Al_4_ISU

Yup. Just outside of downtown Austin*. *Austin, Minnesota that is

I'm sure I've mentioned the name of the town I live in before.

Right on the nuts.

I appreciate the offer, but my wife wouldn't be real thrilled about it. Might have to take you up on the rice though. Of course, I don't get through Ottumwa often at all. No friends/family in the area and it's not really on the way to anywhere I go. I think I've been through there once.

Like most, I know him far more for his role in Major League, which is still one of my favorite acting performances by a non-actor. RIP to a great one.

I'm not Czech, but I live in a heavily Czech part of the world and kolaches are 100% serious business. So many little old Bohemian grandmas making bomb-ass kolaches all the time.

I've always understood "kolache" to refer exclusively to fruit pastry.

I honestly don't know cooler sizes. I would think my main cooler at home would hold 20 lbs of meat pretty easily. It can hold a couple cases of beer and ice pretty easily.

For only 5 hours, I'd think most decent larger coolers would do the trick. You only need Yetis for multi day excursions. Just keep the fucker shut and it will be fine. Also, as someone who spends 3-4 months out of the year eating all of their meals out of a cooler, room temperature food really doesn't taste any worse. I've started to prefer it. Maybe it's just a Stockholm Syndrome situation.

It's not just that she's ISU lore - Central Iowa is literally her adopted home. She's an Australian native who came here knowing no one and remains close to her host family. His family is in Milwaukee on top of that. His HS recruiting is almost exclusively based out of Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City, and even a large chunk of his portal targets are Midwest natives looking to get closer to home. Obviously Texas has way more money than ISU, and more in-state talent, but I just have a hard time seeing him leaving period at this point, especially for a job where basketball takes such a back seat in a part of the country he doesn't have many/any HS recruiting connections, so far away from both he and his wife's respective homes. It's a lot different situation than Hoiberg. Hoiberg and his wife both grew up in Ames and they felt smothered by the hometown hero/everyone knows their family/knows their business type of thing that can accompany life in a provincial smaller college town. Hoiberg ultimately felt trapped by his legacy as The Mayor and wanted out of the fishbowl. Otz and his wife both chose this place to put their roots down and build their life. This is his third stint at ISU (twice as an assistant). He's extremely invested here. Doesn't mean he'd never leave, but I just don't see a job like Texas being the one he'd leave for. Not that Texas isn't/can't be a great job, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for him. Frankly, I'd be more concerned about Wisconsin than Texas.

It’s both. Otz is that good but we do have a billionaire down the road in Ankeny who is a big ISU hoops fan and is generous with NIL $. We don’t go after big name transfers, but rather mid-major all stars. Combine that with very good (but not quite elite) HS recruiting and you’ve got the Otzball recipe

My MIL has everything she orders online delivered to my house. She does this because about 20 years ago, she and my FIL moved to an acreage about 10 miles outside of the town where my wife grew up. This acreage's address was in a different ZIP code for a neighboring town. My in-laws both worked in the town where my wife grew up, so they kept a PO Box there as their chief mailing address. My MIL is convinced that the fact she has a PO Box in New Podunk, IA but has a street address in South Podunk, IA will confuse any parcel services and lead to undelivered packages. While she was still working, she had all her packages delivered to her office (which is in the town where they have the PO Box). Rather than just change their address completely to the place they've lived since 2006, she started having packages delivered to our house. My wife works in her hometown, so every day my MIL drives into town (a 20 mile round trip) to get packages out of my wife's car. One time we were out of town in the dead of winter and she ordered something that could freeze and be damaged. I had to call a buddy to stop by my house and drag it into a warm space. All because she's convinced that if she orders packages to the place she actually lives and has actually lived for nearly 20 years they won't arrive.

Big one in Ames tonight.

But I do honestly/earnestly think McCollum could really succeed with high major resources. He's been a Midwest lifer at this stage, but the guy has an eye for talent and can get a roster to work well together. I don't know if UT fans feel like a good year in the MVC after a DII run is enough of a track record, but I think he'd do well in Austin. Plus (and this is my chief motivator if I'm being honest) it keeps him out of Iowa City or Manhattan or Lincoln or Minneapolis or some place where he'd be recruiting against us with some actual resources. If Otz actually did leave, he would be at the top of my preferred replacement list (after making a run at DeVries of course).

Yeah, I don't hear that at all.