben & Lynn are coming down to visit us in Ames, and we'll all have to go out to celebrate my last day of work!

Monday, January 26th, 2015

Tonight I just got back from watching another exciting Iowa State basketball game at Hilton Coliseum.  This time the Cyclones were victorious over the Texas Longhorns, 89-86.  Iowa State jumped out to an early lead which grew to as many as 21 points with about 8 minutes left in the game before Texas mounted a big rally that fell just short in the end.  Ten second-half three pointers for the Longhorns helped to make the game close at the end...

It's starting to get hard to keep track, but tonight was the fifth time that I have seen Iowa State play in a match-up of top-25 ranked teams.  Going into the game today, Iowa State was ranked #15 while Texas was ranked #19.  For a list of the other four games, just scroll down and look at my previous post of the game vs Kansas.  By the way, I'm still happy to say that Iowa State is 5-0 in those games!  It's also interesting to note that the Iowa State men are now 5-0 in games that I have witnessed vs Texas (2014, 2013, 2012, and way back in 2004 were the others).  Looking back at those games, I see that I was wearing the same t-shirt for the game last year, and Texas was also ranked #19 last year as well...

Georges Niang led five Cyclones in double figures scoring.  He had 19 points and connected on three of four from long range.  Bryce Dejean-Jones (18), Jameel McKay (14), Monte Morris (13), and Dustin Hogue (11) also scored in double figures for Iowa State.

Go State!!

Sunday, January 18th, 2015

Ok, technically it is Sunday the 18th, but this post is all about my awesome day on Saturday the 17th!

I had to go out to the bars and celebrate for a little bit before I came home because my Cyclones just knocked off the #9 Kansas Jayhawks, 86-81. This was probably the loudest crowd I have heard at a game in Hilton Coliseum before, and it was really, really a lot of fun to be at.  I would still say that my favorite game that I have attended was last year's game vs. Michigan just because of the Johnny Orr tribute, but tonight was very special.  With this win, I have now witnessed in person Iowa State defeat every team in the Big 12 in basketball.

Overall, this really was a team win for Iowa State, and it is hard to pick a single player of the game.  Six Cyclones scored in double figures including: Naz Long (20), Georges Niang (15), Dustin Hogue (14), Bryce Dejean-Jones (12), Jameel McKay (11), and Monte Morris (11).  If I had to pick one, I would say that Monte Morris deserves to be the player of the game.  He was the only Cyclone to record a double-double tonight as he has 10 assists to go with his 11 points.  He also tied for a team-high 7 rebounds in an all-around solid game for him.  My favorite play of the game was an alley-oop from Morris to McKay where McKay dunked with both hands over a Kansas defender and was fouled on the play.

One aspect of today's game that made it very special was the fact that ESPN's college Gameday was here for the game.  Today marks the first time that the Gameday crew has been to Ames for a game. ESPN analysts Rece Davis, Seth Greenberg, Jay Bilas, and Jay Williams were all in attendance.

Tonight marks the 4th time that I have been in attendance for a top-25 showdown between two ranked teams.  I'm happy to say that Iowa State is 4-0 in those games.  The others were last season's victories vs Texas, vs Oklahoma, and vs Iowa.  Tonight Iowa State was ranked #11 in the AP poll.

The College Gameday crew on the court at Hilton Coliseum

Kansas won the opening tip-off...

...but the better team won the game!!

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

HAPPY 18 MONTHS TO NOLAN!!

It's hard to believe that he is already a year and a half old.  This evening we took him over to d&orfs photography for his 18-month photo shoot.  It's getting harder and harder to take his picture because he doesn't want to stand still at all.  All we could do is give him some props like ladders or stools which he was happy to crawl all over while she took his picture :)  Here are a few of the photos...