KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the Cyclones were waiting for what team they would play in their first matchup of the Big 12 Tournament, the team looked to fix the recent offensive struggles.
Although they finished their regular season on a 4-1 stretch, the Cyclones had one of their least efficient offensive runs of the season. Iowa State relied on late runs in those four wins to overcome multiple offensive droughts in those games.
The Cyclones’ offensive lulls were at the forefront of their loss to Kansas State at the end of the regular season when the team was outplayed at their own style of play.
Following the loss, head coach T.J. Otzelberger knew that his team needed to utilize this time to get healthy and get back to what was working for them earlier in the season.
“In league play when you are playing other really good defenses, the true objective is to find a way to win, and we’ve done that most nights,” Otzelberger said. “Now we need to just continue to focus on when we’ve been at our best, what does that look like and recreate that.”
After a long and demanding 18-game Big 12 schedule, it can be hard to find time to get players close to 100%.
Iowa State took the following two days after its loss to Kansas State to rest up before looking at what went wrong. Now, heading into the conference tournament, the Cyclones will be playing on fresh legs and making up for some much-needed rest.
“You’re always walking that line of trying to have healthy bodies and then also getting better in certain areas,” Otzelberger said.
Along with a couple of days of rest, the Cyclones have put a lot of their attention on getting each player back to their role. Whether that means playing off the ball and setting up screens or making sure the ball stays moving, everyone’s role plays into Iowa State’s success on offense.
“We did a really good job of our preparation these past few days of focusing on our strengths and weaknesses and what we need to get back to for us to be successful,” Tre King said.
The Cyclones know that they have a strong defense which has helped them generate offense. When they cannot force turnovers, their offense has taken a back seat, which has forced them to pull things together late.
Over its last few days of practice, Iowa State has turned its focus to improving the offense, so the team does not have to rely on its defense to win games on a larger scale.
“We emphasized a lot of what we’re going to do on offense,” Curtis Jones said. “Our defense is usually always pretty good but obviously the offense has slipped a little bit.”
Heading into the Big 12 Tournament, Otzelberger is confident the Cyclones know their identity and will get back to that in the postseason.
No matter who the team will play, the focus is on what it can control and not the team standing on the other side.
“Our message is far more rooted in let’s worry about what we can do,” Otzelberger said. “Not that we don’t respect everybody, but it’s probably less about who we play and us doing what we can do.”
