Photo of the Week: Ouch

 

Iowa State beats Iowa 10-7

On Saturday the Iowa State Cyclones football team defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes by a final score of 10-7. This was Iowa State's first win in the series since 2014 and the first for current head coach Matt Campbell, who has now beaten all ten of Iowa State's regular opponents at least once. Iowa State has dominated the past couple of meetings but lost on turnovers and special teams. While that held true this year it was the Hawkeyes who ended up making one mistake too many.

It was a long time coming.

2022-2023 Iowa State women's basketball non-conference schedule

Nov 2 (Wednesday) vs Winona State [Exh.]

Nov 7 (Monday) vs Cleveland State

Nov 10 (Thursday) vs Southern

Nov 16 (Wednesday) @ Northern Iowa

Nov 20 (Sunday) vs Columbia

Phil Knight Invitational*

*Nov 24 (Thursday) vs Michigan State

*Nov 27 (Sunday) vs Oregon/North Carolina

Nov 29 (Tuesday) vs SIUE

Dec 7 (Wednesday) @ Iowa

Dec 11 (Sunday) vs Jacksonville

Hall of Fame Women's Showcase*

*Dec 18 (Sunday) vs Villanova

Dec 22 (Thursday) vs Drake

Source

Photo(s) of the Week: Sweet 16

On Sunday the Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I women's tournament for the first time since the 2009-2010 season. It was a surprisingly easy victory over the Georgia Lady Bulldogs that followed a surprisingly difficult victory over the UT-Arlington Mavericks on Friday. It also gave them a school record 28th win on the year. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the game.

Morgan Kane. Source

Ashley Joens. Source

And easily my favorite photo from the night:

Ashley Joens & Emily Ryan. Source

A much happier final game at Hilton than the senior night debacle vs Baylor.

Judo throws are legal in women's college basketball...

 ...as long as you play for the University of Texas Longhorns. They're known for two things: deep pockets and dirty play. Here we see Aliyah Matharu from Texas judo throw Lexi Donarski of Iowa State to the ground (as well as throwing an arm in Donarski's face which should have be ruled contact above the shoulder which I know is a rule since Iowa State got reviewed for it later in this same game) during a Big 12 conference tournament semifinal today. Matharu should have been tossed for that but it was not called an unsportsmanlike foul nor was it even reviewed. Fortunately Donarski was not injured from it.

Not so lucky was Kari Niblack of West Virginia. Back on February 20th West Virginia played Texas. During the game Lauren Ebo of Texas literally headbutted Niblack, knocking her out with a concussion. A video of the assault can be viewed in this article. Just like Matharu, Ebo was not tossed for her dirty play.

This is becoming a problem where Texas is allowed to maliciously and deliberately injure or attempt to injure opposing players and something needs to be done about it before someone is seriously or permanently hurt.

100 blog posts

This is my 100th blog post and I've been debating what it should be about for the past week. Well, I've figured that it should be about the thing I've cared about for most of my life.

It's been a record breaking season for the Iowa State women's basketball program. They've won 7 Big 12 Conference road games, swept 7 out of 9 Big 12 opponents, won 14 conference games and 25 regular season games overall, which are all school records.

Individually it has also been a record breaker. Senior Ashley Joens now owns the school career scoring record and is staring down the career record for scoring average among other records. (Fun fact: I have the same birthday and last name as she does but I assure you that she is significantly better at basketball than I am.) Sophomore Emily Ryan continues reaching for every assist record at Iowa State while fellow sophomore Lexi Donarski seems to be the heir apparent to Ashley. Statistically Morgan Kane won't blow you away but together with Portuguese transfer Beatriz Jordão they have combined to make a serviceable duo in the post.

They wrapped up the regular season this past Saturday with a win over West Virginia University and now look forward to the Big 12 tournament this coming weekend. Hopefully they'll win a couple of games there and in the NCAA tourney the weekend after.

I hate the Baylor Bears

A trash university for trash people that should be legally required to change it's name to Rape Scandal University.

God is great

    I've had a pretty good week. First, on Wednesday, the Iowa State women's basketball team took on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. The game was fast, the crowd was loud, and the Cyclones won by a score of 77-70, ending a 5-game losing streak in the series.

    Next, on Thursday, it was the Iowa State men's basketball team's turn at Iowa. And they blew the doors off the Hawkeyes, winning 73-53 and breaking a 3-game skid to Iowa. Apparently this was the largest margin of victory over the Hawks in series history. The Cyclones are now 9-0 after finishing last year 2-22, a remarkable turnaround.

