It’s no secret Iowa State freshman guard Talen Horton-Tucker is one of the most talented freshmen in the nation.

He was highly recruited out of high school, with interest and reported offers from several top programs, including Michigan State. He’s shown that potential several times this year.

When Horton-Tucker struggled to start Big 12 play, the Cyclones have struggled along with him. I’m not necessarily talking about his scoring (although that’s the main part of his game), I’m also talking about his ability to set up teammates.

I rewatched Iowa State’s recent game with Mississippi, where Horton-Tucker finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists. He wasn’t totally dominating — his numbers came throughout the game, not in one spurt.

But one thing stood out to me. Whenever the game got chaotic, Horton-Tucker thrived.

Horton-Tucker broke out of double-teams at midcourt thanks to his ball-handling ability. He sat in the middle of Mississippi’s 2-3 zone and picked it apart from inside. He drained 3-pointers from the corners, stepback jumpers over forwards and drove to the rim when he could get a step on his defender.

When Horton-Tucker plays like that, Iowa State is nearly unstoppable offensively.

Take his zone-breaking ability, for example.

The Rebels played a 2-3 zone at times, pressing up on redshirt senior guard Nick Weiler-Babb but allowing the ball to be thrown inside. Once Horton-Tucker got the ball at the top of the post, it was all over. One dribble and he was at the rim.

The Cyclones started passing it into Horton-Tucker in the middle as the first read on possessions pretty quickly. In one play around the 5:30 mark of the first half, Weiler-Babb dribbled up the floor and made a bounce pass to Horton-Tucker at the free throw line, who turned, dribbled once to his right and banked in a layup.

Having someone like Horton-Tucker — who is strong enough to attack the rim, has good enough handles to control the ball in traffic and can pass the ball smartly to his teammates — is essentially a zone-breaker.

That’s even more true when he’s lined up next to redshirt senior Marial Shayok, the Big 12’s leading scorer through Monday at 19.7 points per game, and freshman Tyrese Haliburton, who is second in Big 12 games in 3-point percentage (50 percent).

As you can see in the above screenshot, Horton-Tucker is being guarded by Mississippi’s Dominik Olejniczak, a 7-foot-1 center. Horton-Tucker has the speed advantage and he uses it to get to the rim.

Here’s the tricky part for defenses: even if the help defender — who is guarding redshirt junior Michael Jacobson in this case — was able to cut off Horton-Tucker’s drive, that still leaves Mississippi scrambling. Whether it would be a dump-off to Jacobson, a kick-out to Weiler-Babb in the right corner or Shayok in the left, someone would be left open because of Horton-Tucker’s playmaking ability.

His main problem this year offensively has been his shooting. Horton-Tucker is 27-of-93 (29 percent) from the 3-point line, which gives teams a chance to sag off when he doesn’t have the ball. 

As shown in the photo above, Horton-Tucker is standing all alone in the corner. The ball is on the other side of the floor, but most teams will not sag off a shooter that far. All it takes is one quick pass for the ball to get there. Teams are taking their chances with Horton-Tucker’s shooting from beyond the arc, rather than letting him drive.

It’s hard to blame them. Even when he has a strong shooting night, like when he hit 4-of-8 3-pointers at Kansas on Jan. 21, the damage he can cause in the paint is usually just as bad.

Horton-Tucker draws 4.1 fouls per 40 minutes, which is above average (for comparison, seven Big 12 players are at 5.0 or higher). He also boasts an assist rate of 18.7 percent — for two Big 12 comparisons, Kansas State guard Kamau Stokes is at 23.2 percent and Kansas’ Devon Dotson is at 17.8 percent.

Horton-Tucker’s scoring numbers haven’t been the most efficient, but his ability to create scoring opportunities has provided value for the Cyclones that goes beyond the box score.