For Iowa State, it would be tough to point out many negatives in a game where it collected 24 offensive rebounds en route to outrebounding its opponent 57–27, forced 16 turnovers and won 83–44 over Mississippi Valley State (2–2). For coach Bill Fennelly, it was difficult to ignore the areas where the Cyclones (4–1) could improve in.

“Overall it was good to see us come out and start well,” Fennelly said. “But obviously there’s a lot of things — from a coaching standpoint — little things, we’ve got to be a better free throw shooting team.”

Including Tuesday night’s game, the Cyclones are shooting 65 percent from the free throw line and entered the game ranked ninth in the Big 12 from the charity stripe.

One of the biggest reasons for the team’s struggles could be due to the wrong players getting to the line.

“Unfortunately, the people that are getting fouled the most are our worst free throw shooters,” Fennelly said. “You take [center Anna Prins, guards Kelsey Bolte, Whitney Williams and Alison Lacey], I think they’re shooting 90 percent from the free throw line and the others are shooting in the 30s as a group.”

Post Play — Aside from free throw shooting, the Cyclones have not had much difficulty with their shots, shooting .491 from the field in their first five games, including 53.6 percent in the second half of Tuesday’s victory.  With a young group of post players, the Cyclones remain happy to see players like Prins and freshman forwards Chelsea Poppens and Amanda Zimmerman all having success from the field.

However, Fennelly would still like to see less hesitation from some of his forwards.

“There’s still this high school mentality of not understanding there’s going to be contact during a college game that‘s not going to get called,” Fennelly said. “Sometimes you overthink things and you think you need to make a post move; no, you don’t need to make a post move, just lay the ball in the basket.”

Prins has still managed to lead the team in field goal percentage with .625.

Defense and Rebounding  — With the Cyclones ranking sixth in the Big 12 in scoring offense, an extra emphasis has been put on defense. The Cyclones have now forced at least 15 turnovers in four of their first five games, averaging 17 points off of turnovers in those games.

The Cyclones also created strong second chance scoring opportunities with 24 offensive rebounds, collecting just about as many offensive boards as Mississippi Valley State had total rebounds.

Rebounding numbers like this will give the Cyclones a reason to smile as they have been looking to gain consistency on the glass.

Zimmerman was one of the seven reserves to come off the bench and contribute to the win, adding eight points and grabbing four rebounds. However, she still would like to make improvements in her defensive efforts.