After a disappointing performance Tuesday against Missouri, the Cyclones will hit the road again to square off with the Texas Longhorns.

Iowa State suffered a stunning 22-point home-court loss to the Tigers earlier in the week after what the players called a lack of focus.

“We weren’t focused in practice,” ISU forward Wesley Johnson said. “We were probably thinking that it would be an easy game since we stole one down there.”

ISU coach Greg McDermott said he was concerned by the fact that his team may have been overconfident. Ranking last in the conference in scoring offense and field goal percentage, McDermott said Iowa State doesn’t have the luxury of being able to win purely on talent.

“If we’re overconfident then we really have problems,” McDermott said. “We’re not talented enough to ever think we can step on the floor and think we can just win because we’re better players.”

Iowa State (12-11, 3-6 Big 12) made matters worse by turning the ball over 16 times, something they won’t be able to do on the road against Texas (16-7, 6-3 Big 12).

“We played a lot of sloppy basketball,” McDermott said. “We looked like the Bad News Bears out there most of the time.

“We were lackluster in every phase of the game.”

Johnson again pointed to lack of focus for the sloppy play.

“It was a lack of focus coming down the floor,” he said. “We weren’t focused or poised when we had the ball. Whenever they’d pressure us, we’d bobble it. It was just a lack of composure.”

Even Iowa State’s defense was poor, allowing Missouri to shoot over 66 percent from the field in the second half.

“We weren’t sliding our feet very well,” ISU forward Rahshon Clark said. “Whenever they got it in the post we didn’t have enough pressure on the ball.”

The Cyclones will certainly need to have a better defensive effort when they go up against potential NCAA freshman of the year Kevin Durant of Texas.

Durant not only leads the Big 12 in scoring (25.4 ppg) and rebounding (11.6 rpg), but he also leads those categories for all NCAA freshman.

When Iowa State and Texas take the court Saturday in Austin, Durant won’t be the only Big 12 freshman sensation on the floor. Iowa State will counterattack with Johnson.

Johnson is averaging 8.9 rebounds per game – second only to Durant in the conference – and has a school-record 11 double-doubles, again only second in the conference to Durant’s 14.

If Johnson can pull down his average of nine rebounds, he will tie Jeff Grayer for second on the ISU list for most rebounds in a season with 213. The record is held by Dean Uthoff with 306 in the 1976-77 season.