After pulling off a gigantic upset over No. 10 Texas A&M on Wednesday night, the Cyclones had only one night to celebrate.

The next day at practice began another new type of preparation for Saturday’s game.

“I told them, you get to enjoy this until 4:00 tomorrow and then we go to Colorado,” coach Bill Fennelly said Wednesday night after the game. “Everyone’s going to tell them, ‘Don’t worry about Colorado, you’re playing Oklahoma on Wednesday,’ and if that creeps into their mind at all we’re going to get beat on Saturday.”

Against the Buffaloes last year, the Cyclones were victorious after a double-overtime game in Boulder.

“They are a team that has played much better at home, like most people, but they’ve scored much better at home, they have shot much better at home,” Fennelly said.

In Ames, Iowa State solidly defeated the Buffs by 20 points. The two teams met for a third time in the season last year when the Cyclones came up with a victory over Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 Championship.

Although No. 21 Iowa State (17-4, 5-2) comes into the game off one of its biggest wins this season, the Buffaloes (10-10, 2-6) enter Saturday’s match up after a loss on the road in Kansas.

“There’s a lot of teams that are just playing out this string in February,” Fennelly said. “We’re playing for something and it ought to be fun. It ought to be a lot more fun to come to practice tomorrow at Iowa State than it is at a lot of places in this country.”

Colorado averages a conference low 62.2 points per game and allows opponents to post 63.3 points per contest. Although the Buffs allow a high number of points to their opponents, Colorado only allows for a 28.7 shooting percentage behind the arc.

“No matter what the record is they’re going to give us their best game whatever night we come out,” said senior Heather Ezell. You can’t overlook anybody, we have got to be ready to go.”

Colorado’s Brittany Spears will be at the top of the list on the Cyclones’ scouting report for Saturday. The Colorado sophomore ranks third in the Big 12 in scoring with 17.8 points per game this season.

“She is one of their best players,” Ezell said. “You definitely have to focus on her, but they have got a lot of other players that can really do the job for them.”

Spears has five double-doubles this season and eight games with over 20 points.

Kara Richards, senior center for the Buffaloes, averages 12.3 points per game and leads Colorado in rebounds with 6.9 per game. Colorado’s Bianca Smith is second in the conference in three-point field goals made as well as three-point field goal percentage.

Iowa State has won nine of the last 10 meetings with the Buffs. Being at the mid-point in the conference season, every game is important for the Cyclones and every outcome is unknown. Each practice is different for the Cyclones in terms of preparation.

“They have to change quickly from one game to the next. We are not a team that says ‘Hey, this is how we play, and we’re going to make you play the way we play.’ We don’t do that here,” Fennelly said. “We have a core of what we want to do but we structure it game to game.”

Last year the Cyclones went game-by-game, not knowing what the outcome would be due to injuries and a lack of experience in certain areas. This year the unknown comes from how differently the teams in the conference play.

“Our kids hear all the time, ‘the next 40 minutes is the most important,’” Fennelly said.