Last Tuesday at the Texas game, I was sitting up in my usual nosebleed seats, when I started chatting about the game with some guys in my row named Jeremy and Eric. They are the kind of Cyclone fans that we need more of. They not only stood up and cheered at all the moments the team needed crowd support, but they even argued about how to correctly clap to the fight song.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, they cared enough about Iowa State and its fight song to try to do it right. They are the kind of fans that ISU needs, not the 4,000 people who could have, but didn’t, show up on Tuesday.

On a more serious note, ISU’s best perimeter defender, Delvin Washington, has left the team, reportedly to concentrate on academics. Washington said he “really struggled through the first semester (academically).” He also said that his “grade point was way lower than it should be.”

He left the team after a meeting with Coach Floyd, following which the coach said, “I recommended to him that I still believe academics is first and foremost, [and] that he attack that.”

Washington is not the first — and probably won’t be the last — player to leave ISU since Coach Floyd arrived. Derrick Hayes and DeAndre Harris both transferred after one season in the system.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Coach Floyd is forcing guys off the team. And I’m not saying that he’s not the best Cyclone coach ever. But I am asking why have three such talented athletes left the team in the last four years?

Coach Floyd likes his players to play within the system and does not like them to make mistakes. Well, so do all coaches. Talented young players are going to make mistakes, but they are also going to do good things. If you bench them after they make mistakes, as Coach Floyd often does, they don’t get a chance to make up for them.

Washington’s minutes had gone down dramatically since early season big games against Coppin State and Missouri. But after not playing against Oklahoma, he got another chance against Nebraska.

In for a minute, he got a steal, then made a poor decision in trying to put up a jumper in heavy traffic. Immediately, he was yanked, then promptly chewed out on the sidelines. Three days later, he left the team.

I’m not trying to question Washington’s motives for leaving the team or criticize Coach Floyd’s disciplinary measures. But maybe the coach isn’t used to players making a lot of mistakes.

In his first three teams, the starters were generally juniors and seniors, especially in the backcourt. Maybe he should go a little easy on these guys, let their natural athleticism and basketball talent show through. He’s done that with Marcus Fizer, and look at the dividends.

Of course, I’m not a coach, and it’s hard to argue with success. Although I may have predicted the team will do huge things, I also believed we would struggle a lot more than we have this season.

So kudos to Coach Floyd for that, and thank goodness he’s been with us for as long as he has. And I do hope he sticks around for as long as possible. But maybe, just maybe, coach, you should go a little easier on the guys.

Jayadev Athreya is a junior in mathematics and computer science from Ames.