RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Our State Is a Great Place To Live, Not Visit In This Wild and Wacky 2015-2016 Collegiate Basketball Season. The Cyclones Became the Third Team from Iowa To Send a No. 1-Ranked Squad Home With a Defeat. Georges Niang Scored 22 Points, Monte Morris 19 and the Defense Rose To the Occasion In An 82-77 Victory Over Oklahoma


Photo of Iowa State fans celebrating victory courtesy of USATS

By RON MALY

You know how it goes. 

These basketball teams like North Carolina,
Michigan State and Oklahoma really can't do anything about it.

They've got to go where the schedule-makers tell 'em to go.

And the state of Iowa is not a happy hunting ground for visitors in this crazy 2015-2016 collegiate season.

Earlier, a North Carolina team that was No. 1 lost at Northern Iowa, and a Michigan State team that was No. 1 was beaten at Iowa.

Oklahoma was the latest team to find out that being No. 1 doesn't mean doesn't mean a damn thing when you come into our state.

The Sooners, who had just been placed at the top of the polls, tumbled to a 19th-rated Iowa State team [14-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 Conference] that played the way it's supposed to be playing.

Georges Niang scored 22 points, Monte Morris 19 and--just as important as anything--the Cyclones played tenaciously on defense to put together an 82-77 victory.

Don't call it an upset, though.

Iowa State, playing in front of a roaring crowd at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, was favored to win.

It was a victory dripping with historical significance.

Indeed, an Iowa State basketball team hadn't taken down a No. 1 team in a long, long time.

It was 1957 when the Cyclones sent Wilt [The Stilt] Chamberlain and his Kansas teammates home to Lawrence after beating them in the old Iowa State Armory--long before Hilton Coliseum was built.

It wouldn't have been an official Big Victory at Hilton unless students in the crowd stormed the court, and, yes, it did happen again tonight.

I just hope Randy Peterson stayed out of the way this time.