When Iowa State arrives in Norman, Okla., for its matchup with No. 22 Oklahoma, it will face a Sooners team with a new look.

Defense is the Sooners’ key this year, as Oklahoma has become a zone-oriented team that is holding opponents to 60.9 points per game.

“There’s nothing wrong with playing the zone. You have to do what’s best for your team,” Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson said in Monday’s Big 12 teleconference. “A month from now we may be playing man-to-man. Right now, we’re going game-to-game — we’re just going to stay with [the zone] as long as it’s good to us.”

The zone will be nothing new for ISU head coach Wayne Morgan. Before coming to Iowa State, Morgan was an assistant coach at Syracuse and became accustomed to the zone.

“I noticed the whole Big 12 has got the 2-3 zone, so that’s kind of interesting,” Morgan said. “I guess you have to kind of credit my mentor Jim Boeheim with making that the latest fashion in college basketball.”

Oklahoma (13-4, 3-3 Big 12) has won three consecutive games after dropping four straight. The Sooners’ losses came against No. 5 Connecticut, No. 13 Oklahoma State, Missouri and No. 19 Texas Tech. Sampson said he wasn’t alarmed by the majority of his team’s losses, but felt Missouri was a team the Sooners could have beat.

“I thought we could have had some of our veteran teams, some of our really good teams, go 1-3 in that stretch,” Sampson said. “Three of those loses I wasn’t overly concerned we lost.”

The Sooners got back to their winning ways with victories over Kansas State, Baylor and Nebraska. Kansas State head coach Jim Wooldridge said Oklahoma’s zone caused a lot of problems for the Wildcats, who suffered a 61-49 loss to the Sooners Jan. 24.

“Obviously it bothered us a lot. We had multiple, multiple turnovers against it, and certainly against our team it was a great strategy to employ,” Wooldridge said. “They’re quick, they’re long inside and against our team it prevented us from getting the ball to certain areas of the floor without a turnover. It was very effective.”

Oklahoma is playing without sophomore forward Kevin Bookout, who underwent season-ending surgery on his right shoulder. Bookout was a preseason Wooden Award candidate and was averaging 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

“Anytime you lose a player the caliber of Kevin Bookout, it’s not a good thing, it’s a bad thing,” Morgan said.

ISU freshman Will Blalock, who played against Oklahoma’s young guards Drew Lavender and Alexander De’Angelo in the American Athletic Union, said even without Bookout, Oklahoma is still a good team.

“They’ve got a couple of good guards,” Blalock said. “Their frontcourt is probably struggling [without Bookout], so hopefully Jared [Homan] and them will take the upper hand in this game.”

Morgan said Sampson is one of the best coaches in the country.

“I admire [Sampson’s] success, his personal fortitude. I admire the way he runs his program,” Morgan said. “Obviously you can see the love he has for his kids and his kids have for him. I think he’s a great man and a great coach.”

The Cyclones (13-4, 4-2) are still trying to break their 19-game conference road losing streak, and it won’t be easy heading into the Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners have won 46 of their last 48 home games.

“Oklahoma’s a great team, and to go down to their place and try to beat them is going to be a huge challenge, and we’re looking forward to it,” Morgan said. “I’m hopeful and I’m fairly confident that before this [season] is over we’ll win a road game.”