The ISU basketball team is set to play two games in three days for the third time in as many weeks.

After defeating Texas Christian on Jan. 31, Iowa State was rewarded with one day off before a quick turnaround at the toughest venue in the Big 12, Allen Fieldhouse. The prize for defeating Texas Tech in historic fashion Feb. 7 is a trip to Norman, Okla. for a nationally televised bout with the surging Sooners.

No. 11 Iowa State (17-5, 7-3 Big 12) will square off against No. 21 Oklahoma (16-7, 7-4 Big 12) on Feb. 9. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN’s Big Monday showcase and will be Iowa State’s fourth appearance on national television in a 23-day span.

ISU coach Fred Hoiberg has lauded the numerous opportunities for coast-to-coast exposure several times, which disperse Iowa State’s basketball message in a method that transcends mere words. He added that competitively and strategically, the Saturday/Monday game-format cuts both ways.

“What that provides you is an opportunity to practice for three days leading into your next game and make corrections,” Hoiberg said. “That’s the one benefit of playing the Saturday/Monday games, especially when you’re playing a team for the second time.”

The added recovery and preparation time Iowa State was afforded after its 13-point loss to Kansas helped the Cyclones avenge a 2-week-old defeat via a 37-point rout of the Red Raiders.

The flip side is that less than 48 hours after Iowa State held Texas Tech to only 38 points, the lowest total a conference opponent has mustered against the Cyclones since 1967, the Cyclones will take the court for the first time this season against a ranked OU team riding a four-game Big 12 winning streak.

“The difficult thing about Oklahoma is they run a million sets and they run a million different actions and they have a lot of quick hitters,” Hoiberg said. “So this one will be a tough one.”

Iowa State is 2-3 in true road games this season and 2-2 in neutral site contests, including one win against Drake (7-17) in Des Moines. The elements of short preparation time and Oklahoma’s complicated offense, combined with Iowa State’s 4-5 mark outside of Hilton, add a precariousness to the team’s upcoming road test.

Iowa State currently sits alone in second place in the Big 12 standings despite a 1-3 road record against conference opponents. An OU win against the Cyclones would flip the two teams in the Big 12 standings, bumping Iowa State to third and boosting Oklahoma into second place, which Hoiberg said would add incentive enough on its own.

“You’re going to have to win some road games if you want to stay in the upper half of this league,” Hoiberg said. “It’s too good.”

However, about 30 minutes after the Cyclones defeated the Red Raiders, a little extra incentive fell into their laps in the form of an upset.

A cheer erupted from the ISU locker room as Oklahoma State toppled conference front-runner — No. 8 Kansas — in Stillwater, Okla. The outcome cut the Jayhawks’ Big 12 lead on Iowa State to one game and opened a door for the Cyclones to play their way back into contention for a regular-season title.

“We’ve got eight games left. You can’t keep going back every two or three games and [say], ‘oh well, we didn’t do this [in] this game. We need another learning experience. We need to learn from this,'” Hoiberg said. “You can’t have that the second half of the conference season.”

Guard Naz Long said that the circumstances force focus and that the key for Iowa State to unlock its second Big 12 road win of the season will be consistency of preparation and perspective.

“[We’ll] just do the daily routine and we’ll head out to Oklahoma and play a great team,” Long said. “On to the next.”