Sadness, success and strangeness

Jayadev Athreya
January 23, 1998

Well, I guess I’m supposed to talk about the Super Bowl this week, but darn it, there’s just too much going on in Cyclone Country. We’ve got the success of the women’s team, the competitiveness of the men’s team and to add to all this, I’ve come up with some of the strangest nicknames you’ve ever heard.

Sadness —

First the bad news. The men played great down at Norman for the first 18 minutes of both halves, but broke down tragically when it counted most, right at the end.

But let’s not be too critical. This is a team that has improved by leaps and bounds since falling to Drake and UNI early this season. Now, if we can only put together a game in which we play 40 minutes of basketball…

I still think that we will make a strong run at the end of the season and qualify for some type of postseason play.

Heck, with the way we’re improving, we could be a legitimate threat to win the Big 12 Tournament. I mean, it’s not like there isn’t a enormous dearth of talent on this team.

We’re going to make some noise, especially with our strong inside game.

Having that in basketball is like having a strong rushing offense in football. It is an absolute key to winning a game.

Success —

How about those Lady Clones! These women are terrific! If there was any doubt about how strong this team really was/is, the Cyclones resolved the questions on Tuesday night with a convincing performance in the game’s latter stages to snatch the Big 12 Conference lead away from No.5 Texas Tech.

If we don’t get a place in the rankings now, I am going to become the leading purveyor of conspiracy theories, surpassing the X-files.

We’ve got Stacy Frese, the three-point bomber and quarterback; Jayme and Janel, the powerful inside tandem; Megan Taylor, the Kenny Pratt of the team (in the sense that she makes shots no one else could dream of); Amanda Bartz, who’s got the smoothest stroke this side of Glen Rice; Monica Huelman, the center of the future; and Erica Haugen, yet another talented frosh.

I’m telling ya, we’re winning it all this year; Chamique Holdsclaw and the Tennessee Vol’s be damned!

Strangeness —

Everybody loves nicknames, right? So here are some of my own for the members of our b-ball squads. If they don’t make sense to you, come up with your own. I told you they were going to be strange.

First our inside guys:

Marcus Fizer- Fabulous Freshman Fizer

Paul Shirley- Sure Handed Sophomore Shirley

Klay Edwards- Excellent Effort Edwards

Stevie Johnson- Speedy Soph Stevie

For those who haven’t stayed healthy:

Tony Rampton- Tough Times Tony

Andy Stensrud- Ain’t Active Andy

Our perimeter players:

Lee Love- Learning Lee Love

Delvin Washington- Driving Defender Washington

Jerry Curry- Calling Collect Curry