Disclosure: below is an article I'd written during the summer of 2014. The entire article was never published, however I had always hoped it would one day. I'd spent more than 20+ combined hours interviewing former players, coaches and opponents during the 3 year Wayne Morgan Era at Iowa St
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Last month I was strolling through the campus of Iowa State University with my 3 year old daughter, when I stopped in front of Beardshear Hall. A cool breeze brushed across the air as the sun stood shining brightly in the clear blue sky making the building barely visible when memories of the past flashed through my mind.
Just over a decade ago I was walking this same path on the way to class when I stopped to a crowd of people standing in this very spot. A mob of over 300 other students in protest of the University’s decision to suspend head coach Larry Eustachy from his coaching duties had erupted.
A week prior, the Des Moines Register got wind and published photographs of Eustachy partying with University of Missouri students after a Cyclone loss in Columbia earlier in the year. The photo’s revealed damaging events such posing for photos with the coeds, holding a beer can and kissing girls. An interview with one of the co-ed’s at the time revealed that Eustachy was criticizing his own players during the party.
As I stood and watched the crowd gather, and local media outlets begin setting up Their camera’s to capture the event for the mid-morning news cast – I couldn’t help but be amazed at the support for a man who ran a basketball program that had underachieved the past two seasons. The crowd was calm but determined to make its point as it was just one of a handful of rallies held over the week long saga. “I support Larry” could be heard around campus from the mob of students, as well as the fight song being sung in support.
“Nobody knew what was going to happen after Larry resigned,” Morgan said in an interview this past summer. “There were a lot of people who were very anxious for a decision to be made and to move on, and a lot of the players were upset because of his dismissal, showing support in their coach. During the stretch of the unknown, assistant coach Bob Sundvold and I kept in contact with the players, making sure they were going to school, lifting weights and that their head was on straight when dealing with the public and media during this time.”
"I was told by Bruce [Van De Velde] that I was going to be able to stay with the University regardless of what happened with the new coach. It was a few days later when he asked me to interview for the position. I was in shock. He literally came to me one day and said he liked how I’d handled myself working with the team during that two weeks and asked if I’d be interested applying for the position. I did and went through this elaborate process. They drove me to Des Moines and met with the search committee within a hotel for a two-to-three hour interview.”
"A few days later I came home from work and Bruce called me over to his house to talk. I walked in, and we went down into the basement and sat down on his couch. He turned to me, reached out his hand and said, 'I’m going to offer you the job.”
The hiring set well within the locker room as the players actively expressed interest to have Morgan remain on the staff for continuity of the team. Those players who publicly threatened to transfer if Eustachy was not retained stood behind the hiring of Morgan to lead the program.
First order of business for Morgan was to retain the current recruiting class which included two prospects from the east coast.
“Will [Blalock] and Curtis [Stinson] had both already signed in the fall,” Morgan said. “I was the assistant who recruited them and brought them to Ames, so I kept calling them and telling them that we would come out of this stronger and in a better position and to keep their heads up. Like I said, Bruce had already told me that I would be retained as an assistant so they knew that I wasn’t going anywhere. And that was big in helping them both through that time.”
Will Blalock out of Boston (Notre Dame Prep) was tagged as the 18th best point guard in the country. http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=220027
“[After the news about Eustachy] I didn’t waiver from my commitment to Iowa State,” Blalock said. “I had a mentor who was helping me get through that situation at the time. I took a huge liking to Coach Morgan during the recruiting process and so long as he was going to stay on with the new coaching staff, I was OK with whatever direction the program was heading. The A.D. at the time called me and told me that he was going to do everything in his power to get a good coach and assured me that Wayne would remain on the staff. Once he said that and we knew [Morgan] was going to be in Ames, it was no brainer to stay committed.”
"Once I was able to get up there and visit I was sold on the idea of coming to Iowa State. It was a beautiful campus and town. Everyone that I spoke with during my visit sounded very genuine. I’d visited other schools and they were OK, but I didn’t feel the same as I’d felt after spending time in Ames."
Blalock and Stinson, a guard out of the Bronx, NY who prepped at Winchendon in Massachusetts was a top 50 point guard known for his blue collar attitude and upper body strength. http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=383047
“When it was OK for the coaches to contact the players, Coach Morgan was the first coach I saw,” Stinson said. “He came to a number of my games that season, and I felt comfortable committing to play for Iowa State based on that relationship. Coach Eustachy and Morgan drove 15-16 hours to come visit me. That dedication made me feel comfortable in making my decision and I committed that day.”
Stinson committed to Iowa State prior to passing his SAT. Once he’d gotten a qualifying score, the news of Eustachy’s firing opened the doors for other schools to try and steal him away. However it was his relationship to Coach Morgan and other incoming players to which he had built a bond, that kept him committed.
“I had a lot of schools calling me but Will, Reggie [George] and Damion [Staple] who made up the recruiting class that year – all felt a loyalty to Coach Morgan.”
It was that long relationship Blalock and Stinson shared that made it a smooth transition to Iowa State.
Together, Blalock and Stinson were well familiar with one another on and off the court. Over the years they’d built a friendly rivalry playing against one another in high school, AAU and then prep school.
“I’ve known Curtis since we were both sophomores in high school because we played against each other,” Blalock said. “We were kind of rivals for a number of years, with me playing with the BABC AAU team and him playing for the New York Ravens AAU team. Then when I went to Notre Dame Prep, he went to Winchendon Prep which was all of about fifteen minutes away.”
“We both knew we were going recruited to Iowa State. We also both knew that we played the same position at point guard, so we figured the first to commit would get the scholarship and they wouldn’t take two point guards. So we were competing for that as well. It wasn’t until Coach Morgan called us both and told us that we were going to be able to play together. And then our bond just grew. One we knew we could play with each other it was great. We’d been beating up on each other for years and now we can combine to beat up on everyone else. From there we built an immediate bond. “
“I’d known Will for a while before prep school, and when we played against one another on the court there was a lot of trash talking between us,” Stinson said. “It was never personable because we respected each other, but we both knew in order to beat the other team, we would have to get into their head. When Will and I both committed to Iowa State it was exciting because we both knew what we could do.”
Once the recruiting class had been solidified, it was time for Morgan to compile the rest of his coaching staff.
“The first guy I knew I had to hire was Bob Sundvold,” Morgan said. “He was an assistant with me under Larry the prior year. We got along very well and I knew the players really liked him as too. He also brought a great deal of experience including many years as an assistant for Norm Stewart at Missouri. He had been around for a while and could recruit not only high school kids but also junior college kids.
I’d known Fred [Quartlebaum] for many years. When I was at Syracuse in 1994-95 I’d applied for a job at the University of San Francisco. During that interview process I’d gotten to know the lady who was on that search committee and in charge of compliance for the university, and she was very good friends with ‘Q’. We started talking back then and built a strong relationship over the years. He was a great recruiter who brought in several top 10 players over the years. He was a member of the [Matt] Doherty’s staff at UNC that had gotten fired the same year I got the Iowa State job in 2003-04. I contacted him and we talked and felt very confident offering him the job.
Damon [Archibald] I’d known for many years as well. I met Damon on the west coast many years prior from when I was the head coach at Long Beach. He was at Pepperdine at the time and I interviewed him to be on my staff. I ended up hiring someone else, but was very impressed with him and we kept in touch and followed his progress as an assistant from afar. At the time I was assembling my staff, I didn’t know if he’d be interested because he was doing some really good things at USC. He’d brought in some really good players and they’d just had back to back 20 win seasons and two straight NCAA tournament appearances. Before I agreed to bring him in for an interview, I wanted to make sure he was interested because he’d always been a west coast guy and was an assistant under legendary coach [Jerry] Tarkanian’s staff along with others. He said he was interested, we brought him in and offered him the job.”
