A Cinderella Story

The Iowa State University Mens Basketball team had an awesome season.  Whether you are an ISU alum, a current student, a life-long Ames resident, a transplant to Ames, or just love a good story, you had to love the season these guys had.

I blogged before that I can't sit and watch just any team play in the NCAA Tournament.  I have to have a personal interest in the team to be able to watch.  Well the Cyclones gave me plenty of reasons to watch more games than normal this year. 

The Cyclones made it to the Sweet Sixteen in New York City, playing at  Madison Square Garden.  They played U-Conn (now the National Champions) and suffered a heartbreaking loss which ended their incredible season.  I couldn't have been more excited the following day when we were driving past the basketball facility on our way home from running errands and saw the team bus pull in.  We immediately turned around and headed back to congratulate the guys.   They were tired, but in good spirits.

Melvin Ejim,a senior from Toronto, Canada, was the Big 12 Player of the Year.  Doesn't he have the most awesome smile?  As William Pharrell would say, his smile makes me "Happy, happy, happy!"

And you have to love DeAndre Kane. He has experienced some unbelievably  difficult things for someone so young.  At a much different time in his life when leaving a party with a friend, his friend was shot and later died as a result.  Then his father passed away at age 50.  Kane was there to see him take his last few breaths.  After his father's death he was ready to give up and quit college, his heart just wasn't in it anymore.  Instead,  he chose to stick with it and forge on.  Kane is a great example of how perseverence and determination can get you through those rough seasons in life and make you a better, stronger person.  He has learned that while you can't always control the situations life hands you, you can control whether or not those circumstances will define who you are.  Kane chose to write his own ending.   

Then there is Georges Niang.  A sophomore starter for the Cyclones, he suffered a  nasty cut to the temple while in Kansas City playing in the Big 12 Tournament.  An opponent accidentally stepped on his head after Niang fell to the floor during a play.  He left the game due to that injury, raising his fist in victory as he walked off the court.  The next day he was back on the court, ready to play, sporting a Band-Aid over the cut.  The Cyclone fans followed suit and throughout the crowd you could see numerous people in cardinal and gold wearing Band-Aids on their temples.

Then in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Georges suffered a foot fracture which required surgery.  While he may not have been able to be on the court playing those last few games, he was on the bench encouraging his teammates the whole way.  

The Cyclones' season was like a Cinderella story in many aspects:  

They started out their season 14-0.

They won the Big 12 Tournament.

In the NCAA Tournament they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

Ejim had an amazing senior year and was The Big 12 Player of the Year.


**************

But as DeAndre Kane knows only too well, you can only look back so long. At some point you have to turn around, face forward, and get moving again.

Niang is already looking forward.  While waiting for his foot fracture to heal, his mind is spinning with the endless possibilities the next season holds for him and his teammates.  Georges told me, "Next year we are coming back better and stronger than ever. I can't wait."  

We can't either Georges.

We can't either.