When Iowa State and Oklahoma squared

off two weeks ago in Norman, Okla., it was a strange game for

sophomore forward, Royce White. After breaking his shoes in pregame

warm-ups, the Cyclones’ leading scorer and rebounder finished with

one dunk and a made free throw as his only points and pulled down

just four rebounds.

“I remember a pretty weird defensive

scheme that had me pretty frustrated and then I remember my shoes

breaking; that’s it,” White said of the team’s first

meeting.

OU head coach Lon Kruger devised a

scheme that stifled White on offense as the Sooners double-teamed

and pressured White, forcing him to pass the ball. Fortunately for

Iowa State, White responded with a team-high seven assists — all on

3-point baskets — as the Cyclones buried 15 3s in a 77-70

win.

Iowa State (18-8, 8-5 Big 12) will

be left to guess on what Kruger, a 26-year coaching veteran, has

planned for the Cyclones until Saturday when the Sooners (13-12,

3-10 Big 12) come to Hilton Coliseum.

“Lon Kruger is as creative a coach

as there is in the country, so we’ll go in there and prepare for a

lot of different things,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg on

Thursday.

With many teams choosing to throw

multiple defenders at White, it has opened the door for his

frontcourt mate and fellow sophomore forward Melvin Ejim to thrive.

Ejim led Iowa State with 21 points and nine rebounds in the first

Oklahoma game and has upped his points per game average from 7.2 in

the non-conference schedule to 9.9 during Big 12 play.

“There’s a lot of attention for

Royce and the guards so I just try to make myself available

especially when Royce is penetrating or make myself available near

the basket when [the guards] are shooting that opens up driving

lanes because guys are hung up on them, so I just try to pick my

poison sometimes and see where I can be most effective,” Ejim

said.

In their last meeting, the Sooners

held the edge down on the block, out rebounding the Cyclones by

nine and outscoring them 26-14 in the paint. OU forwards Andrew

Fitzgerald and Romero Osby led the effort down low combining for 44

points.

“They’ve got some versatile big guys

that can step out and make shots, and they can post up very well

and are very athletic,” Ejim said. “We’ve got to just limit them

from touching the ball a lot, and I think that starts from pressure

on the guards and then on the big guys to take initiative in

fronting guys and not giving them a good opportunity to score down

there.”

One of Iowa State’s best defenders

will return on Saturday to help Iowa State’s perimeter defense as

sophomore guard, Bubu Palo, will suit up for the first time since

breaking his right wrist. The Ames native averaged 4.7 points and

2.1 assists per game off the bench in the Cyclones’ first 14 games

before missing the last 12.

“I’m not really nervous,” Palo said

about his on-court mindset after the injury. “I feel like if I was

nervous that would just kind of take away from my aggressiveness so

I’m just going to go out there and play my game and hopefully

everything will work out.”

Hoiberg expects the 6’2 guard to

bring stability and solid perimeter defense to the floor as the end

of the regular season draws closer.

“He does such a good job going into

the game if we’re a little bit out of sorts of getting everyone

organized,” Hoiberg said. “And on the defensive end he’s as good as

we have as far as navigating through a ball screen, our pick and

roll coverage is pretty good when Bubu is guarding the

ball.”

Both teams enter Saturday’s game on

losing streaks as the Sooners have dropped five straight including

most recently double-digit losses to Texas Tech and Texas and the

Cyclones got outplayed in the second half at Baylor on Monday

falling 79-64.

“We have a lot to clean up after

that Baylor game, we addressed a lot of that [Wednesday] we’ll

address more of that [Thursday] and hopefully have our guys ready

to go out and play a full 40-minute game on Saturday,” Hoiberg

said.

Saturday’s game is scheduled to tip

off at 12:45 p.m.