POSTERIZED: Driving Coast-to-Coast in a White Rolles Royce

You could argue that Iowa State's Royce White is the most important player in the country. Is there a single player who carries the team on his shoulders more than the Minnesota-transfer. The power forward does it all. He can handle the ball, defend, rebound, shoot, and when necessary, take the ball coast-to-coast for a power-dunk in traffic. Continue reading...

Royce White, Iowa State's GOAT? More likely than you think?

One of the columns that has been making the rounds on the blogs this week comes from Marc Hansen of the Des Moines Register. In that column, Hansen tells a story of how a long-time Iowa State fan is convinced that Minnesota transfer Royce White will -- "Not could. Not might. Will." -- become the greatest Cyclone of all-time.

Now, the point of Hansen's column wasn't to say that White will be the best Iowa State player of all-time. His point is that with the infusion of talent this season -- with transfers Chris Allen (Michigan State), Chris Babb (Penn State) and Anthony Booker (Southern Illinois) joining White in becoming eligible -- and with the performances that White has had this summer -- he averaged a freakin' triple-double in a summer league, which is summer league but still insane -- that there is a hype surrounding the Cyclones that they haven't experienced in a while.


To his credit, White, who wasn't known for his levelheadedness in his time with the Gophers, answered the question about as well as you can ask him too.

"I'm happy somebody would think of me in that way," he told Hansen, "and it gives me motivation to try to achieve that on the court and off. It's an objective term and probably a little extreme, considering all the great players who’ve been here, but I’d like to be on the list someday. I think it’s achievable. Not for what I do individually as much as for what we do as a team. Hopefully, I can make a dent in Iowa State history that way."

Confident, but not cocky. Respectful yet motivated.

But let me ask you a question -- why not? Why can't White be the greatest player in the history of the Cyclone program? We're not exactly talking about North Carolina here.

There have been some quality players and quality teams in Iowa State's history. Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Fizer teamed up to lead the Cyclones to within a few possessions of the Final Four. Craig Brackins averaged 20 and 10 playing on last place teams. Jeff Hornacek and Fred Hoiberg (also known as The Mayor and who is currently the head coach of Iowa State) both turned excellent college careers into long NBA careers. Jeff Grayer -- who, for my money, currently holds the throne -- was an all-american and an Olympian.

With all due respect to those six players, that's a fairly reachable ceiling for White.

Granted, his talent on the court will never fully be on display unless he can tackle his issues off the court. And the two years he has spent watching basketball from the sidelines will make it difficult to shake off some of the rust. Saying he will, definitely, be the greatest Cyclone of all time is premature.

But so is saying he won't.
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Iowa State gets a gift

Sunday's matchup between Iowa State and Creighton was one of the more intriguing games of the weekend that you didn't know was happening.

3-0 Creighton was heading into Ames to take a surprising 3-0 Iowa State team led by brand new head coach Fred Hoiberg. Why did Iowa State need a new head coach? Because Gregg McDermott had left the Cyclones to take the head coaching gig that opened up at Creighton when Dana Altman went to Oregon.

Things only got more interesting when the game ended.

Iowa State's 6'11" center Jamie Vanderbeken hit a 40 footer at the buzzer to win the game.



Its tough to tell from the video, but Vanderbeken didn't get the shot off. Take a look at the picture below:


But since this game wasn't televised anywhere, there was no monitor available for the refs to look at. The ruling on the court stood. Iowa State was going home a winner, and Creighton took a loss that could end up being damaging for a team that could wind up in bubble contention come March.

To his credit, McDermott handled it in the classiest way possible.

"There's no monitor, so we'll never know. Actually we will know, because they counted it," McDermott said. "We had as good an officiating crew as you could ask for. If they say it counted, it counted."
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Chris Allen follows Royce White to Iowa State

Iowa State is turning into a nice landing spot for troubled players.

First, it was Royce White. White spent a semester at Minnesota, but never saw the court as a result of some legal issues. He eventually left Minnesota, and earlier this month Fred Hoiberg, the new head coach at Iowa State, landed the former five-star recruit.

Today, Hoiberg landed another high-profile transfer from the Big Ten.

Chris Allen, the two-guard that was kicked off the Michigan State team just two weeks ago by Tom Izzo, announced today that he, too, would be taking his talents to Ames, IA.

Allen won't be eligible until the 2011-2012 season, and many believe the same to be true for White. But if Hoiberg can last the year, he will have a pretty good duo to begin to build a program around.
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Royce White deserves a shot at Iowa State

Royce White's career at Minnesota wasn't much of a career.

