The WRNL Hotbox

3sus?  Are you there?  You came to me last week in hope of some guidance from the Hotbox.  I tried my utmost to respect and honor you without passing any judgement of my own.  I left that to Cyclone Nation.  They passed judgement in the only way people will truly give an honest answer, anonymously.  Or so they thought!  You are 3sus and 3sus knows all!  So if you want to you can smite down all those detractors who gave an answer in which deep down you don't agree with.  Sorry to sell you out Cyclone Nation, 3sus first.

To the results:

Faux Hawk: 61%

Clean Cut: 34%

Other: 5%

So there you have it.  Cyclone Nation scientifically and officially recommend for 3sus to wear the Faux Hawk.  And if you don't want to wear a Faux Hawk, don't.  Smite them if you wish.  Or show your gracious mercy instead.  I have a feeling I know what you might do.

Now I'm going to predict the rest of the regular season games for our Cyclones.  Superstition be damned.

WVU - Win

@OSU - Win

@Texas - Loss

Baylor - Win

@Kansas State - Win

Oklahoma - Win

@TCU - Win

That's a pretty sunshiney prediction right there.  But I'm sure there's plenty of you out there who are wondering, "Why did the Hotbox predict us to lose to the confounding dumpster fire that is Texas?"  My simple answer is, "Because it's a Cyclone thing."  We will play and win at OSU and everyone will be pumping all the sunshine and then we will go down to Texas and lose a close one.  It will turn out to be the biggest what-if of the season for reasons you can all infer on your own.  Let's keep track of this prediction and see how wise the Hotbox really is.

Time to get down with the Box:

Bryclone:

Signing Day has come and gone and we have seen how well Iowa State has fared. If you were a 4 or 5-star recruit (Football or Basketball), would you sign with Iowa State or go elsewhere? If you did go elsewhere, where would you go?

For football that's an easy one.  No.  This is almost all because of the question mark that is Paul Rhoads.  If he can somehow turn it around this year and keep some momentum going, then maybe some of the higher profile local recruits will jump on the bandwagon.  But there is just so many better programs, with better facilites, better climate, better coaching, better bagmen, etc.  Winning is the only cure here.

Now basketball is a completely different story.  We all know Dreamy is the perfect coaching gift from Father Orr.  We literally couldn't be in a better position for the future.  He wants to win and he has the means to do it.  That's all you need.  Dreamy seemingly only recruits 4 and 5 star high school guys and transfers, of course.  Just go take a peek at who is considering Iowa State for 2016. It will create an instant Hoiboner, so be careful.  And don't forget we hear about where Cheick Diallo will take his talents in April.  #NBASTYLEOFFENSE

Bleed Red, Pee Gold:

Dear Hotbox,

So I was thinking about this earlier in the week and I would like to know what other people think.

Would you rather win the Big 12 Conference or the Big 12 Tournament?

I was wondering this, because I see a lot of talk on here about "winning the Big 12" and how great it would it be to knock off Kansas and finally win the conference. I agree that this would be a great thing for our school, but I would much rather win the Big 12 Tournament. Here’s why: you’re actually winning something. Winning the actual conference doesn’t really mean much when you think about it. It just means you had the best conference record, which is pretty meaningless in the long run. Maybe you get to hang a Big 12 champ banner in Hilton, but it would not be as memorable as winning the Big 12 Tournament. Wouldn’t you rather win the Big 12 Tournament, where you’re actually winning SOMETHING? Oh, and you get hang a banner up in Hilton for that too.

Basically, what I’m saying is I’d rather have a good season, finish 2nd and THEN win the Big 12 Tournament instead of winning the conference and then losing in the Big 12 Tournament. If you lose in the tournament, what good is your championship? I feel like winning the tournament would give me much better memories down the line (Like last year!!), while a Big 12 Championship would not be as memorable. Remember those three days back in March down in Kansas City and how good it felt to watch us hold that trophy at the end of it all? You wouldn’t get a feel-good moment like that by winning the Big 12 conference championship alone.

So what do you think, Hotbox? Am I all wrong on this? Not that it matters anyway, since we’re probably out of contention for the conference championship. But I’d rather go down to KC, enjoy some Cyclone basketball for 3 amazing days and watch us hold up a trophy at the end while Bill Self and the Jayhawks shrug their heads in shame as they walk to the locker room.

I'll give it to you, technically the Big XII tournament means more. You get an automatic tourney birth and the committee seems to give you at least a one or two seed bump.  But damn it, I would just feel better to win a regular season title.  To go through an 18-game gauntlet and be proved the best team of the bunch would be way more gratifying.  Oh yeah, and that one team wouldn't win another Big XII title.  That might be the biggest reason for this motivation.  It's not rational and I don't care.  Down with Kansas once and for all!

CornFedIABoy:

Dear Hotbox,

I know this is a sports blog but these damn Saturday/Monday turnarounds make for really long weeks that need filled with things to think about other than Cyclone Basketball and tire fires in the fall. So, completely off topic question:

Will the new Channing Tatum/Mila Kunis movie "Jupiter Ascending" directed by "The Matrix"s Wachowski ? Brothers? make big enough bank to get Disney to hire them to direct one of the Star Wars spin off movies?

