Coach Greg McDermott  won’t call Tuesday’s game at Colorado a “must-win.” The matchup with the Buffaloes isn’t lacking energy, however.

“I think it’s a very important game, considering we have a top five team coming in here on Saturday… but I approach every game as a must-win,” McDermott said.

The 9:30 p.m. tip-off is much later than the Cyclones are used to, but the team will need a better shooting performance than they’ve featured in conference play thus far. Coming off Craig Brackins’ monster performance against Kansas, a team effort against an undersized conference opponent, in the Buffaloes, would make great strides for the Cyclones in the standings.

To stop the Buffaloes, Iowa State will have to defend Colorado’s rotation-based Princeton offense.

Iowa State’s performances against the Princeton offense this season have been defensively sound but failed to solidly put the game away against UC-Davis and Oregon State. To pick up a rare conference road win, the Cyclones will need to improve defensively, having given up four halves of 50 percent shooting or better in their last four games.

“Nine minutes into the game, [Colorado] was in the bonus against Kansas State on Saturday, so we have to be sound, defensively, and do it all without putting our hands on the offensive player,” McDermott said.

Colorado’s strong 47 percent shooting from the field isn’t reflected by its conference record yet, but to avoid being the Buff’s first Big 12 victory, the Cyclones will need to emerge from their last-place ranking in scoring offense.

“It’s always difficult to guard an offense like that, but as long as we stay locked and loaded like we normally do, I think we could be OK,” Brackins said.

Featuring a starting lineup similar in size to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Buffaloes will feature a zone defense to battle against the taller and longer Cyclones in the paint. Starting three guards and two forwards, 6-foot-6 guard Cory Higgins has been the leading scorer and rebounder for the Buffs, but his partner guard Dwight Thorne scored 30 points against Kansas State. Colorado will look to pressure the Cyclones and clamp their zone defense around Brackins in the middle.

“Kansas held him to 42 points, and he’s a very talented player,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said during the weekly Big 12 teleconference. “We know he’s going to get his points, but we need to make him earn all those and make sure that no one else on the team has an all-star night.”

Freshman center Justin Hamilton hopes to have big night against the small lineup, as the freshman outsizes the largest Colorado starter by three inches and almost 50 pounds.

Brackins talks NBA

Much of the attention circling the team has been around Brackins’ performance against Kansas and subsequent third appointment as Big 12 Player of the Week.

“I hope the NBA is in [Craig’s] future at some point; when that is, that’s going to be up to Craig. That’s a discussion we’ll have when the season’s over,” McDermott said.

Averaging a point more per game than Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin so far in conference play, Brackins has been garnering NBA scouts and buzz around Hilton Coliseum.

After three games with more than 30 points this season, an average of nine rebounds per game and a positive mention on ESPN’s highlights over the weekend, expectations were bound to rise.

“I’ve got so many years left in college, I don’t think it’s something I should be concerned about right now,” Brackins said.

But McDermott said he’s not putting any pressure one way or the other on Brackins.

“He’s the one that has to determine if he’s ready or not ready; when that time comes. I’ll support him in whatever he chooses to do,” McDermott said.

Along with the increase in televised time, Brackins mentioned he had been getting more calls but was still not accustomed to conference honors and the increased popularity.

“I always told myself I’d be here as long as I had to, which is four years, so that’s how long I think I’ll be here,” Brackins said.

Cyclones face dismal performance history at Boulder

Iowa State’s troubles on the road are well documented, but even though Colorado isn’t known as a basketball school, the Cyclones have tasted victory in the mountains just once since 2001. Colorado’s recent struggles are due, in part, to the lack of scoring from the bench, as well as the -2 assist-to-turnover ratio, but the Cyclones’ 16-45 mark against the Buffs in ski-territory doesn’t bode well for the squad.

“It would mean a lot to get a road win in the Big 12, and I found out that we really don’t win much at Colorado, so it would mean a lot to the program to win there,” Brackins said.