Opportunity beckons as Big 12 play opens, with Iowa State trying to win one of the few it should.
The Game
Iowa State vs. Kansas State, in Ames
The Time
8:00 PM Central
The Television
ESPNU
The Opponent
Kansas State was the butt of last week’s everything in college basketball, losing by 13 to previously winless Division-II Fort Hays State. They bounced back to beat Milwaukee by a point on Friday, but the secret’s out: This is Bruce Weber’s worst team in decades. Possibly ever. Including two decades as an assistant. In more than forty years of coaching basketball, this might be the worst team Bruce Weber has coached.
The Numbers
Vegas has Iowa State as a 7.5-point favorite, with the over/under set at 136.5. KenPom has the Cyclones 79% likely to win, with the projected final score 73-64.
What Iowa State Needs to Do
This is a take-care-of-business game for the Cyclones, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to prove. On the offensive side of things, ISU should be able to find its groove, playing at home against one of the worst defenses this team will see all year (though that defense is better than South Dakota State’s…). Shots need to be made, and if they aren’t falling, the ball needs to find its way inside, where efficiency should be high against a front line lacking two key pieces.
Defensively, this is an opportunity for Iowa State to figure things out. The performance on this end was promising against South Dakota State, and it’s hard to fault anyone for allowing triple digits to Iowa this year. But there’s still deservedly little faith in the Cyclone capability to stop opponents from scoring. Holding Kansas State well below a point per possession would be a solid accomplishment, and would have some promising implications looking ahead.
Overall, this is one of those games where Iowa State needs to be the big brother. Iowa State needs to beat the bad team comfortably. As long as they can prove they’re demonstrably better than K-State, they’re not going to be in the conference’s bottom tier. No matter how badly things go in the gauntlet that awaits.
