AMES – Ever since Arizona senior guard Caleb Love hit the half court shot to send the Jan. 27 matchup into overtime, Iowa State’s season has taken a slip.
On Saturday, the No. 9 Cyclones have a chance to get revenge and get their season back on track.
Since that shot went in, Iowa State is 4-5, with a four game winning streak sandwiched in the middle of a three-game losing streak and a now two-game skid.
In Iowa State’s last outing, it put together one of its most disappointing performances of head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s entire tenure with the team, losing to a then 13-14 Oklahoma State.
“It was an unacceptable effort on our part,” Otzelberger said.
Iowa State found itself down by 14 at halftime in Stillwater, Oklahoma, after a first half full of turnovers, poor shooting and low energy.
The Cyclones played better in the second half, but weren’t able to dig out of the large hole they had dug themselves into.
“I don’t think we came out with the right sense of urgency in the first half,” junior forward Joshua Jefferson said. “Just gotta start the game better, take care of the ball.”
A large part of the Cyclones’ up-and-down play in the latest stretch of games could be attributed to the injury bug.
During the original three game losing streak against Arizona, Kansas State and Kansas, the Cyclones were without sophomore forward Milan Momcilovic, who was out with a hand injury.
When Iowa State got Momcilovic back, it went on a four game winning streak, defeating TCU, UCF, Cincinnati and Colorado, with every win coming by 10 points or more.
Then, a day before Iowa State was set to face off against then-No. 5 Houston, it was announced that top scorers in senior guards Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert would be out of the lineup. That game would end in an Iowa State loss.
Finally, on Tuesday against the Cowboys, Jones returned to the lineup, but the Cyclones were still without Gilbert, with the game resulting in yet another loss.
Over the course of the season, the Cyclones have lost just one time when its entire starting five are in the lineup, with the lone loss coming to No. 1 Auburn at the Maui Invitational back in November.
“I think there’s certainly been something to say about when we’ve had all eight guys that have been on primary rotation, they’ve all been healthy and they’ve all been doing their job,” Otzelberger said. “The team that we can be, when there’s been one or two of those eight out for one reason or another, it’s impacted us fairly significantly.”
Heading into Saturday’s game against the Wildcats, Jones should be back to 100% after dealing with an illness, and there is hope that Gilbert will be back in the lineup after a two game absence.
“In terms of [Gilbert], we’re optimistic that he’ll be able to return on Saturday. Again, his health and well-being, number one,” Otzelberger said. “He was able to practice today [Thursday] for the first time. We’ll see how his body responds to that and where he’s at.”
If Gilbert is able to go on Saturday, it would be just the fifth time Iowa State has had all six of its highest-minute players in the lineup together since Jan. 11. Iowa State is 4-0 in the previous four games that it has happened.
However, there is still a chance that Gilbert won’t be able to play on Saturday and the Cyclones know that they can’t use that as an excuse to play below expectations.
“It’s what life is, stuff’s gonna happen,” Otzelberger said. “We know what we signed up for. There’s gonna be injuries, there’s gonna be guys that are hurt. There’s even gonna be times that you need to play injured and hurt and find a way to make your team win.”
“It’s super frustrating,” Jefferson said. “We’ve only lost one game when we’re fully healthy, but no excuse, we still gotta find a way to win those games we’re supposed to win.”
Whether everyone is healthy or not, this is starting to feel like a must win game for the Cyclones if they want to get their season going back in the right direction as the postseason looms around the corner.
The Cyclones and Wildcats will tip off at 8 p.m. Saturday from Hilton Coliseum. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.
