Bob Knight got his 100th victory at Texas Tech on Saturday. The ISU men’s basketball team got another what if.

After leading much of the game, Iowa State let another close one slip away, falling to Texas Tech 76-73 in Lubbock, Texas.

The loss pushed the Cyclones to 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference with no real break in sight.

Iowa State’s already bumpy conference road doesn’t get any easier, as it faces a strong Nebraska team that has won six of its last seven games.

The Cornhuskers are undefeated in the Big 12, knocking off Oklahoma and Kansas State and hold a 12-3 overall record.

Nebraska is crediting the play of their three big men – Aleks Maric, Wes Wilkinson and B.J. Walker – to their early success.

“They’re a good team,” ISU coach Wayne Morgan said in the weekly Big 12 Coaches teleconference.

“They are playing very well and with their victory over Oklahoma and the performance of their frontcourt in that game and others, they probably have the second best frontline in the conference.”

Wilkinson leads Nebraska in scoring, dropping in 12.2 points per game. He is also averaging seven rebounds a contest.

Maric averages eight points and seven rebounds, while Walker drops home almost seven points and five rebounds a game; all are forces in the middle.

“Their frontline, those three guys are 20 rebounds a game in just those three,” Morgan said. “They’re a good team.”

The size of Nebraska will be another test for Iowa State’s young frontcourt of Ross Marsden, Jiri Hubalek and Shawn Taggart.

“Where Nebraska really hurts you is on the offensive boards,” Morgan said. “They don’t really give you a chance, even on defense, to get a clean rebound.”

Although the three young Cyclone big men have struggled at times, Morgan said they are taking steps forward.

“Those three young guys have an understanding of where they need to go,” Morgan said. “Now the problem is getting them from point A to point B.

Not only getting them to the point where they understand how tough it is and how they have to battle, but having them mentally tough enough to battle people.”

Marsden, Taggart and Hubalek combined to score 19 points against Texas Tech and grabbed nine rebounds.

The three had more fouls than rebounds, getting whistled 12 times in the game.

Guard Will Blalock led Iowa State with 21 points against Tech and Curtis Stinson added 14.

Stinson has struggled early in conference play. After being shut down by Texas’ Daniel Gibson – scoring just seven points in Iowa State’s loss to the Longhorns – Stinson had just two assists against Texas Tech and committed seven turnovers.

Jason Dourisseau and Joe McCray will be faced with the task of stopping Stinson and Blalock.

“One of the things Nebraska has done is they’ve started doing what we do, they’ve started pressing people and then dropping back into a 2-3 zone,” Morgan said.