Flip a coin. Heads, Iowa State shoots the ball well from the arc at above a 35 percent clip. Tails, Iowa State shoots below 35 percent.

The problem for the Cyclones — the coin keeps coming up tails.

In the last two games Iowa State shot 12 percent from downtown at Missouri and 23 percent against Kansas. They lost both games, and need to rediscover their stroke on the road against Colorado on Tuesday.

“I don’t think it is any secret that we are just not a team that is going to blow by you on the dribble and go in and finish and dunk over people from the guard court,” coach Greg McDermott said. “That is not our make up right now. So we have to try and live with the jump shot.”

Or die.

In 19 games, the Cyclones have shot better than 35 percent from 3-point land nine times, and below 35 percent 10 times. They are 7-2 when shooting over 35 percent, and 5-5 when below. Even more telling — in four Big 12 games the Cyclones have shot below 35 percent three times. They lost all three.

“Every shooter, every team kind of goes through some cycles and you hope it doesn’t last too long,” McDermott said.

“Earlier in the season everything we threw up went in. And right now we are getting those same shots and we are not able to knock them down.”

The infection of poor 3-point shooting has been widespread on the Cyclones in their three Big 12 losses. Before Big 12 play started Lucca Staiger (.438), Bryan Petersen (.369), Diante Garrett (.363), and Wes Eikmeier (.353), led the Cyclones from the arc. Their leader since Big 12 play began? Craig Brackins at 36 percent.

Brackins has been the one Cyclone who hasn’t lost his shooting touch, as was evident in his 42-point performance against Kansas. Because of performances like that, Brackins has been commanding more attention from opposing defenses, and creating opening shots for his teammates. That makes it all the more frustrating.

“A lot of the shots we were able to get were a result of Craig touching it first or something they were trying to do to keep it out of Craig’s hands — [the shots] just didn’t fall for us,” McDermott said. “So [Brackins’ playing] in itself can be an offense, and we have to take advantage of that.”

McDermott called Brackins the “focal point” of the offense, and said he isn’t worried if that the rest of the Cyclones might be looking to Brackins to much.

“We as coaches could try and dream up plays all day where you have two guys guarding one of your guys and the other three are trying to guard your other four. That’s a pretty good deal,” McDermott said.

“If they are going to do that, we have to make them pay for it.”

Because of the team’s shooting woes, McDermott has searched the bench to try and provide a spark from beyond the arc. Charles Boozer, Wes Eikmeier, Sean Haluska and Jamie Vanderbeken each saw playing time against Kansas. Despite contributing in other ways, Vanderbeken was the only one of the four to make a three, and he was 2-of-8.

There is no magic cure for the Cyclones’ shooting sickness, but McDermott is confident his shooters will come around because of the extra effort they are putting in outside of practice.

“As I told our team, sometimes you can’t control your offense,” McDermott said.

“There’s going to be times when the ball isn’t going to go in the basket, and you’re getting the shots that you want and there is still ways you can win games despite that. My feeling is that over time our offense will come, our shooters will get back to making shots, but we have to be a solid defensive team.”

Finding consistency from the arc is key for the Cyclones down the stretch, because the Cyclones don’t want to be left guessing — heads or tails?