The ISU men’s basketball team faces its biggest challenge so far this season on Saturday against the Iowa Hawkeyes. And in the eyes of many, it is one of the Cyclones’ biggest

games of the year as it will write another chapter in this heated intrastate rivalry.

The Hawkeyes come into the game ranked No. 12 in the country with a deceiving 6-3 record that includes losses to No. 1 Duke and No. 3 Missouri. Most recently, Iowa was upset by Northern Iowa Tuesday night on the road.

“It’s a bad time to play this team, they’re awfully angry. I’m sure we’ll catch their best, and we’re not nearly at ours,” Eustachy said. “But you got to play it. We’ll see what happens.”

Eustachy doesn’t chalk up Iowa’s loss to Northern Iowa to the Hawkeyes being overrated, saying he doesn’t know of any team that could have gone in there and won.

“They’ve stumbled a little bit, just like when we had our really good Elite Eight team and lost to Michigan State; we stumbled,” Eustachy said. “It happens; you see it happening all over the country.”

The Cyclones are coming off a 23 point victory over Arkansas Pine-Bluff, but the team turned the ball over 24 times in that game, something Eustachy knows has to change for Saturday’s contest.

“If we have 12 turnovers, we have no chance,” he said.

Eustachy is very impressed with Iowa, not only the two future first-round draft picks in seniors Luke Recker and Reggie Evans, but he feels the rest of the team is overlooked.

“It’s really a mismatch, if you will; our youth and lack of depth against a very experienced team,” he said. “Hopefully we can just be in there, play with them a little bit.”

Evans comes into this game as one of the country’s top players, averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds per game.

“I don’t think you can stop him,” Eustachy said. “You’ve seen him double-teamed, triple-teamed. He has an uncanny way of legally getting his hands on the ball even when you block him out. He’ll go over your back in the right way and not foul.”

Eustachy and company don’t have much of a game plan, besides playing the Hawkeyes man-to-man on defense and trying to cut down turnovers on offense.

“When you play Arkansas Pine-Bluff, it’s easier to get into the game as opposed to an Iowa,” Eustachy said. “So it’s going to be very difficult to play these older guys. We’re going to really work to take away their strengths.”

Those strengths, in Eustachy’s eyes, are the transition game, offensive rebounding and three-point shooting.

Iowa State’s ever-changing starting lineup will not see junior Omar Bynum, the team’s leading rebounder. Instead, freshman Jared Homan will get the start.

“Jared has worked really hard for us this year,” Eustachy said. “Omar has broken down a lot in these games. He’s struggled keeping guys off the boards. We play the five guys that execute the best.”

Starting sophomore Marcus Jefferson, like a few other Cyclones, is participating in the hype of this rivalry for the first time.

“I kind of know somewhat. Last year, I went to down to a football game and I saw how excited the two schools are about it,” Jefferson said. “I realized that it’s a really big rivalry between these two schools in the state.”

But the team is devoted to preparing for this highly ranked opponent and will let the fans and the media focus on the rivalry.

“We’ve been doing our work. We studied them as players, as a team,” Jefferson said. “So I think we’ll be prepared. We’ll be ready to match up against those guys.”

Though Eustachy admits his team isn’t the threat that it has been in the past few years, he said this team has every intention of winning this game.

“We’re not gonna lay down. We’re gonna try real hard,” Eustachy said. “It’s going to be a great test for us. We’ll be better either way, because we know we’re going to get their very best to date.”