Good Cop: Pavle Markovic
The Cyclones came out of their first game of the Big 12 Tournament with a refreshing win against Kansas State on Thursday night. Iowa State got revenge by easily manhandling a Wildcat team that had previously bested them less than a week ago.
Entering the semifinal round of the Big 12 Tournament, the Cyclones will take on Baylor for a chance to make the championship game Friday night.
Both these teams had only played each other once this season on Feb. 3, to which the Bears pulled out a narrow 70-68 win in Waco, Texas, as Iowa State failed to pull ahead late.
With each team having a game under their belts to adjust to the pace of play at a neutral site, it will be interesting to watch how the Cyclones will plan on slowing down a high-flying Baylor offense.
While the Bears’ defense has not performed as well as they had hoped, Baylor could have a problem with an Iowa State team that just blew out the Wildcats by 19 points, despite the Cyclones having a recent struggle to get their offense going early on.
In the end, I do have Iowa State pulling ahead of the Bears to advance to the Big 12 Tournament championship game.
No. 2 Iowa State 77, No. 3 Baylor 72
Bad Cop: Brett Twelmeyer
I will say that I was impressed with how Iowa State handled Kansas State. That looked like the Cyclones from earlier in the season in terms of the collective effort on offense and defense.
Now, Iowa State stares down a Baylor team that narrowly escaped in the lone regular season game between the two. This will be a classic Big 12 battle, probably one that comes down to the final possession once again.
Baylor defeated Cincinnati, who finished 11th in the conference, to advance and face Iowa State. The Bears woke up in the second half and relied heavily on their defense, which could be an issue for the Cyclones.
Iowa State had problems on offense in the final few games of the regular season that seemed to be resolved against Kansas State. Baylor could exploit the Cyclone offense again and keep them down if those troubles return.
The big battle will be Baylor’s offense, which is second in the Big 12, versus Iowa State’s defense, also second in the conference. Baylor is the top 3-point shooting team in the Big 12, something the Iowa State defense has struggled with a lot this season.
At the end of the day, I have Baylor escaping another close one over Iowa State. This one could go either way, but the Baylor offense will find enough to advance.
