MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (KCRG) – No. 14 seed Lipscomb will look to pull the upset over No. 3 seed Iowa State by doing what they do best – shoot three’s.

“(They are) obviously a great shooting team. They shoot a great percentage, shoot great free-throw percentage, they move the ball super well, they can space the floor really well,” said junior Tamin Lipsey. “For us, just being on a string on the defensive side, communicating so we know where the shooters are.”

“Shooting with confidence and letting it rip,” said Lipscomb senior Joe Anderson on his team’s hot shooting. “We just go out there and let it rip from the jump, and that’s what we’re gonna try to do, shoot everything with confidence.”

Throughout the year, Lipscomb was at the top of the Atlantic Sun Conference in terms of field goal percentage.

“Just staying between you and your guy, not letting them get an advantage. because when they get an advantage that’s when you get in rotations, and that’s when open shots happen,: said senior Nate Heise. “As long as the guy guarding the ball is able to stay in front of the ball that kind of stops that from happening.”

Lipscomb boasts the ASUN player of the year, senior Jacob Ognacevic.

”I think just stretching the floor is going to be huge,” said Ognacevic. “When we hit the three the floor is going to open up for everyone. and we’re gonna be able to get our offense going and we can start rolling from there.”

The Cyclones will take on Lipscomb on Friday at 12:30 PM. The game is on TNT.

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The Iowa Hawkeyes are definitely more known for their football program rather than their basketball acumen, but they have placed a few players into the NBA recently.

Two of them were twin brothers: Keegan and Kris Murray.

While Keegan was certainly the more highly regarded of the two, Kris was still considered a solid prospect, which is why he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft.

Murray was a force at Iowa, playing both ends of the floor and establishing himself as one of the best all-around players in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, it has not gone that way for Murray in the pros.

The 24-year-old is now in his second NBA season and has shown very little signs of improvement. As as a matter of fact, he may have regressed this year, as he is averaging 4.1 points and 2.5 rebounds over 14.3 minutes per game on 44.1/24.2/41.3 shooting splits.

Yes, those shooting splits are ugly, and they don’t seem to be getting any better for Murray.

In fact, through eight games in March, the Hawkeyes product is shooting just 31.4 percent from the floor and a miserable 6.7 percent from three-point range.

Over his first two NBA campaigns, Murray is making just 25.9 percent of his long-distance tries and owns a paltry true-shooting percentage of 48.4 percent.

Is it still early in Murray’s career? Absolutely, but you would hope that he would have shown some sort of potential this year. Instead, he is actually playing less minutes as he continues to fall out of favor with Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.

It’s getting to a point where Murray could be a lost cause, at least in terms of his offensive production. Perhaps a change of scenery would do him some good, but it seem hard to imagine that will suddenly fix his broken shot.

One thing about Murray is that he is a solid defender, so he has that working in his favor. But if he can’t corral his shot, it may be difficult for him to find consistent playing time anywhere moving forward.

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Basketball reigns supreme in March with the start of the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, and fans of all ages are filling out brackets to predict the eventual champion.

Some celebrities have gone online to share their brackets, and some had the Iowa teams competing in the tournament going far, while others had them getting eliminated quite early.

Here are the brackets for celebrities and how far they have Iowa teams going.

What Iowa teams are in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament?

Iowa State and Drake are the two teams representing the state in the men’s tournament.

The Cyclones enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will play No. 14 Lipscomb Bisons in the first round. The No. 11 seed Bulldogs face a fellow Midwest school in the No. 6 seed Missouri Tigers in the first round of the men’s tournament.

NBA, NFL stars have Drake and Iowa State winning their first-round games

Recent Super Bowl winner for the Philadelphia Eagles, DeVonta Smith and Baseball Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, both predicted that Drake would reach the Sweet 16 of the tournament, a feat the team hasn’t accomplished since 1971.

Sabathia, a World Series-winning pitcher for the New York Yankees, even has Iowa State reaching the Elite Eight, which hasn’t happened since 2000 when it lost to that year’s National Champion Michigan State.

Another prominent former professional athlete predicting Iowa State to reach the Elite Eight is eight-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard. He doesn’t think as highly as Drake, however, as the former NBA Champion has them losing to Missouri in the first round.

Like Howard, San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle also has Drake losing in the opening round. Unlike Howard, however, Castle predicts a huge upset happening in the form of Lipscomb beating ISU in the first round.

Iowa State has experienced both sides of NCAA Tournament upsets in recent years. In 2022, the No. 11 Cyclones made it to the Sweet 16 after knocking off a No. 6 and No. 3 seed. A year later, Iowa State was the one being upset after losing to No. 11 Pittsburgh Panthers in the first round as a No. 6 seed.

Here are the Iowa State and Drake predictions from other professional athletes according to their brackets

Grant Williams, NBA

• Drake: Round-of-32
• Iowa State: Round-of-32

Maxx Crosby, NFL

• Drake: Round-of-32
• Iowa State: Sweet 16

Paolo Banchero, NBA

• Drake: Round-of-32
• Iowa State: Sweet 16

Quinshon Judkins, NFL prospect

• Drake: First round
• Iowa State: Sweet 16

Bobby Witt Jr., MLB

• Drake: First round
• Iowa State: Sweet 16

Legendary cartoon characters pick Iowa State, Drake winning first-round games

While someone like Stephon Castle doesn’t believe Drake and Iowa State will do much this March Madness, two individuals who know a thing or two about playing high-level basketball have faith that these two schools will at least make it out of the first round.

I’m, of course, talking about Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who — with the help of little-known NBA player Michael Jordan — took down the ‘Monstars’ back in 1996 in a game for the ages. (We won’t talk about the follow-up that took place in 2021)

Both Daffy and Bugs have Iowa State and Drake making the Sweet 16 and the Round of 32, respectively.

Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.