“Full disclosure, when I came out to Ames to speak about the position, I didn’t think I was going to take the position,” Archibald said. “Once I visited the campus, saw the involvement within the community; saw the arena and the commitment to basketball, things changed. My kids were at the age where I wanted them to grow up in a community like Ames so I took the position.”
“Wayne is very well respected on the east coast,” Quartlebaum said. “Our relationship started during his days at Syracuse so I’d known him a long time. When the opportunity presented itself to work with him at Iowa State I looked forward to that opportunity. I didn’t really know much about the Larry Eustachy thing the weeks prior, I just knew that I was going to work for Wayne Morgan the man and the coach.”
“Iowa State the program had tradition obviously going back to Coach Orr and his success. So I knew I was heading into a special place where they would have talent where the community cared about basketball. “
The 2003-04 season
The 2003-04 Cyclones returned some veteran talent in seniors Jake Sullivan, a sharp shooting guard from the outside, speedy point guard Tim Barnes, as well as senior Jackson Vroman and Junior College transfer Damien Staple on the inside. This experience, combined with the youthful backcourt of Blalock and Stinson helped mold Iowa State into a different animal. A lot of work during the off-season was put in to adjust for a drastic change in the style of play. Instead of the half-court game Eustachy was preaching, Morgan and his staff wanted to play pressure defense and push the ball offensively to utilize the athleticism of his team.
“The team bought into the new style fairly quickly,” Morgan said. “I think it helped that I’d been there the year before and they knew me. I also knew that the fast paced style of offense was the style Will and Curtis wanted to play. I remember [Jared] Homan saying after I was hired that he would have to do a ton of running over the summer because he knew he’d be doing a ton of running during the season. Jackson [Vroman] was one of the hardest working guys I’d ever seen in terms of how he played and with is conditioning. Jake [Sullivan] was a great kid who tried to do anything anybody ever asked of him and he always did it as hard as he could. And if I could get Jake, Vroman and Homan to buy-in being the leaders of the team, I knew everyone else would fall in line.”
“The trapping defense we played and bothered a lot of teams. In fact I got the sense that a number of teams just gave up and completely surrendered. The kids understood how the pressure created turnovers and those turnovers lead to fast break points. That style of defense we played certainly help us with a lot of game. “
“Kids want to get up and down the floor, press and get easy buckets,” Archibald said. “I think people saw our record at home, we just ran people into the ground. I feel like our teams at Iowa State were as well conditioned as anyone in the country and we perfected it as the season went on. “
Just before the start of the 2003-04 fall semester, the team suffered a setback as returning starting point guard Tim Barnes (who started all but 1 game the prior year and was the team’s third leading scorer) was declared academically ineligible.
“Tim was in summer school and had to pass some courses and it came to the last session - he didn’t pass the class,” Morgan said. “That would have been perfect because we would have had him run the point and Will learn under him for a year. As it happened, Tim wasn’t able to stay with the team and thrust Will into having to be our starter from the beginning.”
“That was a shock as initially I thought that I was going to come in and learn behind Tim for a year,” said Blalock. “And when he didn’t make it back that year, I don’t want to say it was overwhelming, but it was a huge learning curve. I wasn’t used to running that offense, and talking on the court. It was good because Tim stayed for a while and ran practice with us so I could learn in the beginning, but ideally I wish I could have had more time to adjust and learn the first year. The playing time was great, and I was able to learn from my mistakes quickly which helped long term.”
Despite the setback, the team started the season 10-3 (2-1 in the Big 12) before a January 21 showdown against heated inner state rival Iowa.
“Being from the Bronx I didn’t know how much passion there was for the state of Iowa and that game,” Stinson said. “I can remember walking to class leading into that game and kids coming up to me telling me to beat the Hawks.”
The Hawkeye's (9-6) had lost the prior two games before heading to Ames, but that didn’t stop them from taking a 68-63 lead late into the game.
“The atmosphere was so hectic, and I wasn’t used to playing in front of that,” Stinson said. “I can remember running around and not know what was going on."
It wasn’t until seldom used walk-on sophomore John Neal, who had been averaging 1.4 points per contest, came off the bench with five minutes remaining.
With the Cyclones down five points and under five minutes remaining, Morgan inserted the walk-on reserve into the game. Almost immediately, Neal hit a three-pointer from the corner. Minutes later he hit another three to give the Cyclones a six-point lead in mist of a 17-2 run down the stretch to secure the 84-76 victory.
After the game in his post-game interview with the media, Coach Morgan commented that “John Neal will never have to buy a beer in the state of Iowa again.”
The 2003-04 season was full of exciting memories as just 10 days later the Cyclones defeated the 15th ranked Kansas Jayhawk's at home 68-61 behind Stinson scoring 16 of his 19 points in the second half and grabbing 11 rebounds, including a floating jumper with 32 second remaining to secure the victory. Afterwards junior forward Jared Homan flung the ball toward the ceiling in celebration.
However, it was a Valentine’s Day battle against eleventh ranked Texas that has everybody still talking about a decade later. The Cyclones had lost three in a row to the Longhorns by an average margin of 13 points. It was the only team that the seniors had never beaten throughout Their career.
“That atmosphere was crazy! Leading up to that game Iowa State hadn’t had much success against Texas,” Stinson said. “I can remember how Jake [Sullivan] was talking about wanting to beat Texas all the way from the beginning of the season right up until the day of the game.”
“That win against Texas was a great win and one I will never forget,” Morgan said. “Jake made a shot very late in the game to give us the lead where he had to lean back almost to a 45 degree angle, and when it went in the fans just went crazy.”
Despite coming back from a 14 point deficit, the Longhorns held a 77-76 advantage with 1:47 remaining. I was then that Stinson slipped through the lane and found Staple underneath for a two hand slam to give the Cyclones a 1 point lead later in the game.
“Texas had a chance to hold the ball for the last shot,” Stinson said. “[Texas forward Brian] Boddicker got the ball I had to foul him. He was going to the rim and about to get a layup with only a few seconds left. I felt horrible for Jake but I had to foul him to make him earn it on the line rather than win in a last second lay-up.”
Boddicker, who was a 81-percent free throw shooter leading into the game, stepped to the line down one with just over 5 second remaining.
“It was crazy during those last few seconds when he was at the line shooting those foul shots,” Blalock said. “It was so loud I couldn’t hear the person next to me talk. It was one of those moments you dream of being a part of. The coliseum was so loud it was shaking. It’s crazy because even though it was ten years ago, it feels like it was just a couple hours ago. I remember that feeling so vividly. At the time he was at the line, I wasn’t even in the game; I was on the bench joining the 15,000 other fans jumping up and down. I can remember watching him step to the line to shoot the first free throw and the floor was shaking! Here was a pressure situation anyway, but with you try and shoot free throws and the floor is moving – it was almost impossible. That was by far the loudest environment I’d ever been a part of, even to this day.”
Boddicker misses both free throws, the ball it batted around between players from both teams and time expired before Texas could get another shot off leading to a Cyclone victory 78-77.
“I give a lot of credit to the previous staff because we had some good players that first year,” Archibald said. “Our players did a great job of buying into what we were teaching them. Our group of coaches and players were a very close knit group and the closest I’d ever been a part of. Players would come over to my house unannounced and check in with me like I was their big brother.”
