Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

In fact, today is known as my "golden birthday", as I am turning 31 years old on the 31st of March.  So, I guess this is a special birthday for me??  I'm not sure because it still feels like all my other birthdays...

The highlight of my day today was having a nice birthday meal at Hickory Park with Elizabeth and Nolan.  It's somewhat of a challenge to keep Nolan entertained while we go out to eat, but overall he does a pretty good job about not making a huge fuss... Elizabeth does a good job watching him.

We ordered cheese balls as an appetizer, had a nice meal (I enjoyed a Saucy Southerner with mashed potatoes), and then they sang us the Hickory Park birthday song when they delivered the dessert.  I ordered the "Golden Pound Cake" in honor of my golden birthday.  I also wore a yellow shirt for the occasion...

Mama and Nolan at Hickory Park

Nolan uses the cheese balls as a way to scoop ranch into his mouth.  He never actually ate a cheese ball.

My Saucy Southerner sandwich and mashed potatoes.

Happy happy birthday, on this your special day, happy happy birthday, that's what we're here to say.  Oh, happy happy birthday, may all your dreams come true, happy happy birthday, from Hickory Park to you.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Nolan and daddy with Cy outside of Hickory Park.

Sunday, March 15th, 2015

SELECTION SUNDAY!!  One of my favorite days of the year.  After having typed that, I just noticed that I said the exact same thing last year...

Now for the big info that I have been waiting for:
PUBLIC ENEMY #1:  University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers


The UAB Blazers play in Conference USA, where they finished tied for fourth in the regular season but went on to win the conference tournament.  This will be the 14th time that the Blazers have participated in the Big Dance, and the first since 2011.

If Iowa State is able to advance past the Blazers, they would face the winner of sixth seeded SMU and 11th seed UCLA.

Of course I am still quite proud of the Cyclones for winning the Big 12 tournament this past weekend!  I can't even start to describe how stressful their past three games were to watch.  Iowa State trailed Kansas by 17 points in the championship game but came back to win.  They trailed Oklahoma by 11 points in the semifinal game... and were lucky that Ryan Spangler missed a wide open layup that would have sent the game to overtime.  In the quarterfinals, Monte Morris hit a game-winner at the buzzer to beat the Texas Longhorns.  Of course, the Cyclones were trailing by 16 points in that game (the Cyclones scored the last 12 points of the game to win).  It is amazing how this team has come from behind to win games this year.

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!!