Some believe that if you want to reap great rewards, you have to take great risks and trust your gut.
And those words seem to characterize Fred Hoiberg's coaching policy at Iowa State. With the Cyclones mired in a half-decade of disappointment, Hoiberg took the job at his alma mater and snatched up four transfers from other schools.
The move was risky for many reasons: Two of the players -- including Hopkins High School product Royce White, who began his collegiate career with the Gophers -- had been involved in some sort of scandal on their old campuses. No one knew how they would play together or how talented the collection of misfits would be.
But my, how Hoiberg and the surging Cyclones (18-8, 8-5 Big 12) have been rewarded. The second-year coach and former Timberwolves player and executive was banking on landing a player to bring it all together. And in that, he won the lottery with White.
"Royce is as a talented player as we would have on our team," said Gophers coach Tubby Smith, who recruited the forward but never saw him play in a Minnesota uniform after White was suspended as a freshman. "His ability to understand the game and pass the ball, his ability to go get the ball off the rebound and be a bruiser inside and just his ability to make other people better around him -- he's always had that skill set."
That kind of special play has garnered national attention for Iowa State, which hasn't gone to the NCAA tournament since 2005 and hasn't had more than four conference wins in four years. The Cyclones haven't cracked the Associated Press Top 25 yet, but they have been among vote-getters recently.
"It's because of Royce," said Kansas coach Bill Self, whose team lost at Iowa State on Jan. 28. "He's the key, because whenever your 5-man or the guy you play in the low post is your best ball-handler and your best passer, that's a pretty good combination."
And combined with the rest of the formula, it's working pretty well for the balanced Cyclones. They have in White the inside force to reel in defenders as well as the outside threats -- in a plethora of sharpshooting guards -- to punish them when they do.