Iowa State couldn’t capitalize on the momentum, and finished the season losing 5 of the next 8 games. Included in that stretch was a heartbreaking 89-90 overtime loss to 21st ranked Kansas in Lawrence. A loss that is still spoken about in many Cyclone circles to this day as urban legend.
With Kansas holding a 10 point lead late in the first half, Homan was fouled and went to the line to shoot two. As the first shot bounced off the rim, Kansas rebounded the ball, outlet to freshmen J.R. Giddens who shot (and made) a three. In a bizarre officiating decision, the officials allowed the points to stand, and then walked everyone back to the foul line so that Homan could take his second shot.
“I was Their when the ref was trying to explain it to Coach Morgan,” Blalock said. “He told him that the official who was underneath the hoop put 1 finger in the air as to show it as a one and one situation. Even though, we and everyone in the arena knew it was a 2 shot foul. Well when Homan missed the first free throw, [Wayne] Simien grabbed the rebound and passed it down the court to Giddens who hit the three. Then they stopped the game and we are arguing trying to explain it was a 2 shot foul. They admitted it was Their mistake and allowed Jared to shoot the other free throw, but kept the three on the score board. It was loud in Their so I was trying to understand but to this day I still can’t figure out how that can happen.”
“Right after that play happened, I thought to myself that we are now in the big leagues of college basketball,” Stinson said. “When you are a powerhouse school in a powerhouse conference, you get breaks. And there are certainly some politics being played. We beat them earlier in the year and they knew they needed help to beat us. That single play fueled a fire in us that made the rivalry with Kansas right up there with playing Iowa each year. It was that heated and emotional. To this day, every time Iowa State plays Kansas, I get excited.”
“It was one of the most freakish things I’d ever seen happened,” Morgan said. “They counted it! We called the referees over and explain that it was a two shot foul and that the shot shouldn’t have counted. I told them that we need to go back and shoot our other foul shot. They said, sure let’s do that. And then I said, OK and take away that three point bucket just made. They turned and told me they couldn’t do that. They gave a very long reasoning as to why they could allow the shot to remain claiming it was in the rules. Frustrated, we are allowed to go back and shoot our 2nd free throw and game resumes like it never happened.”
“That officiating crew [Tom O’Neill, Danny Hooker, Paul Janssen] got suspended by the league was not allowed to coach any future league games the rest of the season and they might have even been suspended by the NCAA for the rest of the year.”
“In my mind we actually beat Kansas twice that year. When we played down there we lost by 1 in overtime. But late in regulation Their guard [Keith] Landford made a shot at the buzzer to send it into overtime. They needed a three, but the replay showed that it was only a 2 and we should have won the game.”
On senior night against Colorado, a packed crowed watched as Stinson suffered a severe sprain to his hand which altered his shot caused him to miss a large portion of the game. Something that didn’t set well with the freshmen.
“Will, I and Richard Roby from Colorado collided going after the loose ball, Stinson said. Will went to cut Roby off from the ball but it ended up we were going the same direction and my finger caught the side of his face and snapped back.”
“I felt really bad at the time,” Blalock said. “Our only loss at home that year was against Oklahoma State and Tony Allen was one of their best defenders and best defenders in the league. Before the tip he was talking to Curtis about how he was going to see how strong that hand really was and he went after it quite a bit.”
The team finished the season 17-1 at home, and with a 17-12 record, they were invited to play in the National Invitational Tournament.
“That 17-1 record we had at home that year was certainly due to the fans as much as the players,” Morgan said. “They would just yell so loud that the other team couldn’t perform. And if our team was down they yelled so loud we wanted to win for them. They willed us to more than a few victories.
After the Cyclones lost in the second round of the Big 12 tournament to the 7th ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys the team traveled back home awaiting Their fate.
“When we returned Coach Morgan called me into his office,” Stinson said. “When I’d got Their he told me that I was named the Big 12 Freshmen of the year. We celebrated and he told me that he was proud of me which was great because at that point he was like a father figure. And when your father tells you that they are proud of you, it means a lot.”
“I cannot say enough about my teammates that season. We had some very good seniors, and for them to let this freshmen kid come in and steal some of their thunder, it was a special feeling.”
Selection Sunday came and went and the Cyclones were sure the season was over. Until a call came from the NIT inviting the Cyclones to compete in the annual post season tournament, and allowed them to host the first found game against Georgia.
“We had some great wins during that NIT run that season,” Morgan said. “We had a tough first round game against Georgia. Curtis had a broken hand and Their players were going after his hand real hard trying to slap at it. I didn’t start Curtis the second half because he didn’t score at all in the first half, and I didn’t think he could play effectively with them attacking his hand. He didn’t like that and so I put him in and he went something like 9-9 in the second half and we won.”
“Afterward we had to travel to Florida State and defeated a tough team led by Leonard Hamilton on their campus. We then returned home to beat Tom Crean at Marquette who had [Travis] Diener who was shooting lights out that season. “
Behind Sullivan’s 22 points and Stinsons 20, the Cyclones secured a 77-69 victory over Marquette to earn Their first trip to the NIT Final Four in New York- a homecoming for Coach Morgan and his two young freshmen.
“Leading up to that game I was nervous because I knew if we won we would get to go back to New York and play in the Garden, and in front of my family,” Stinson said. “After we won the game, Coach Morgan handed me the apple and told me that we were going home!”
“It was big time!” Blalock said. “I had a lot of family and good friends who came over from Boston. It was like a dream because the Garden is the biggest stage, it’s like Mecca. It was a prime-time game and sold out. We had the world watching. I had a lot of nerves leading up to that game.”
Stinson didn’t disappoint his home town fans and family, scoring 32 points (27 in the second half). However he gathered his fifth foul late in the game and Vroman left the game late with cramp in his leg. Rutgers took advantage and secured the 84-81 victory in overtime.
“I had all my family and friends there, Stinson said. “Rutgers being the home team had a lot of fans there. I still have that game on film. I gave it my all, but we fell a little short.”
“Making it to the NIT semi-finals in New York was great, and we were proud to be there,” Morgan said. “I just wish we would have played a little harder and won so that we could have had the opportunity to face Michigan in the finals because I thought we matched up well with them.”
Following his inaugural season, Stinson finished the year with 534 points which was/is a school record for points by a freshman.
Building a dynasty
By this time, both Blalock and Stinson had built a strong bond. Both headed home back to the east coast for the summer, but that didn’t stop them from keeping in contact.
“I knew I was going to go home during the summer and play at Rucker Park,” Stinson said. “I was approached by someone looking for players and I reached out to Will. Will was in Boston which was 3-4 hours away and would often times come to New York to see some guys. I hit him up and asked him if he wanted to play, and he said sure and ended up playing too.”
“After we finished our first session of summer school we were able to go home and I made it over there to play with Curtis at Rucker,” Blalock said. “That was a great experience, and I learned a lot that summer.”
Meanwhile, Coach Morgan and his staff had been busy recruiting more east coast prospects to Ames.
“One of the things I’m very proud about is that we signed the no. 2 recruiting class in the country our second year, according to one publication,” Archibald said. “Now not all those kids made it to campus, but Iowa State was kind of sexy at the time so it wasn’t a hard sell at all to get those kids from the east coast to Ames. We had the program rolling with national exposure, great recruiting ties between the assistant coaches. When we took over at Iowa State I remember having a meeting with some key boosters and them telling me that they understood the program may only win a handful of games this upcoming year and it will take a few years to rebuild. They wanted us to know that they supported us, and that first year we won 20 games and made it to the NIT Semifinals in New York.”