While I'm fine with answering off hand questions, this one is a little out of left field.  From what I've seen and heard, the Wachowski's have completely gone over the deep end of sci-fi.  I am telling you right now, I will not see this movie.  For how brilliant the Matrix was this seems to be on the complete other end of spection.  Go check out this review.  It's not very nice.  They will not get any other movies of any kind for quite some time, especially Star Wars.  And for the people that know me, they know I am very cynical when it comes to movies.  If I had to go watch this I would puke in my popcorn and continue to eat it because it would distract me from the volcanic eruption of diarrhea on the screen.  I'm fine with that.

Mr. Roosevelt:

Question for Hotbox and/or grapplecy:

Ignoring weight restrictions, how many ISU wrestlers could Levi Pete beat in an otherwise regulation wrestling match? At what point does the law of gross tonnage get overcome by skill?

Let's hope grapplecy shows up, because I don't know dick about wrasslin'.  I know take-downs count for 2 points, if you pin him you win, and everything else is pretty blurry.  I use to go to the Iowa State High School Wrasslin' Tournament.  Well, mostly because they actually let us out of school to go to it.  Anyway, there was a man who knew infinitely more about wrasslin' than me sitting nearby.  He just continued to yell, "BODY UP AND RUN EM!"  I honestly have no idea what wrasslin' move that is but I'm sure it's very useful in defeating your opponent.

But how many of the current ISU wrasslers could Levi Pete beat?  Everyone that weighs 15 pounds less than him?  20 pounds?  I have no clue.  I do know that wrasslers are good at wrasslin' so I'm sure they could make Levi Pete eat his lunch at the sport if they are of similar size.  Just like Levi Pete would decleat there ass if he had the chance.

TedFlintKansas:

If you could pick any duo off the current Cyclone roster to make the best NBA Jam team who would it be?

The key to having any good NBA JAM roster, is having a shot blocking, rim destroying center and a worthy three-point shooter.  Passing also needs to be taken into consideration so you can throw all the ridiculous lobs that need to be thrown as well.  Stealing is a plus as well.  All of this leads to the clear inclusion of Jameel McKay.  He will block many shots and dunk all the balls.  Now comes the tricky pick.  Do you go with ball-handling, passing, and stealing Monte Morris?  Or do you go with the inside-out, lay-up getting, passing, old man game of Georges Niang.  Or do you do with the deadeye 3sus?  I'm gonna go with Georges.  The offense will be unstoppable, but as you may already know the defense will struggle.  Georges won't be able to guard the speeder, video game guard.  But you will have to master the shot blocking game with Jameel.  If you do this, you will have the optimal Cyclone Jam roster.

Cyer Straits:

Hotbox,

What are the chances Cael Sanderson returns to ISU someday?  What about in a scenario where we can match PSU's pay, but only in about 10 years?  i.e. he'll have been there at least 15 years

Another wrasslin' question?  UGH.  I already lamented the Hotbox's lack of knowledge in wrasslin'.  For how wise the Hotbox is, this is my weak spot.  If Hawk fans wanted to attack the Hotbox, they now know their target.

Will Cael Sanderson return to ISU?  No, I say.  I think he burnt too many bridges on his way out of town and that was that.  We won't match his current contract we can only pay what we pay.  Kevin Jackson has the boys back on track this year.  Let's hope he keeps it up.

WisClonesin:

Almighty Hotbox,

1. I’m a huge fan of unselfish BDJ.

B. My take on Naz’s hair: I remember the beginning of the season and it looked like he was going for a fro. It threw his game off. Created a little too much drag stepping into his three point attempts. At some point Dreamicakes called for the clean cut look and Naz got Naz-ty from three. Therefore, the clean cut needs to stay.

Tres: That’s three in Spanish.

4. Finally, my question: When is Adam Woodbury going to realize he is so unattractive that he’s actually doing opponents a service by poking them in the eye?

You stay classy Hotbox.

Well, this is gonna upset Cyclone Nation a bit, but I don't think he intentionally poked anyone in the eye.  We all talk about how ugly and uncoordinated he is.  Do you really think he could jab someone's eye out in the middle of a college basketball game?  His downfall is he tries to put a hand in the face and he is just so uncoordinated he manages to get an eyeball.  He did have a curious moment when he got Frank Kaminsky in the eye after russlin' his hair a bit.  The hair russlin' was interesting but when he got the eye I think he was just trying to put his hand down.  Lambast me Cyclone Nation, this is the Hotbox's take.

Cynative:

McKay replacing BDJ on the starting lineup? Is this the correct call? Clearly McKay has brought his game a long way, could this be the tweak needed for this team?

I do think this is the correct call.  McKay is too good to be on the bench til after the first media timeout.  We've actually seen an uptick in production at the beginning of the game.  But then the whole second half happens and our defense goes out the window.  That's not really McKay's fault but he gets some of the blame for all the layups Oklahoma got.  Maybe he gets tired in the second half.  I don't know.  It's much more of a perimeter problem anyway.  I suspect to see McKay in the starting lineup from here on out.  And hopefully the defense can find a damn pulse.

"If you want the answer - ask the question."

-Lorii Myers