CYber CYd with Bill Fennelly

In order to give Cyclone fans an inside look at the Iowa State women's basketball team throughtout the season, head coach Bill Fennelly and members of the ISU team will be posting a weekly blog at cyclones.com on each Tuesday throughout the school year.

Fans will have a chance to hear directly from Coach Fennelly throughout the season about how practice is going, how the team is doing during the season, and what he sees as the staples of the ISU women's basketball program. Players will talk to you each week about their perspective of school life, practices, games, and the daily hurdles of being a Division I student-athlete.

This week, Coach Fennelly tells you what he is looking forward to as the Cyclones hit the road for their next six games. He also talks to you about the recruiting class that he signed last Wednesday. Next week, check back as Kelsey Bolte reports in live from Denver, Colo., while she and her teammates wait to board the flight to Honolulu for the Waikiki Beach Marriott Classic.

CYber CYd With Bill Fennelly

The season has officially started! We hope that we can provide Cyclone fans with some enjoyment to help pass the winter months. I was pleased with our season opener on Sunday (a 77-45 win over UMKC). I was again amazed by the loyal support of our fans with all the sporting events that we hosted at Iowa State over the weekend.

We now head into a real difficult portion of our schedule before we return home to Hilton. We will play the next six games on the road, and we will face some excellent teams in some tough environments. It will begin with our first road test of the season at UNI on Thursday. Playing an instate rival on the road is as tough as it gets in our sport.

Archives

CYber CYd Blog Archives

After the UNI game, we will head to play another excellent Valley team in Creighton. We had a very difficult game against the Jays last year at home and I am sure the trip to Omaha will be another very competitive game. Because of the great support of our administration, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Hawaii. The ability to travel is a great experience for our kids and a major piece of our recruiting efforts. We will face three tough teams in the tournament. It will begin with Prairie View, followed by #8 Stanford, and we will close the tournament with a game against a very good San Diego State team. Our players will have some fun for sure, but we will need to be at our best in hopes of playing well in such a prestigious tournament.

If that is not enough, we will come back to Iowa and our next game will be at Iowa. It will be our chance to try and help the Cyclones in the Cy-Hawk series. I hope that we have a few of our fans rooting for us against the Hawks.

I also want to let you know that on Nov. 12, we added four new members to the Cyclone Basketball family: Amanda Zimmerman (Ballard HS/Huxley, Iowa), Chelsea Poppens (Aplington ?Parkersburg, Iowa), Jessica Schroll (H.H. Dow HS/Midland, Mich.) and Anna Prins (Broomfield HS/ Broomfield, Colo.). I am so excited about this group and I know they will add a great deal to Iowa State on and off the court.

On behalf of my family and the Cyclone women's basketball family, I want to wish you all the best for the Thanksgiving holiday. We all have a great deal to be thankful for without question.

We will see you back at Hilton on Dec. 11, as we host Drake. I can promise you we will be looking forward to returning home!

GO CYCLONES!

Bill Fennelly