“We had both Rahshon [Clark] and Tasheed [Carr] already committed and signed in the fall,” Morgan said. “And we were excited about the future and the coming year.”
Both Carr and Clark were the jewels of the recruiting class. Carr, a high touted point guard from Philadelphia was the 22nd ranked PG in 2004. (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=950325) He came from the heralded Mt. Zion Christian Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Clark was a high flying small forward out of New York who was ranked as 18th best SF in the country that year (http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=775641).
“I had built a strong relationship with the coaches and the coaching staff Their at the time,” Carr said. “They had some great coaches from the northeast that I could relate to, and players already on the team such as Curtis and Will who were also from the northeast and had had success. Those guys made me feel welcome from day one on my visit and I wanted to be a part of the success they had the prior year. We talked about taking the world by storm and I wanted to be a part of that.”
“Coach Q [Quartlebaum] and Morgan had been watching me since high school, and before I even went to prep school,” Clark said. “Those two were the main reasons why I choose Iowa State. My pops had passed away and I was looking for that strong figure to take care of me and Coach Morgan certainly did that. I was impressed that they continued to call and check up on me. Not only about basketball, but talk about school, my family and everything going on in my life. “
However, once again before the season started, the team would have to deal with another loss on the roster. This time in Assistant Coach Quartlebaum, who had accepted a similar position at Saint John’s.
Despite the off-season battles, the team pushed on, and sophomore guard Curtis Stinson was voted as co-Captain of the team with senior Jared Homan.
“It was a great honor to be chosen,” Stinson said. “I’d learned a lot from the seniors the year before, but that season they took care of a lot of stuff for me and the other guys. Now I’m looked to as a leader and that was new for me. Thank God Jared Homan was also on that team or we would have been in trouble (laughs). “
“When I first got to Ames the summer before my freshmen year, it was crazy and I had a blast!” said Clark. “The first thing I noticed was that the workouts were much harder than I anticipated.”
The 2004-05 season
The 2004-05 Cyclones began the season going 8-2, but the highlight of the early part of the season was a 87-79 victory over a top 20 Virginia team in early December. The game was played in Ames in front of a sellout crowd and broadcast on national television ESPN prime-time.
“There was a lot of hype for that game,” Blalock recalls. “ESPN had hyped up the fact that Curt and myself were playing against Gary Forbes and freshmen Sean Singletary who was a 4 star kid who turned down the likes of Kansas and whatnot. With them being from the ACC and us the Big 12 it was a big match-up. They’d beat us the year before, but this time we knew they had to come to Hilton and would have 15,000 fans screaming. So we tried to make it as exciting as we could to get the fans into the game. We knew if the fans became part of the game, we couldn’t lose.”
Behind Stinson’s 30 points, including the go-ahead three pointer with just over 18 seconds remaining, the Cyclones won the game. However, the game was perfect for prime time with spectacular dunks and passes. None more than when the Stinson got a loose ball, outlet to Blalock into a transition fast break, resulting in a behind the back bounce pass to Clark for a monster dunk (found at the 6:42 mark here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZcDcBRP-b0).
“After that game I’d gotten a lot of phone calls and messages from friends back home,” Clark said. “It was an experience I’d always dreamt I’d been a part of one day. Prime time TV against a ranked ACC opponent, and the crowd was electric. When Will dished me the ball and slammed it home, it was electric. And then I got home and found out it was the Sports Center top play of the day, it was a dream come true.”
Once again, the magic didn’t stay, as the team rattled off six straight losses to begin 2005, and it didn’t look any easier with 13th ranked Oklahoma coming to town.
“There was a particular situation where we had just loss at Kansas State which was our sixth straight loss at the time and we were 0-5 in the conference,” Clark said. “We didn’t get home until close to 10-11 o’clock at night. Coach Morgan called us all in at 1 o’clock in the morning to do conditioning.”
“After the loss, we came home and had a team meeting,” Stinson said. “At the meeting we got everything out into the open. What was bothering each player and how they felt and went home. Later that night coach Morgan called us back into the gym at 1 in the morning and we ran sprints and did defensive drills for 1 if not 2 hours. He knew we were better than what we were playing. And so after the two hours he sent us home. No basketballs, anything. It must have worked because we went on quite the winning streak afterwards.”
“Wayne had a great analogy during the second half of that season when we went on that run,” Archibald said. “He said we were playing like a dump truck but built like a Ferrari. In that we were playing too much big, physical basketball but it wasn’t until we started pressing and trapping, creating more turnovers to let the speed of our team takeover, that flipped our season. Before that stretch, there was a lot of noise about people writing our team off and that we were done for the year. Our kids heard this and started playing with a chip on their shoulder later in the year.”
“The way we were built, we were built to run and gun,” recalled Clark. “We weren’t built to win games playing mainly half court sets. We needed to run. And it worked because after that, we rattled off 7 straight wins and won 10 of the next 12 games. “
Included in that stretch, was a rematch against top 20 Texas in Austin. This game would prove to be a coming out party for one of the Cyclone freshmen.
“Tasheed went crazy!” Stinson said. “That’s what I recall. Every game somebody has to step up and that night it was Tasheed’s night. When that game went into overtime, we felt like we were going to win the game. Coach had always told us that if teams allowed us to stick around, they were in trouble. We were down and made a good come back and when it went to overtime, we knew we were going to win that game. Tasheed couldn’t miss, things went the right way and we got the W.”
The Longhorns held a two point lead late in the game when Blalock hit a shot in the lane with under a half minute to play to tie the game at 68 and force overtime. That’s when Carr took over. He opened the extra period nailing a 3-pointer from the left corner, and then followed it with another from the right side. He ended up with 22 points, and 13 of those in the overtime period. The win was Iowa States first every victory in Austin and one that that would eventually help solidify Carr to the Big 12 all-bench team at the end of the season.
“I remember everything about that game,” Carr said. “It was a lot of fun, a big stage and we played well. My contribution was needed and I stepped up. That team my freshmen year was special because we felt like we could beat anybody. When we came out of our huddle before the start of overtime we were all pumped and ready to take the victory. After the game I did a little dance and might have stepped on the Longhorn logo at center court. I didn’t mean anything by it and afterwards I made a personal call to Texas coach Rick Barnes to apologize.”
“The win at Texas was great because it was our first road win of the year, and it snapped a 28 conference road losing streak,” Morgan said. “Tasheed scored 13 points in overtime to help us win that game and afterwards [Texas coach] Rick Barnes came up and said ‘whose that kid?’ and to never let him go. But it was a fun game. Our strategy was to run as much as we could and press [Daniel] Gibson for the full forty minutes and by the end of the game he was really tired which I think helped us. That team was really good as they had future pros P.J. Tucker and LaMarcus Aldridge playing well for them.”
A few weeks later, the Cyclones had revenge on their mind after as they traveled to Lawrence to face the 2nd ranked Kansas Jayhawk's in mid-February.
“One of the Assistant Athletic Directors from Kansas, who was a friend of mine, came into our locker room before the game and congratulated me on our run,” Morgan said, but left the room saying it was too bad it had to end today. That’s the type of attitude they had.”
The Cyclones were able to force overtime, and late in the overtime period [Keith] Langford missed two free throws allowing Iowa State to hold the ball for most of the game clock.
“There was no play drawn up for me to take the last shot,” Stinson said. “I had been feeling it throughout the game and had 20 something points. Jared was our team leader and he was on the bench fouled out. So that left either Will or I to take the shot, and I always looked at it that if the game came down to the last shot, I wanted the ball in my hands. Kansas made a shot on the other end of the court. We didn’t call a timeout so I in-bounded the ball to Will and he brought it up the court. Will was a better ball-handler so I let him dribble the clock down, and when it got close I went and got the ball. At that point they were guarding me 1 on 1 and I knew they couldn’t stop me as they hadn’t been able to all game. So I took the ball to the paint and shot a mid-ranged jumper at the free throw line and it went in.”
