What the Crap, Ed?!

• It wasn't pretty, and  it wasn't easy, but Iowa State's win over Nebraska Wednesday night was desperately needed. The Cyclones entered the game with six straight losses. Enter ISU's slumpbuster: Nebraska. In nearly every sport this year, when the Clones need to end an ugly skid, Big Red is there.
• Welcome back, Craig Brackins. Brackins put the Cyclones on his back at crunch time, just like an NBA first round draft pick should. It may help basketball fans forget how ugly much of the game was.
• Did you catch this blog note from the Des Moines Register's Randy Peterson: Lucca Staiger has played 3 minutes and scored 0 points in Germany. He had to leave Iowa State in mid-season for that? Clearly, Lucca wasn't happy in Ames. He needed to make that decision before or after the season. Iowa State stood by him for a long time when he was ineligible.
• Iowa plays Northwestern Thursday night on national television. ESPN must be psyched for that match-up.
• Josh Young will leave Drake with a win everywhere in the Valley but Missouri State.
• Olympic hockey does much more for expanding interest in the sport than the NHL. My wife asked me tonight what channel she could watch Russia vs. Canada. I nearly dropped.
• It was cool to hear Bucs GM, JP Parise, from Vancouver, choke up with pride when talking about his son, Zach, scoring 2 goals for Team USA.
• If you missed Andy Fales' story with the young hockey players, it's worth checking out on the news video player.
• The aerial ski jumping is amazing. I really don't know how anyone can do that.
• It's 0 degrees. What the crap, Ed!?