    Lastly, and on a more personal note, my employer 'paused' it's vaccine mandate Friday. This comes after a federal judge issued a halt to Biden's federal contractor mandate on Tuesday, December 7th. I'll leave it at that.

    Keep faith in God and He will pull through for you.

The golden month of college sports season

    It is now early November and that means college football is nearing the end of it's regular season while college basketball season tipped off today. My Iowa State Cyclones currently sit at 6-3 with three games to play against Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and TCU. They could still make the Big 12 Conference championship game but that would require:

1. Winning all three of their remaining games
2. Baylor dropping another game and at least one of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State finishing 7-2 in conference.

    In Iowa State's most recent contest they defeated that snake in the grass known as the Texas Longhorns by a score of 30-7, marking the third straight victory over Texas and possibly the last as conference opponents. Soon Texas will be heading to the Southeastern Conference in pursuit of more money because if there is one thing the University of Texas athletic department lacks it's money.

    God willing, Kansas will beat Texas this Saturday and put them on the brink of missing a bowl game.

Horns Down!

    Today was the first day of college basketball season. While the Iowa State men's team will have to win me back from last season's 2-20 disaster the women's team has rather lofty expectations.

    They began their regular season today by hosting Omaha. in the first half they almost seemed afraid to attack the paint and the stats showed it; of their 30 field goal attempts in the first half, 20 were 3-pointers (and they only made four). Perhaps it was just pre-game jitters because they seemed to calm down coming out at halftime and became more aggressive in the lane, ultimately winning 65-38.

FYI, the men's team did beat Kennesaw State tonight 84-73, so they're at least off to a winning start.

2021-2022 Iowa State women's basketball non-conference schedule

Nov 4 (Thursday) vs Wisconsin-River Falls (EXH.)

Nov 9 (Tuesday) vs Omaha

Nov 15 (Monday) vs South Dakota State

Nov 18 (Thursday) @ Drake

Nov 21 (Sunday) vs Southern

Gulf Coast Showcase

Nov 26 (Friday) vs Charlotte

Nov 27 (Saturday) vs Penn State/St. John's

Nov 28 (Sunday) vs South Dakota State/UMass/UCLA/Kent State

Big 12/SEC Challenge

Dec 2 (Thursday) @ LSU

Dec 5 (Sunday) vs Longwood

Dec 8 (Wednesday) vs Iowa

Dec 12 (Sunday) vs UNI

Dec 19 (Sunday) vs Prairie View A&M

Source: 2021-2022 Women's Basketball Schedule

Updated book list and college sports #4

 Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History
• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport
• What If? and What If? 2 - A series of essays by historians on what might have been.
• Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• America Before by Graham Hancock

In progress:

• All the Gallant Men by Donald Stratton
• The Civil War: A Visual History

On the docket:

• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot (A book I bought between 8th and 9th grades in July 2003 but never actually read.)
• Dark History of Russia by Michael Kerrigan
• Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
• War and Peace (abridged) by Leo Tolstoy

The 2020-2021 basketball season is winding down. Iowa State finished the regular season with a 16-9 overall record and a 12-6 conference record. They start the Big 12 tournament next week in the 4/5 match-up. Not bad for a team that started three freshmen all but two games and had no post size or depth all year. Here's hoping they can win a few conference tourney games followed by a decent NCAA run.

Fiesta Bowl Champions

3rd ever 9-win season

1st ever New Years' Six bowl

Most conference wins in a season

1st place in the Big XII

We're all gonna make it.

Me in real life.

Updated book list and college sports #2

Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History
• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport

In progress:

• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Civil War: A Visual History

On the docket:

• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot (A book I bought between 8th and 9th grades in July 2003 but never actually read.)
• The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport (Once I obtain a copy.)
• What If? and What If? 2 - A series of essays by historians on what might have been.

As for sports, well, there are none. Over the course of a few hours on March 12th the entire sporting world shut down which means my beloved Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team never got to play in the Big 12 Tournament or the NCAA tournament. Fortunately the Twister Sisters got probably the best consolation prize of any team by beating the second-ranked and defending national champion Baylor Lady Bears on senior night, March 8th. A back and forth affair that ended when Ashley Joens was fouled with .1 second on the clock in a tied game. She hit the first free throw to bring Iowa State their first win over Baylor in 5 years.

Ashley Joens being fouled in the act of shooting

And, yes, it was a foul, ESPN. It was also unseasonably warm at 70 F so all around it was a great day.