Stinson (who didn’t start due to his sore wrist) shot secured the 63-61 victory, snapping a 32 game home conference winning streak. He ended with a game high 29 points.
“Their fans are crazy!” Blalock said. “They are loud, screaming and will throw stuff. My Mom had actually made it over for that game and sat next to a Kansas fan that was carrying an umbrella because it was raining out. Every time that I scored, or had an assist or anything she would cheer and that fan would take that umbrella and hit it against the rail post. By the end of the game that umbrella was broken and tattered and he gave it to my Mom and walked away. “
“That celebration was amazing!” Stinson said. “There were a lot of Iowa State fans who had made the trip down to watch us play that game. I remember the guys gave Coach Morgan the Gatorade bath as soon as he walked into the locker room. It was a special moment that I will always remember.”
“Wayne took over for a situation that was not the easiest situation to step into but they had good players," Kansas Head Coach Bill Self-described in an exclusive interview. "Wayne did a really good job of recruiting to go along with some of their holdovers. To this day, the teams that Wayne Morgan had at Iowa State were some of the hardest that we’ve had to guard since I’ve been at Kansas. I thought Wayne Morgan’s teams were ultra-competitive and obviously he recruited very well.”
After once again losing in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, the team this year had no doubt which tournament they would be participating in. With five Top 20 wins and 18 wins on the season, the Cyclones were going dancing for the first time since 2001.
The NCAA Tournament
“We knew our resume was good enough to get in,” Blalock said, “but you never know. Teams always seem to get left out each year, so we were a little nervous. Once they announced our name everybody was going crazy!”
“We were all gathered at Coach Archibald’s house,” Morgan recalled. “The kids were excited when our name was announced. By the time the pairings came out we had a good idea we were in, it was just a matter of who we were going to play. When we learned we were playing Minnesota in the first round [we were happy] because they were right up the road and we’d reached out to them earlier about scheduling a home/home series and they didn’t want to. So it was good to play them.”
“We knew the teams in the Midwest had known about us, Stinson said, “but now it was time to show the nation what we were doing and that Iowa State was for real.”
The Cyclones drew the 9 seed in the East [Syracuse] Region, and were selected to play the 8th seed in Minnesota in Charlotte, NC. On the year, the Cyclone's suffering trapping and zone defense had forced over 500 opponent turnovers for the second straight year, and against Minnesota forced 17 more in route to a 64-53 victory.
“Once we had defeated Minnesota there was a lot of hype leading into that Carolina game,” Blalock said. “Even though they had a loaded roster, we still felt like we could win that game. When we walked into the arena, Coach Morgan had 'Shock the World' written across the board.”
“We were excited to play those guys,” Stinson recalled. “That is a power school with great tradition and we wanted to test ourselves. We lost, but I think we held our own for only playing 6 guys all season and they had 6 guys drafted.”
A bill against number 1 seed North Carolina, in Charlotte was too strong. The Cyclone's, relied on Their zone defense to defeat Minnesota, were no match for the more athletic Tar Heels, whom often penetrating past the zone to find open teammates down the court for easy buckets. Senior forward Jared Homan ended his career with 19 points and 20 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as the Cyclone's fell 92-65.
Momentum at its highest
The expectations for the 2005-06 Cyclones were a little different as they were about to enter the third year of the Morgan era and the bar had been exceeded both prior years. The squad returned proven starters in Blalock and Stinson in the backcourt, and combine that with quality depth build from two second years players who logged a lot of minutes in Carr and Clark, as well as another solid recruiting class - Iowa State found themselves ranked in the pre-season Top 25.
That recruiting class was heralded by four star and Top 50 power forward Shawn Taggart (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=1015768) who by all accounts was a recruiting coup for Coach Morgan and his staff who were able to steal him away from Memphis and coach John Calipari.
“I am really good friends with his AAU coach Tony Squires in Richmond,” Morgan recalled. “Tony knew that Shawn needed someone who was going to provide him with special attention. He knew that Shawn wasn’t going to be able to go someplace and watch his first year. He needed to go someplace where he could play right away or else Shawn would get frustrated and want to leave. It came down to us and Coach [John] Calipari who was at Memphis. Memphis at the time was loaded and so Tony felt like it was best that he came to Iowa State where he could play right away. We got Shawn up for a visit and he loved it. We were ecstatic when we were able to sign him.”
Aside from Taggart, the staff secured a commitment from a 7-footer center in Kellen Lee (http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=1522503) a local product from Ames, Ross Marsden who turned down Wisconsin and others (http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=2268099) and a little known, but lightening quick point guard from Boston, Farnold Degand, (http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/a.z?s=178&p=8&c=1&nid=3414041) who was only 17 at the time of his signing.
“I was still very young,” Degand said. “At that particular time I didn’t think going to a prep school was a good option. Going to Iowa State, and getting out of Boston was a better option. I felt like I was ready for the opportunity to go to college and if I can start school now and redshirt to get bigger and stronger, why go to a prep school to do the same thing? I already had a major D1 offer and I was ready to move to the next chapter in my life.”
“One of the first things I noticed was that the players he already had brought on board and were on campus were telling me how great a guy Coach Morgan was as a person. The fact that Wayne was an east coast guy, and he already had east coast guys on campus made me feel comfortable that I could have the same success. All throughout my first year Coach Morgan was just so caring and made the team like a family atmosphere. To be honest, I really enjoyed myself up Their. If it wasn’t for the extreme cold, I had a great time. They really pushed me to get better as a player.”
“It was great to know that they had already brought guys from the east coast to the school and they’d had success. I felt really comfortable around those guys. They already had Will who I grew up watching when he was in Boston. And then we had Curtis, Tasheed, Rahshon, so even though I was in Iowa, it felt like I was still back home. Coming from the east coast, we had a lot of players on our team like me who felt like it was us against the world.”
However, coming in as a 150-pound 17 year old, Degand’s body wasn’t ready for the rigors of Big 12 basketball so the decision was made to redshirt, setting the scene to take over for Blalock in the coming years.
“Practice was not fun at all for me,” Degand said. “At the time though I was 17 and Their were days I questioned whether or not I could compete at this level. I wasn’t thinking at the time that I was some 17 year old kid competing against future pro athletes. I came in thinking I was going to hold my own. It took a while but by January of that year I felt like I had improved a lot. And to be honest, the things that I learned from watching and guarding Will and Curtis every day in practice, I used at N.C. State. It helped me the rest of my career because I found myself being in those situations and I’d seen how Will or Curtis had handled it. And so at the time I felt like it was the worst time, but overall it made me a much strong player.”
It wouldn’t take long to learn that replacing the production left behind by senior Jared Homan, a 6-foot 10 inch 250 pound proven center who left Ames as the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots who averaged 13.6 points 8.7 rebounds the year - proved more difficult than anyone could imagine. Seven-footer Lee never made it to campus (grades – eventually enrolled at Los Angeles City College before attempting to turn pro after his sophomore season) and Taggart became ill with mono.
To make matters worse, sophomore guard Tasheed Carr injured his shoulder/upper back playing in a pick-up game in Des Moines over the summer.
“It was serious,” Carr said. “The doctors at the time told me that there was a possibility that I could never play basketball again. Through the grace of God I was able to come back. The trainers at Iowa State did a great job during my recovery and were able to come back close to 100% before the season. “
As the 2005-06 season approached, the team found itself in the AP Top 25 for the first time since the end of the 2000-01 season.
