After spending a relaxing week at the Maui Invitational in Hawaii over Thanksgiving break, the now-No. 6 Cyclones come back to Ames to take on No. 5 Marquette in the annual Big 12-Big East clash.
Going back to last season, Iowa State was forced to travel to Chicago to take on DePaul, where the Cyclones pulled out a 99-80 win over the Blue Demons.
Now, Iowa State is one of five Big 12 schools hosting a Big East opponent, with the Cyclones getting perhaps the toughest opponent in the entire slate of Big East opponents.
On the season, the Golden Eagles sit atop the Big East conference with a perfect 8-0 record, with their biggest win coming from a dominating performance over then-No. 6 Purdue at home 76-58.
While it may be the only ranked team that Marquette has played this season, it still has shown the ability to be one of the top teams in the nation by keeping its undefeated record spotless.
The Golden Eagles are led by guard Kam Jones who averages nearly 19.6 points per game on 65.3% field goal shooting. Jones currently leads the Big East in field goal shooting, while being third in the conference in scoring.
Along with Jones, Marquette has three other scorers who average double-digit points per game, with two of them being guards. The second-leading scorer for the Golden Eagles is forward David Joplin, who averages 15.9 points per game.
For the Cyclones, they’ll be led by guard Keshon Gilbert, who earned co-Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 20.7 points per game during Iowa State’s time in Maui.
Although Iowa State fell in the last seconds to then-No. 4 Auburn, Gilbert started off the tournament hot with 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting and only continued to help the Cyclones in their final two wins of the tournament against Dayton and Colorado.
Along with Gilbert, guard Curtis Jones sits second in scoring on Iowa State with 16.2 points per game while coming off the bench, while forward Milan Momcilovic sits third with 12.8 points per game. Both Jones and Momcilovic also contributed in big ways to the Cyclones’ time in Hawaii.
An advantage that Iowa State could have over Marquette will come from the two transfers in the frontcourt, center Dishon Jackson and forward Joshua Jefferson.
Both players combined hover around 10 points per game and six rebounds per game, while Jefferson also averages 1.5 steals per game even as a 6-foot 9-inch forward.
The Golden Eagles prefer to play more guards rather than forwards in each game they’ve played thus far, so having players like Jackson and Jefferson to help lead the way in the frontcourt could prove beneficial for the Cyclones.
The battle between Iowa State and Marquette will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Hilton Coliseum. The game will also be live-streamed on ESPN+.
