For Greg McDermott, this year’s trip to Cedar Falls will be easier than the game two years ago.

This season’s game against Northern Iowa still provides many connections for the third-year ISU coach — he still talks to UNI head coach Ben Jacobson, several times a week, and, at one time, coached UNI players Travis Brown, and Brian Haak, — but the connections have diminished from his first year back, when he faced much the same team he had coached to the NCAA Tournament the year before.

Now McDermott leads the Cyclones into a stadium he helped make a reality, as the McLeod Center was developed and broke ground during McDermott’s time in Cedar Falls.

It’s not quite the house that Greg McDermott built — “I sure as hell never said that,” he said with a laugh. The trip provides an opportunity, however, for a young Cyclone team to end a 10-game on-the-road losing streak against an in-state rival.

“It’s another game, and it’s an important game for us,” McDermott said. “Obviously I have relationships with some people there, and that’s probably always going to be the case, but we’re not going to let that affect our preparation.”

Things have not gone Iowa State’s way in in-state matchups in the McDermott era. The Cyclones are only 1-5 against Iowa, Northern Iowa and Drake in the past two years, including two losses to the Panthers.

To reverse that trend, Iowa State will need to build off of a two-week stretch in which it played only two games. The first of those games was a tough one-point loss at Hawaii, and the second saw a sluggish first half from the Cyclones.

“The last couple games, we’ve played well in spurts, not a whole 40-minute game,” guard Bryan Petersen said. “Going on the road, especially an in-state game, you’ve got to play tough for 40, and just execute. Those are the two main things. You’ve got to be tough on the road, and we haven’t done that.”

Part of that starts on defense, something Iowa State has done well, holding every opponent to under 40 percent shooting this season. The Panthers, however, have four players averaging double digits in points with Johnny Moran, Jordan Eglseder, Adam Koch and Ali Farokhmanesh.

“We can’t really focus our game plan on one or two guys. They’ve got a lot of different options,” Petersen said.

For the first time this season, Iowa State will have to deal with a true center in the 7-foot-1 Eglseder. The junior from Bellevue averages 11.7 points per game and 6.8 rebounds, and replaces last year’s leading scorer Eric Coleman.

“He’s a really good player, I remember playing against him last year,” ISU forward Craig Brackins said. “He’s pretty big, but it’s the same as any other opponent you play. You’ve just got to play.”

The game against Northern Iowa starts a stretch in which Iowa State will play the three in-state teams and Pac 10 opponent Oregon State in a span of 10 days.

“This is the start of an important stretch for us,” McDermott said. “The next four games will tell us a lot about our team, and I think we’ll learn a lot about what’s to come this season based on what happens here the next two weeks.”