The 2005-06 season
Momentum was at an all-time high. Suddenly a coaching staff who had no expectations heading into their first season three years ago; coming off a successful run in the NIT in year one, a second round of the NCAA tournament in year two, and turning in a top 25 recruiting classes – the next step was Sweet 16 or bust.
However, the Cyclones suffered a strong dose of reality with an early season 17 point home loss to Iona during the Cyclone Challenge in late November.
“We struggled inside that year,” Morgan said. “If you think about it, we’d just lost Homan. We were expecting a lot out of Shawn to pick up some of that slack, but he got sick and lost a lot of weight and wasn’t the same all year. Ross [Marsden] was a freshmen and we were hoping to bring him along slowly, not throw him at the wolves in the beginning. Rahshon [Clark] was only a sophomore so our front court was very young. We had a lot of trouble that year rebounding because of it. I mean we had Shawn who was 6-10’ 190 pounds due to the illness going against other teams big man who was 6-9’ 250 pounds. It was a problem.”
“Shawn fell deathly ill just before the season started,” Archibald recalled. “He missed a lot of the pre-season conditioning and loss close to 20-25 pounds. We were never able to build that bulk and was never the same the whole season.”
“If you can’t rebound, you can’t win games, it’s that simple,” Clark said. “We went from having a bang-it-out type player like Homan to a finesse type player like Taggart. And when we faced those bigger line-ups, we didn’t have the muscle to get those rebounds.”
“I tell Curt to this day,” Blalock said, “we were so spoiled our first two years. We had such great big’s who would play hard and as soon as we threw it down to the block, we knew they were going to demand a double team, leaving the rest of us open for easy baskets. Or if the other team missed the shot, we knew either Vroman or Homan would get the rebound.”
“Guys were skilled our junior year, but they were so young on the front line that we would get out rebounded each night. And then other teams would have the luxury to throw it down low and we had to double them which left open shots for their other shooters. We were so spoiled our first two years that we didn’t know how to coup with not having a big guy down low. We brought Shawn in with high hopes that he could fill that role that year. We knew coming in he was only 215 and kind of frail, but we figured that with [Andy] Moser and our great Strength & Conditioning Coaches could put some muscle on him before the season. And then we could beat on him a little in practice to get him ready for the Big 12, but he got sick. He went from 215 to 200 pounds. Curt weighted 215 at the time and he is strong as an ox, and was moving Shawn out of his way going after every rebound at 6’3”. But as great and as strong as Curt was as a player, when we played bigger and stronger teams who had players like LaMarcus Aldridge, or P.J. Tucker and Brad Buckman for Texas. At 6’3” Curt just couldn’t get every rebound, nor should he have been responsible for every rebound. And it was nerve racking to be honest with you.”
“We missed not having Jared in Their, that’s for sure,” Stinson explained further. “But I don’t have any regrets. We played hard, those guys kept fighting until the end and I still respect those guys. Will and I took a lot of heat that season, but we tried to keep the guys heads up to make sure we didn’t have a disturbance in the locker room. We didn’t have the season we wanted, but the pieces were in place for a great senior year.”
Aside from the rebounding struggles, the 2005-06 Cyclones lost a lot of games late which further deflated the team.
“Unfortunately the ball didn’t bounce our way a lot that season,” Morgan said. “We lost due to a buzzer beater at Texas Tech [73-76]. We lost at home to Texas A&M [81-86 OT] where they hit a shot at the buzzer to force the overtime. We lost on a buzzer shot at Kansas State [63-66]. And we were up 5 with less than a minute at Oklahoma and lost by one [82-83]. If you win those four games, now you have 20 wins instead of 16 and we make post season play.”
“It was always a very hard pill to shallow going back into that locker room after a close loss,” Blalock said. “You look across the room at your teammates and you can tell that they gave it their all, and it only took 1 shot in the final seconds from the other team gives you that loss. It’s demoralizing when it happens once, but when it started to happen multiple times it wears on you. We all gave it our all each night, breaking our neck, high on energy thinking you are going to come out with the win, and somebody hits the shot and you get knocked to the floor with a loss. I’d rather get blown out than lose by a buzzer beater.”
“The losses did play a toll. Mentally we were all there and in the moment trying to win, but as the losses started to add up, the blame went to the two seasoned guards on the team and it was easy to point the figure at times. There was a whole lot of pointing and saying you did this and I did that behind the scenes. Coach Morgan was great as he tried to keep everyone in line but by the end it was tough. We knew coming into the season we were ranked and everybody had high expectations, and when it didn’t happen, it was tough.”
“We were also still very young without much senior leadership,” said Archibald. “One of the things we were blessed with our first two years was that it seemed like every close game we won. Everything that could go our way did, and then that third year everything that could go our way didn’t. We had a lot of close games we loss whereas the previous two years we found a way to pull those out and win.”
However, despite the down season, the team chemistry never drifted.
“We never fought,” Clark said. “At times we had players who would beat themselves on their chest, but we called a lot of player meetings and would get together as a group and let people air out their frustrations. At the end of the day we were teammates and we did feel like we were a family.”
In the midst of a four game losing streak, one player had seen enough, wasn’t happy with his playing time and decided to announce his decision to transfer a week before the season was over.
“Tasheed was very interesting because he came in and had a fantastic freshmen year,” Morgan said. “For whatever reason, he was having a horrible year his sophomore season. I felt like I couldn’t continue playing him X amount of minutes a game because it was a detriment to our team on the court. Mentally he couldn’t handle that. Certainly though, had I been retained I would have tried to keep him in Ames. He was a good player. There were a lot of games his freshmen year that we won, but wouldn’t have without Tasheed Carr. When he was on, he could hit three’s 5-ft past the line. I’m sorry that things didn’t work out. “
“Coming off my freshmen year I had high expectations going into my second season,” Carr said. “I didn’t feel like I was getting my just due with playing time and didn’t know my role with the team. Coach Morgan was a great guy and we are still close to this day, but at that time I didn’t feel like my career was going the way I wanted it to and decided it was best to transfer closer to home.”
Iowa State finished the season 16-14 (6-10 in the Big 12) and ended the year in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament to Oklahoma State in Dallas on March 9th.
Within a week after the season, CBS Sportsline published an article that would damage the universities reputation, and spell the end for Morgan and his staff.
The dismissal
CBS Sportsline (http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/9310118) had written a story about Iowa State’s involvement in a D1 Scheduling scheme in which the school paid a company called D1 Scheduling run by Mike Miller, who was the Los Angeles City College head coach. It was reported that the schools would pay D1 Scheduling to help deliver junior college players to Division I schools. These schools would then play each other in a guaranteed game. Also rumored to be involved was Iona, which had defeated Iowa State earlier in the year. Morgan and the Cyclone's did have a player on their roster from Los Angeles City College in Anthony Davis who played for Iowa State in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Davis played in 36 games and averaged 3.7 points per game.
On the evening of March 16, 2006, Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard and then University President Dr. Gregory Geoffroy informed Coach Morgan and his staff that they would not be retained the following season sitting various trust issues.
In July 2014 I attempted to reach out to Jamie Pollard and he declined to comment.
In an interview with former President Dr. Gregory during the same month, he wouldn't go on the record with providing quotes, but repeatedly said that he had “complete confidence in Jamie,” and admits that he cannot remember the specifics of the decision.
