The ISU men’s basketball team will be putting its 14-game winning streak at home on the line Saturday when it faces its toughest test of the season, the No. 15 Kansas Jayhawks.

Kansas brings in an undefeated Big 12 record and four players who were with the team last April when it lost the national championship to Syracuse. This game is important for the Big 12 title race, because a win over Kansas would put the Cyclones one spot out of first place in the conference.

“It’s a big game. They’re a good team, and we have a lot of respect for them,” head coach Wayne Morgan said. “We look forward to and are excited about the challenge of playing them. They’ve got four guys returning that played in the national championship. I think that [Keith] Langford is great, [Aaron Miles] is great, when you look at [Wayne] Simien, [Jeff] Graves and [David] Padgett, I don’t think there’s many teams in the country that have three big guys like that.”

Freshman Will Blalock will be facing Kansas for the first time and said the game should be exciting.

“On paper they are probably scouted out to be better than us, but it’s gonna be a pretty good game,” Blalock said. “We have the crowd on our side, so we’ll be fine.”

Iowa State came away with a win in its last outing Wednesday, defeating Texas A&M 91-82. Blalock led the Cyclones with 22 points.

Junior center Jared Homan returned to the court after missing the Baylor game with an ankle injury. Homan recorded 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks.

“I think Kansas is a tough team; they’ve been doing well this season,” Homan said. “I think we are very fortunate to play them at home — the crowd will be behind us.”

Kansas is coming off a 78-70 win over Kansas State Wednesday. Langford led the Jayhawks with 19 points with Simien adding 16.

The Jayhawks are 13-3 overall and 5-0 in Big 12 Conference play.

Langford leads the Kansas offense, averaging 17 points per game. Simien averages 15.7 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Langford and Simien have accounted for 41.6 percent of the Jayhawks’ points this season.

Morgan and Kansas head coach Bill Self are both in their first seasons as head coaches at their respective schools. Self was head coach at Illinois last season, but took over at Kansas when Roy Williams left for North Carolina.

“They’ve got good personnel, very good personnel. I love their team,” Self said during last week’s Big 12 teleconference. “The little bit I’ve seen, I think they’ve got very good young players. They’ve got some size [and] athletic ability. I think [Morgan] has done a good job coaching them as evident by their good start.”

Saturday’s game starts a tough three-game stretch for the Cyclones. After Kansas, they travel to Norman, Okla., Feb. 4 to face the Sooners and return home to host Oklahoma State Feb. 6.

Blalock said the Kansas game will be important for setting the tone for the next few games.

“We want everybody to look at us like we are at least top two in the Big 12,” Blalock said. “We’ve got to get this win Saturday.”