He was suspended before the season even started, stemming from a shoplifting charge he received at the Mall of America and accusations he stole a laptop from a dorm room on campus. This led to arguably the most compelling soap opera of the 2009-2010 season, as White announced -- via youtube -- that he would be leaving Minnesota and "retiring" from basketball. He would attempt a return to practice before eventually telling reporters in February that he, once again, would be retiring.

White's one season at Minnesota didn't go well.
(photo credit: Minnesota)

So yeah, things didn't really go as the former five-star recruit had planned during his first year in college. Hopefully, his second season will pan out a little bit better, as White has signed with Iowa State. New Cyclone head coach Fred Hoiberg is hoping White can turn his life around:

"I am aware of Royce's situation at Minnesota," Hoiberg said via the school's release. "I have talked with a lot of people who are close to him, spoken with Royce in person multiple times and feel he is sincerely committed to meeting the expectations we have for our players. On one of his campus visits, Royce also met with institutional staff both inside and outside of the athletics department and he left very positive impressions on everyone."

This is a big get for Hoiberg, who got the job at Iowa State without any previous head coaching experience. While White may be troubled, the kid deserves a second chance. We all make dumb decisions when we are kids -- remember, White was just a freshman, maybe the Minnesota incident was a wake-up call for him.

Say Hoiberg is able to get through to White. Say he is able to get the young man to focus on basketball and his studies. This is a 6'8" power forward that we are talking about. This is a kid that was a five-star recruit, that could play at just about any school in the country. This is a kid that, despite the issues, was reportedly heavily pursued by Kentucky during the past few months. (White says in this interview that John Calipari offered him a scholarship.)

Its a risky move for Hoiberg, but it is a risk that is worth taking, not only because the new head coach could land the centerpiece for his team, but because White should get a second chance at making.

It may not be that simple, however. White left Minnesota during the middle of the second semester, which is not an ideal way to get yourself academically eligible. He's filed a waiver request with the NCAA, but there is a chance he may not be eligible by the second semester.

Regardless, White would do well to take advantage of this opportunity. Everyone deserves a second chance. Third chances? Not so much.

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Greg McDermott is headed to Creighton

Its not often that you see a head coach go from a power conference team to a mid-major team willing, but that is exactly what Greg McDermott is doing.

The now-former Iowa State head coach is headed to Creighton, filling the void left when Dana Altman decided to take the Oregon job.

He may not have had a choice.

Greg McDermott is head back to the Missouri Valley.
(photo credit: Iowa State Daily)

McDermott was able to land the Iowa State job after turning around the Northern Iowa program. In 2000-01, the year before McDermott got there, the Panthers finished last in the MVC. After sub-.500 seasons in his first two years, UNI won 20 straight games the next three seasons, making the NCAA Tournament each season.

But McDermott failed to equal that level of success in Ames. His first season was the only year he finished better than 10th in the Big XII, and the last three seasons have seen the Cyclones muster just 12 total league wins. With his two best players -- Craig Brackins and Marquis Gilstrap -- going pro and the defections of Lucca Staiger (who left mid-season to go back to Germany), Chris Colvin, Justin Hamilton, and Dominique Buckley, the Cyclones were left with just six scholarship players.

Simply put, things weren't going to get better next season.

And another year like the past four likely would have ended up with McDermott getting fired.

So he made the smart career move.

He left arguably the worst job in the Big XII for arguably the best in the Missouri Valley. Have you ever seen the Qwest Center, the 18,000 seat arena in Omaha where Creighton plays their home games, when its packed and rocking? There are schools in the power conferences that don't have the kind of following that Creighton does.

He also earned himself some job security. A 10 year contract worth $9 million is about as secure as a job can get in this business.

If you ask me, McDermott made a pretty smart move.

At Creighton, he will have a bigger, better fan base and he may even be taking over a better basketball program. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that believes Creighton has a better shot at being an NCAA Tournament staple than Iowa State.

McDermott has built one MVC program. There's no reason to believe he can't resurrect another.

As an interesting side note to all of this, Greg McDermott's son, Doug, has signed a letter of intent to play at Northern Iowa. The elder McDermott said that his son would be joining him in Omaha, but apparently that isn't quite true yet.

For what its worth, Ben Jacobson, the UNI head coach, is best friends with Greg McDermott, which probably means that Doug will be granted his release once the request is put in.
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