While most students will be working, relaxing and enjoying time off during winter break, the Iowa State men’s basketball team will be up to business as usual.

Tough games and road games continue for Iowa State, as the break starts off with another intra-state rival, Drake, on Sunday, Dec. 22 at Hilton Coliseum.

“It’s tough because we’ve got Drake,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “Those in-state games, we know how difficult they are. We really understand that Drake could come in and beat us. We may not be able to prepare as best we can for it, but obviously finals are the top priority.”

Drake dropped a close game against the Iowa Hawkeyes, 50-49, on Nov. 26. The Bulldogs were led by junior Luke McDonald, who scored 19 points.

“They are going to be a great challenge,” Iowa State guard Jake Sullivan said. “I’m looking forward to going against Luke, and the whole team as well, but Luke is a great player.”

Drake, 6-4, is coming off a Dec. 14 win over Western Illinois, 72-62, in which McDonald once again led Drake with 21 points.

“I think they’ve got good experience, I think they’re really well coached,” Eustachy said. “They’ve got more than one offensive threat. Most importantly, they’ve got a bunch of confidence. I really admire what they’re doing and I think they are going to have a great year before it’s over.”

Following the Drake game, the Cyclones will head to Northern Iowa for one final in-state rivalry on Dec. 29. A home game against Arkansas—Pine Bluff on Dec. 31 will prove to be a warm-up for when Iowa State hosts Kansas on Jan. 6.

“We’ve got our hands full but we’re going to concentrate on finals right now, and try to get better a few days in practice,” Sullivan said.

After getting off to a tough start with a couple big losses, the Jayhawks are looking to repeat last year’s dominance in the Big 12. Kansas is led by Nick Collison with 19.3 points per game, and Keith Langford, who is averaging 17.4 points.

The final game before classes start is another tough one for the Cyclones, as they travel down to face Texas on Jan. 11. Despite the difficult schedule, Eustachy is confident the break from classes will help his team.

“I think the teams we’ve coached in the past have made some great progress during this time when we have breaks and can practice,” Eustachy said.

Texas, 5-1, has a triple-threat scoring machine consisting of T.J. Ford, James Thomas and Brandon Mouton, each averaging in double figures. The Longhorns’ one loss came against Notre Dame at 98-92 on Dec. 8.

The Cyclones are coming off two straight wins including a come-from-behind victory in Iowa City against the Hawkeyes on Friday, 73-69, and a 20-point routing of Savannah State on Sunday, 79-59.

“I’m not huge on momentum. I’m huge on practices so I think we’ll get better,” Eustachy said. “We really need to practice. We’ve played too many games and haven’t practiced.”

Sullivan continues to lead Iowa State, as he scored 19 points on six of 12 shooting against Savannah State. Freshman Adam Haluska scored 13 points adding to his streak of scoring in double figures in every game he has played as a Cyclone.

“Jake has shown a lot of leadership — he has really taken this team and shown some great maturity,” Eustachy said. “Jake was really ready to go today and I thought it carried over for the most part of the game to the rest of the players.”

Iowa State used a 50-36 rebounding edge while holding Savannah State to 33 percent shooting. The Cyclones shot nearly 47 percent for the game and racked up nine blocked shots as a team, four coming from Jared Homan.

“We wanted to get better and I thought we did,” Eustachy said.

“I think this team can get a lot better — we just can’t have any setbacks with injuries or what-have-you.”