After holding Nebraska to 53 points, Iowa State (12-5, 1-1) now must travel to Missouri (14-3, 1-1) who on Wednesday scored 107 points. The Tigers are known for their annoying press defense and quick release offense— or, in other words, the exact opposite of the Cyclones.

“One team won’t be going into the 90s or 100s so we have to make sure that neither team gets there,” said head coach Greg McDermott. “You have to play at a couple of different paces against Missouri because you have to be aggressive enough to attach their pressure and take advantage of opportunities when they’re there, yet not force the issue when they’re not there.”

Missouri head coach Mike Anderson is a disciple of Nolan Richardson’s “40 Minutes of Hell” that Richardson preached while at Arkansas in the 1990s. Anderson was an assistant coach under Richardson from 1985-2002.

“Last year we just heard about it — 40 minutes of whatever you want to call it — now we’ve seen it,” said senior guard Bryan Petersen.

Missouri is second in the Big 12 averaging 84.6 points per game. They also rank first in the Big 12 in scoring margin, out-scoring its opponents by 21.2 points per game.

“This is the best Missouri team that we’ve faced in my two plus years,” McDermott said. “Their front line is experienced and does a lot on both ends of the floor. Their guards are playing well enough to give them a chance to win every time they play. Not often do you see a team that’s averaging 20 assists a game and forcing 20 turnovers a game — those are really unique statistics.”

The Cyclones saw their 13-point lead disappear against Nebraska when the Cornhuskers started to full-court press in the second half. Missouri won’t wait until they’re down by double digits before they start to press because they use full-court pressure from the get-go.

“The defensive press that Nebraska put on us wasn’t quite on-ball pressure, it was more setback and we didn’t attack it pretty much,” Petersen said. “They (Missouri) do a lot more on-the-ball press and they’ll trap actually out of it right away after the first pass. You have to attack and you have to score and we won the game here last year against them because we did that.”

The two teams split last year’s games, with Iowa State winning at Hilton 72-67 and Missouri winning in Columbia 81-75 in double overtime.

“We did a pretty good job last year against their press so I think we’re going to look at that film from last year,” said sophomore point guard Diante Garrett. “We’ll play our game and get some stops on the defensive end and that’s going to get our offense going.”