Kansas
Iowa State basketball: 3 takeaways from the Cyclones’ revenge win vs. Kansas State
Iowa State basketball: TJ Otzelberger on Cyclones back on track
Iowa State basketball closed the regular season on a high note and was in a good mindset coming into Saturday’s game at Kansas State.
MANHATTAN, Kan. − With Iowa State basketball’s regular season concluded, all eyes are now on the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
Before the action tips off, let’s take one final look at the end of the regular season and Iowa State’s 73-57 win over Kansas State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Cyclones will be the 5-seed in the Big 12 Tournament. They finished the regular season with a 23-8 record and 13-7 in Big 12 Conference play.
Curtis Jones led the way Saturday with 24 points, five boards, five assists and two steals. Joshua Jefferson had 14 points, seven rebounds and two steals, while Dishon Jackson added 11 points, four boards, three steals and a block.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win:
Iowa State basketball’s role reversal of the Feb. 1 loss to Kansas State
The Wildcats left the Hilton Coliseum crowd speechless when they upset the Cyclones and broke their long 29-game winning streak at home last month. Kansas State had been struggling at the time and entered that contest without a single road win. The Wildcats won convincingly during the 19-point upset.
Iowa State came with a renewed effort on Saturday after losing three of its last four games.
The Cyclones won in crucial margins of the game in which the Wildcats previously bested them.
They forced 17 Kansas State turnovers, which they converted into 22 points on the opposite end. Iowa State trimmed its turnovers down to 11 for the game.
Offensively, Iowa State was more efficient, shooting 47.1% overall and 35.0% from deep, while Kansas State shot just 37.7% and a meager 2-for-21 (9.5%) from long range.
The Cyclones started strong once again and never let the Wildcats get back in it, unlike their previous showdown, and ended up winning in wire-to-wire fashion.
Kansas State did outrebound them, 32-30, but it was a better rebounding margin than the 10-board difference the Wildcats had in the first meeting.
They also limited the Wildcats to just eight second-chance points after they piled up 21 second-chance points and 14 offensive rebounds in the earlier meeting.
These were all key ingredients in helping Iowa State finish the regular season on a high note and spoil Kansas State’s senior day.
“Today, the pride kicked in − the pride on the front of the jersey, but for a lot of guys, the pride on the back of their jersey as well,” said Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger. “Playing for their name, their family, the work that they put in is important as well, and so I thought both of those playing for the name on the front and the back was present in our pride today.”
Cyclones allow defense to fuel the rest of their play
For a team that’s recently allowed offensive lulls to impact defensive execution, the Cyclones were consistently more physical and tuned in on the defensive end throughout Saturday’s game.
In the previous meeting, the Wildcats shot 10-of-20 (50.0%) from beyond the arc and 44.8% overall − the fifth-highest shooting percentage by a Big 12 opponent this season.
Outside of a few short-lived spurts, Kansas State never seemed comfortable on offense.
“Our physicality and our urgency to get stops,” Jefferson said. “We did a much better job sprinting back, stopping the ball and keeping them out of the paint. I thought that was a big difference in how we were approaching the game.”
Iowa State’s ability to feast off turnovers emerged once again.
“Those are big plays for us,” Otzelberger said. “We take a lot of pride defensively and being able to generate turnovers with our ball pressure and our rotations, being in gaps and our guys had a really good focus in that area. You get those points in transition, we had 22 points off those turnovers and we win that margin by 16 − that’s the difference in the game.
“We’ve got to continue to be that team every single night out. When we will and when we do that, we’ll be successful.”
Now it will be a matter of maintaining that consistency on the defensive end moving forward in the postseason.
“We’ve seen what our team can do when we’re playing well,” Otzelberger said. “We talk all the time about wanting to be at our best and that hasn’t happened yet. In order for it to happen, you just got to stack days.”
Keshon Gilbert missed Saturday’s game, but expected to be good for Big 12 tournament
Shortly before tip-off, the Register’s Travis Hines reported that the Cyclones would be playing Saturday’s game without Keshon Gilbert due to a muscle strain.
Gilbert is Iowa State’s second-highest scorer, averaging 13.8 points per game. He is also averaging 3.6 rebounds, a team-high 4.3 assists and is one of the Cyclones’ top defenders.
The 6-foot-4 senior played in the Cyclones’ double-overtime loss to BYU on Tuesday, logging 13 points, three rebounds, eight steals, two blocks and three turnovers.
He also played in Iowa State’s win over Arizona on March 1, but he was previously sidelined with a muscle strain for road losses at Houston (Feb. 22) and Oklahoma State (Feb. 25).
Otzelberger expects that Gilbert will be good to go for the Big 12 Tournament.
“He and I just talked in the locker room after (Saturday’s game) about him attacking practice on Monday morning, getting back after it,” Otzelberger said. “Our focus is to get him back on the practice court on Monday, him having a great practice, carry that over to Tuesday and then lead into the game Wednesday.”
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.