AMES — Following the women’s 75-67 loss to Utah Sunday night in Hilton Coliseum, the Iowa State men’s basketball team will seek revenge by looking to take down the Utes men’s basketball team at home Tuesday night.
However, despite being ranked third in the nation with a 12-1 overall record and a 2-0 start to the Big 12 conference slate, head coach T.J. Otzelberger believes that his team has only scratched the surface. He believes his group has the potential to become one of, if not the best team in the nation.
“We’ve played some really good teams, coaches, programs and players, but I don’t know if we’ve proven that we can sustain 40 minutes,” Otzelberger said. “I don’t think we’ve shown that we can operate on all cylinders yet. We’ve shown it, but not over long periods of time.”
Otzelberger’s beliefs have also resonated within his team, as players like redshirt senior center Dishon Jackson believe that despite the team’s early successes, there’s still much work to be done to be at the top of their game.
“I don’t think we’ve played our basketball, collectively,” Jackson said. “We’ve seen peaks of what we can do against Auburn and Baylor, but we still have some slippage where we could be much better.”
However, this doesn’t disregard the fact that this Cyclones team is still among one of the best teams in the nation and is currently riding a nine-game winning streak by producing on both sides of the court.
That winning is what players like senior guard Curtis Jones strive for, as the thought of losing games doesn’t even come to mind for this team.
“Our motivation is to not lose,” Jones said. “The thought of losing is not fun, winning is fun. So we just want to be on that fun side every time.”
Now, Iowa State will look to increase its win streak to 10 in its upcoming match against a Utah team that has had a rough going to its inaugural season in the Big 12.
The Utes will enter Tuesday night’s game against the Cyclones with an 8-5 overall record and 0-2 record in the conference after dropping games to then-No. 25 Baylor and Texas Tech.
Utah also enters on a three-game losing streak, as a close loss in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Iowa began the downward spiral of this squad.
In the losses to the Bears and Red Raiders, the Utes struggled to keep up against the top competition in the Big 12, as they lost both games by a scoring margin of 26.5.
Leading Utah is the twin-brother tandem of Gabe and Mason Madsen, who both average at least 11 points per game, with Gabe leading the Utes with an average of 16.5 points per game.
Both brothers tend to shoot the majority of their shots from behind the perimeter, as 198 of their combined 281 shots have been from 3-point range.
It will be key for players such as guards Tamin Lipsey and Keshon Gilbert to keep this twin-guard tandem away from attempting shots from deep.
Along with the Madsen twins, 7-foot 1-inch center Lawson Lovering and forward Ezra Ausar can prove to be added problems against Iowa State, as they both round out the double-digit scorers for Utah.
Despite coming in on a three-game losing streak, Otzelberger believes that the Utes still play with great intent and can make the Cyclones pay if they are not on top of their game come Tuesday night.
“They don’t beat themselves, they play with great intent,” Otzelberger said. “The flow offensively, they’re great in transition and shoot the three really well. Defensively, they try to do a good job of keeping you out of the paint. They will want to keep our guys on the perimeter and out of the paint.”
Iowa State and Utah will take to the court at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Hilton Coliseum. The game will also be live-streamed on ESPN+.
