The ISU men’s basketball team has its back against the wall going into Wednesday’s game against Nebraska.

The Cyclones are coming off an 88-75 loss at Kansas on Saturday, which dropped them to 4-6 in the conference and 14-9 overall.

The loss, according to ISU forward Jessan Gray, puts the Cyclones in a must-win situation the rest of the way if they want to make the NCAA tournament.

“We have to win some games here coming up on the road and at home and they’re must-win games,” Gray said. “For our goals we set as a team, we must win these games.”

Gray said if the Cyclones can’t get the ship turned around in time to rally to the big dance, the season may be considered a failure.

“[Getting to the NCAA tournament] is the goal of every team,” Gray said.

“We know we must get there, and we feel if we don’t get there, that’s almost a failure for us. We don’t want to settle for anything less.”

ISU coach Wayne Morgan wouldn’t go as far as to say the season may be a failure, but did say time is running out on the team’s chances.

“[Whether we underachieved] is something we’ll have to evaluate at the end of the year,” Morgan said. “If we only win four or five games that makes us a bubble team.”

“We need five or six [wins] to get into the [NCAA] tournament. If we only win four or five, we’ll have to go into the Big 12 tournament and win a few.

“We’ll see how it goes, we can only take one game at a time. We can’t swallow six games at once.”

The Cyclones begin this crucial stretch run by welcoming Nebraska into Hilton Coliseum.

Iowa State defeated the Huskers 88-75 in Lincoln earlier in the season, but said that game won’t make them underestimate Nebraska’s chances.

“We understand that we have a good chance of winning, but we also understand we beat them on the road and lost to them at home last year,” Morgan said.

“We can’t take anything for granted with them. They’re a good team and they have a good coach and they’ll come in here ready to go.”

Guard Will Blalock said the biggest point of emphasis in this game won’t have to do with the first meeting, but with the Cyclones free-throw woes so far this year. The Cyclones have been outshot from the line in conference play this year 181-277. The Cyclones opponents have made 186 free-throws – five more than Iowa State has attempted.

“We’re not getting there enough at all,” Blalock said. “When we get to the end of the game and we’ve shot five and the other team has shot 27, it’s killing us.”

The Cyclones were just 4-of-12 from the line against Kansas while the Jayhawks when 26-of-32.

“I think our guards are some of the best in the country at getting to the basket,” Gray said. “If they’re not getting to the line, then something is wrong.

“I think sometimes we also settle a little for the jump shot, especially our bigs. It’s something you can only emphasize so much. We just need to realize we need to get in the paint and settle for nothing less.”

Iowa State tips off against the Huskers at 7 p.m. Wednesday.