Nine games down, nine to go.

As the ISU men’s basketball team hits the halfway point of the conference season, it’s experienced the high of beating the top of the Big 12 against Kansas, and the low of falling to the league-whipping post of Texas Tech.

While the highs are what the fans remember, it’s the low that the team hasn’t forgotten.

“I’ve for sure have had this day circled on my calendar,” said junior Georges Niang about the Texas Tech rematch. “I’ve been waiting for this [Feb. 7] game for a while now, so I’m excited. When someone kicks your butt like that, I’m just glad we get to play them twice in this league.”

Not much went right for Iowa State (16-5, 6-3 Big 12) when it traveled to Texas Tech (12-11, 2-8 Big 12) earlier this season, but it was the Red Raiders’ 11 made 3-pointers that not only baffled the Cyclones, but beat them.

What’s more baffling is the rate at which teams are making 3-pointers against the Cyclones in nearly every Big 12 game. In Iowa State’s last four games —Texas Tech, Texas, TCU and Kansas— their opponents made 40-of-90 [44.4 percent] of their 3-pointers.

That number is nearly identical to those teams’ shooting percentage from the floor in those games, which was 44.9 percent. Beating teams that are shooting 3-pointers at that rate makes an already difficult Big 12 road even more difficult.

But when teams shoot that hot from 3-point range, is it just luck or bad defense?

“It’s a lot on us, there’s no doubt about it,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg. “We’ve played off of some shooters that haven’t shot a very high percentage, but we’ve been burned with that as well. For us, you’ve got to run them off the line and make them take those 2-point shots outside of the paint.”

One of those shooters was Texas Tech’s Toddrick Gotcher, who hit a career-high 5-of-9 3-pointers against the Cyclones in the first outing. Against Kansas, Wayne Selden Jr. tied a career-high, making 5-of-7 3-pointers.

ISU players, including Monté Morris, said the team has been working on close-outs in practice this week and have focused on defending the 3-point line.

As for the rematch against Texas Tech, the Cyclones expect 3-point defense to be the least of their worries. After falling to Kansas, the team is refocused on a home game and revenge on players’ minds.

“It’s going to be big time,” Morris said. “We call it kind of a payback game but it shouldn’t really be a payback game. Texas Tech coming off a good win against Kansas State and when they come into Hilton, they are going to try to shoot the same way and do the same thing.”