“That whole thing was crazy!” Morgan said. “It was nothing and turned out to be nothing. I had never spoken or communicated from anyone within Division 1 scheduling so I was shocked with all the news came out. The only person who ever communicated with them were the two Athletic Directors in Bruce and Jamie Pollard. That whole thing was a joke. To this day that pisses me off because the only thing you have in this life is your name, and my name was run through the mud for something I had nothing to do with.”
At the time Morgan was released, he had been at Iowa State 3 years and won as many post-season games as Johnny Orr, Tim Floyd and Larry Eustachy.
“That Athletic Director [Jamie Pollard] came in with an agenda and wanted to make a change,” Archibald said. “He used that article and that information as fuel to fire Wayne. When in reality, Wayne wasn’t doing the scheduling, the Athletic Director was. That’s what’s so crazy about it.”
Soon after learning of his dismissal, Morgan began calling the players.
“Coach called me the night it happened,” Clark said. “And then afterwards Coach Archibald called me to talk about it. That hurt me to the core because these were the men who molded me to the player I’d become. They helped me grow not only on the court but off.”
“I was shocked!” Degand said. “I mean we had a bad year, but the years before he’d taken them to the NIT and the NCAA Tournament. We had a very young front court and we had everyone back. I felt like that should have bought him at least another year or two. That sounds like a coach of a rising program, not one running a dying program and deserved to be let go. To this day I still don’t understand why he was let go.”
Soon after learning of his dismissal, Coach Morgan, his staff and players called a press conference the following day to all the local media outlets to try and clear his name.
“Coach always preached family and openness,” Stinson said. “When he called that press conference, the players wanted to be there for him. Coach was like a father figure to a lot of us and we wanted to show unity that we stand together.”
“When Coach Morgan had his news conference the following day, I was torn to pieces,” Clark said. “I actually had to leave the room. A few minutes later a few of the coaches came out and started to talk to me and calm me down. So I went back into the news conference with the rest of my teammates to show respect for my coach.”
Following the press conference, the players each had a strong decision to make.
“At that point I sat down and felt like I had to make a decision,” Stinson said. “Did I want to come back and play for a new coach and possibly a new system that might not play to my strengths, or turn pro? I didn’t feel like the administration was being truthful to me as to the reason why Coach Morgan was let go. They wouldn’t give Will or myself a straight answer and so I kind of felt like they were showing us the door and didn’t want us to come back. To this day I still don’t know the actual reason.”
“The day Coach Morgan called the press conference to talk to the media and explained that he was going to be let go, I knew I wasn’t coming back,” Blalock said. “Leading up to that point I had already had it in my mind that I was going to test the waters, but if that didn’t work out my plan was to come back. However when it was known that he was fired, I had no desire to come back and play for anyone else.”
“I still to this day do not know [why he was let go]. He was one of those guys who loved and he cared so much about us as people. Not only winning but making sure we were going to class, and preparing us for life. He was like our father figure to so many players. He was that positive energy giving you a call early in the morning before you had to take your finals. He was just so instrumental in so many kids’ lives, including mine and felt like the University did him wrong by letting him go like they did. He didn’t do anything wrong, he just happened to be the fall guy for the guy who did do wrong. He wasn’t the problem."
“I think Curtis was going to go [pro] because his family really needed the money and unfortunately he had people in his ear telling him that he was going to get drafted, be in the league and make millions of dollars, Morgan said. “However I think that if I was retained, Will would have come back.”
“We had a good recruiting class coming in. And we also had a commitment from the No. 1 JUCO Center in the country in Jerome Habel who was going to come in and help us in the post the following year. So we had the pieces in place. Habel ended up signing with Coach [Steve] Fisher at San Diego State.”
“The whole experience was more than disheartening, it was unbelievably sad that we couldn’t see that program rise to what I know it was capable of becoming.”
“It was frustrating because we felt like we had built a strong pipeline for the future,” Archibald said. “We had a monster recruiting class coming in that went elsewhere and made strong contributions for other high major programs. I feel pretty confident that one if not both of Will and Curtis would have come back. And when you combine those two with Taggart now a year stronger and other guys, we could have been really good. We had the pieces in place. We ended up turning kids away who wanted to come to Iowa State, and went on to have great college careers elsewhere.”
“I was in a state of shock because I, and the rest of the team were still young, and we felt like the pieces were there to have a good team the following season,” Degand said. “We had a plan and the plan was coming along good. After redshirting I was finally ready to have my shot and it never happened. The situation was so completely different than the situation when I’d arrived earlier that year. Then players started leaving, and the guy who had helped me the entire time I was there, were now fired. When all that happened, I felt like it was best to try and get a little closer to home.”
When it was all said and done 6 players ended up leaving the program before the following season; Blalock, Stinson, Carr, Degand, Taggart, and freshmen Mike Evanovich.
Blalock was drafted 60th overall in the 2nd round of the 2006 NBA draft. Stinson, although declared for the NBA wasn’t selected. Carr transferred to back home to Philadelphia and St. Joe's to average 14 points per game his senior year. Degand transferred to NC State and averaged close to 20 minutes per game his remaining 3 seasons. Taggart transferred to Calipari at Memphis and would later be a key contributor for the Tiger's as they made it to the Final Four. Eventually losing to Kansas in the 2008 NCAA National Championship.
Following his junior season, Stinson was a two time first team all-Big 12 selection who left with 1,651 points (11th all time) and averaged 17.6 points per contest over the lifetime of his career in Ames. Had he stayed for his senior season, he could have amassed close to 528 more points (17.6 x 30 games), which would have put him 3rd overall and only 11 points shy of scoring the 2nd most points in school history.
He also finished his junior season 4th all-time in steels (200), but once again averaged 2.12 steals per game over his career, so had he come back you can assume he would have an additional 63 steals for his career, placing him well into first on the career all-time leader.
Blalock finished his junior season as 7th all-time in assists (464), averaging 4.98 assists a game. Had he stayed for his senior season, and able to put up the same numbers, he would have finished 2nd all-time behind only Jeff Hornacek.
On March 21st, 2006 Iowa State introduced former University of Northern Iowa head coach Greg McDermott as its new Men’s Basketball coach.
A new Era
With the hiring of former University of Northern Iowa head coach Greg McDermott as its new Men’s Basketball coach, one player who would stick around to play for newly hired head coach Greg McDermott was Clark. This made him a folk hero around Cyclone circles for sticking around through the difficult rebuilding era. But that’s not exactly how Clark was looking at it.
“After [coach had been released] I’d made up my mind that was going to leave too,” Clark said. “My thought process at the time was that I’d had two pretty good years. I averaged something like 8 points my freshmen year and 13 my second season. So my thought process was that I would try and enter the league with Will and Curtis. When I told Coach Morgan this, he explained that I still had a few things I needed to work on to get to that point, and that I should stay in school and continue to work toward my degree while I work on those things. So then my thought process was that I was going to transfer. But then I got to thinking that if I left I’m going to have to sit out a year and then start all over from scratch having to fight for a starting position with another team. I felt like I could stick it out at Iowa State for one more season and then jump to the league.”
“The problem was, the new coaching staff didn’t want to run and gun anymore. They wanted to run the half court sets. And once you take athletic guys and make them slow up and play a half court style of offense, you are not utilizing our strengths. And my numbers weren’t as good as they would have been had we kept the same style of offense. We could have been so much better than we were. You take an athletic group like Wesley Johnson and myself during my junior season there should have been no stopping us. We were too athletic to not let us run. And then my senior year we added [Craig] Brackens and Diante [Garrett], along with Wesley and myself – we should have been running like there was no tomorrow. And that’s the reason why I feel like we had two losing season my final two years.”
