The ISU men’s basketball team was craving a win last week when their losing streak was sitting at three games. After two more heartbreaking losses to No. 2 Kansas and at Nebraska, the team is craving a victory.

Both games were tied with less than a minute remaining but resulted in losses moving the team to 1-6 in the Big 12, 9-12 overall, with all six conference losses coming at an average deficit of five points.

“It’s kind of motivation as well as frustration because we know where we are, we know we can beat a lot of teams, we now also know we can get better,” senior Tyray Pearson said.

“But it’s frustrating going out there and losing a lot of close ones down the stretch.”

As he has all season, head coach Larry Eustachy puts much emphasis on practices in hopes that strong finishes in practice will lead to strong finishes in games.

“We’re just trying to come into practice and make sure everybody comes out enthused and working hard and not dwell on the last game,” Pearson said. “What’s done is done, and we have to just move on from those.”

Eustachy continues to preach defense and rebounding as areas that will help the Cyclones win, and he makes sure the team knows why they are losing such close games.

“It’s not so much the end of the game, just getting the big defensive stop and staying with it for 40 minutes,” Sullivan said.

“We might play 30 minutes of really good defense, but we’ll have a ten minute lapse throughout the game where we don’t play quite as well.”

Despite the losing streak, the Cyclones are producing on the offensive end as Sullivan posted a career high 27 points against Kansas and Pearson notched another career high against Nebraska with 32 points.

And while the Cyclones are still looking for their first road win, they find themselves at home in comfortable Hilton Coliseum tonight against the Texas A&M Aggies, who are 2-5 in the Big 12, 8-12 overall.

The men do have history on their side as the Aggies come to town having never beaten the Cyclones. A&M’s biggest threat is junior guard Bernard King who is averaging 17 points, including a 30-point performance in an upset against then-No. 24 Texas.

“He’s a very hard guy to guard because he has the ultimate green light. He’ll shoot it at any time from anywhere,” Sullivan said. “So we’re going to make him take tough shots, and being on the road it’s a little bit harder to make tough shots.”