The two years before Coach Morgan and his staff arrived in Ames, Iowa State went 29-33 (9-23 in the Big 12) Three years removed from the Elite 8 appearance, the Cyclones were better known for being the last No. 2 seed to lose to a 15 in the 2001 NCAA Tournament than the top 10 ranking to end to 2000 season.
Seemingly overnight coach Morgan and his staff brought excitement back to the basketball program. Rattling off a 17-1 home record during his first season, suddenly a program without expectations was gathering buzz around the nation. With the fast paced offense and trapping defense, national audiences began to take notice.
“If you think about it, the university had just gone under a national embarrassment and we were able to transition the university out of that trying time and get us back into the national spot light,” Morgan said. “I think we got people excited about basketball game with our up tempo style of basketball. We had kids like Jake who thanked me profusely for allowing him to go out a winner after two straight years of losing. A lot of good things were done. We were a family and to this day I love them.”
“Before we got to Iowa State they had finished toward the bottom of the league the last few years,” Blalock said. “We brought energy and I’d like to think we brought excitement back to the fans and the program. We did have a lot of success and despite the last year being a losing season, we were rolling in the right direction. It’s unfortunate how it ended and it’s unfortunate that it appears that who era seems to have been swept under the rug.”
“Although my time at Iowa State was short lived, we were like brothers,” Carr remembers. “Whether we did well on the court, we always picked each other up and moved on to the next day and the next challenge ahead. To this day I still talk to a lot of those guys.”
“I hope people in Iowa look at that time as another fun chapter in Iowa State history,” Archibald said. “They have a lot of rich basketball tradition I hope people look back at it as an exciting, electric time in which we had some great victories over top 25 teams, and it was to the point where we were beating Kentucky for recruits.”
“After we left, I’d gotten a letter from a student claiming that they went to Iowa State because of the basketball program and success we were having. It was a great letter knowing how much we benefited the university.”
With the recent success Coach Hoiberg and his staff have had, bringing Iowa State back into the national spotlight, it’s also brought out a few more fans than post people would think.
“Iowa State is in great hands with Fred Hoiberg and Fred is doing a great job up there,” Archibald said. “A lot of people don’t know this but Fred used to come down and condition with our players during the summer months. He’d call and ask when we were working out with conditioning and he’d be on the baseline running drills alongside our kids. there is not a more classy and dedicated guy than Fred Hoiberg and I know he’s going to great things. “
"If they would have hired Fred Hoiberg then, I would have stayed for my senior year," Blalock said. "I had a really good relationship with Fred because when he was with the Timberwolves, he would come home and practice with us and run drills. He would give Curt and I advise on how to stay strong and lead the team. We would say the little stuff that we didn’t realize at the time, but became bigger issues as we got further into our professional careers. He was a really good guy, so if he would have been the next coach I would have stayed."
“I still talk with Tasheed, Curt and a lot of our former players and we all watch them on TV and cheer for Iowa State,” I couldn’t be more proud of my time in Ames. Those three years were the best three years of my life. I’m proud to say that I went to Iowa State. Even to this day, if Coach Hoiberg wanted to call me to get more information about a player from my neighborhood, I will do everything within my power to help him and that program. I see a lot of Coach Morgan in Fred’s demeanor on the sideline. The TV announcers always talk about Fred’s calmness on the sideline. there were many times when we were fired up or upset at how the game was progressing and Coach Morgan would just say calm down and Papa Bear would draw up a play and we were calm and collected once again.”
“I came up for the Iowa game this year and met the current players and watched the games as they were on TV,” Clark said. “They had a great year and Kane and everybody did a fantastic job. It was funny because when I attended practice I asked Coach Hoiberg why he couldn’t have taken over my last two years because I think we would have strived under the run and gun style that he runs now. I wish I could have played under him.”
“I certainly check them out [when they are on TV],” Degand said. “They’ve got an impressive team right now. I know they have that kid from Boston [Georges Niang] playing for them right now who’s pretty good. He played for BABC AAU which was the same AAU team that I played for, so I’m happy to see them get back to recruiting this area. It’s a great school and I really enjoyed my time up there. I’m glad they are having success right now.”
“I’m at Kansas now so we are always trying to beat them which is hard to do,” Quartlebaum said. “My time in Ames was special and having the opportunity to go back this year with our Kansas team it was great to see old friends, the SID and longtime basketball secretary who still work’s with the basketball office.”
“To this day I’m a die-hard Iowa State fan and will always be a Cyclone,” Carr said. “I’m still great friends with current basketball graduate assistant Tyler Hanson as well as other people still connected with Iowa State. I’m close with Craig Brackens who played here for the 76ers at one time. I get excited to watch them on TV. I see the crowd go nuts and it brings back a lot of memories just like I’m back Their my freshmen year. When I turn on the TV and see the fans and atmosphere inside Hilton, it makes me proud to have once worn those colors and to have been a Cyclone.”
“There was a guy a few years back that I’d done an interview for who was with the New York Times,” Blalock explained. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/sports/ncaabasketball/everybody-wants-a-piece-of-nerlens-noel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
“I don’t remember his name but he flipped my whole interview. He made it sound like I wasn’t happy to have ended up at Iowa State when that wasn’t the case at all. And when I go on the Cyclone websites people think I’m blaming the fact that I was at Iowa State for the reason I didn’t get drafted higher and whatnot. I just want to say to those people that I don’t ever regret going to Iowa State. That was the three best years in my life and that experience allowed me to get to the NBA. My time at Iowa State shaped me as a man not only on the court but off it. The fans within the community, the teachers, all played a major part in shaping who I am today. And I can never repay them enough. “
“I certainly still follow Iowa State,” Stinson said, “and have a great relationship with coach Hoiberg. I’m in Ames a lot more than people probably know about. I have a good relationship with those players. I play pick-up ball with those guys, and I work-out in that gym often times during the summer months. Coach Hoiberg and I talk a lot. The same with Assistant Coach Matt [Abdelmassih]. He’s a New York guy and I was actually invited to his wedding last summer. I follow Iowa State a lot. Regardless as to what happened at the end of my playing career at Iowa State, I’m still a very proud alumni and my heart still goes out to that school. I’m proud of my school and their accomplishments.”
“I loved the community of Ames and to this day I tell everyone that Iowa State has the best fans in the nation,” Morgan said. “I still follow the team. When the team was in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament the display by the fan base was one of the best I’d ever seen and the nation took notice.”
As a student during the last two years of the Eustachy era, I got to witness the rebirth of a fan base during the early stages of the Morgan era. My girlfriend (eventually my wife) was a Hawkeye fan before the 2003-04 season and by the end of that year, she was (and still is) a loyal Cyclone fan. Trapping zone defense, open paced fast transition offense and highlights on Sportscenter every night after the game.
And as I stand there, watching my daughter kick the water left from last night’s rain off each step of Beardshear hall, I’m reminded that in the years since coach Morgan roamed the sidelines; I’d witness Iowa State finish 7th, 11th, 10th and 9th in the Big 12 during the McDermott era. Players came and left like a revolving door, and the team was no longer bringing in the recruits that fans were accustomed to seeing on the court. The resurgence of the program under coach Hoiberg shows just how passionate Cyclone fans are about basketball. However for the most part, little is spoken about this era in Iowa State basketball history - washed away like it never happened, waiting for the right archaeologist to dig up its hidden treasures once again. Fans are quick to point to the dark years during the McDermott years, however they soon forget the excitement that proceeded, that was cut short way too early. The pieces were in place for a strong 2006-07 season. What could have been?