Peterson: How Iowa State basketball lost to Kansas was 'unacceptable,' T.J. Otzelberger says

AMES — We’ve seen what happens when Iowa State dictates aggression and physicality during basketball games. We’ve seen those wonderful traits turn into wins — even more wins, maybe, than anticipated.

During Tuesday’s 70-61 loss against 10th-ranked Kansas at Hilton Coliseum, we saw what happens when the team doesn’t follow coaches’ objectives.

Credit Kansas for some of that. Blame No. 22 Iowa State, also, for not doing the physical things it takes to win in the tough Big 12.

“We knew coming out that we needed to impose our will defensively — guarding the basketball with a level of physicality and toughness,” coach T.J. Otzelberger said postgame. “That didn’t happen.

“We put ourselves behind early. I felt like they put 13 points up on us really fast. Right away, we were behind the play, and that seemed to be a story for the rest of the night.”

Playing catchup on the scoreboard is one thing. Actually playing a step or three slow against your opponent on the floor is not good against anyone, let alone against a Kansas team stinging from Saturday’s humbling loss against Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

“We weren’t as aggressive guarding the ball as we normally are,” Otzelberger said. “They shot 56% on our court. We’ve always got to be the aggressor for our team to be the team that we can be, and for us to be successful.

“It’s disappointing that we let that one get away in front of such a great crowd, and what an opportunity it would have been.”

Look at the points in the paint, where Kansas had a whopping 34-22 advantage. Look at rebounds, which went the Jayhawks’ way by 11.

Cyclones’ 3-point shooting? A substandard 5-for-22. And free throws? Iowa State shot just six, and don’t blame the refs. You have to show at least a glimmer of physicality in order to get fouled.

And you have to make stops, too. Preferably, the more consecutively, the better.

“We picked it up in the second half of the first half,” said Izaiah Brockington, who led Iowa State with 24 points. “Then as the second half wore on, we just couldn’t string together stops.

“They were hitting kick-out 3s. They were getting layups off our turnovers and getting fouled. We’ve got to figure out a way to string together stops.”

Thus, the Cyclones lost in a game that didn’t include the Big 12’s best player, Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji. The 21-point scorer stayed back home due to COVID protocol, but that didn’t matter in this game.

David McCormack had 14 points and 13 of the Jayhawks’ 37 rebounds. That right there could be the story of the game. The Cyclones had no one to stop him, nor any of Bill Self’s players from scoring in the paint.

Iowa State hasn’t been great defensively inside. Kansas getting 34 is too many.

“Overall, our rim protection wasn’t very good,” Otzelberger said. “Whether it was the guards or the front-line guys ... regardless of who that is, we’ve got to have an intentionality, and rotate earlier. We’ve got to hit people with our lower body and be physical in there. We didn’t do that.”

It didn’t matter who was in charge of paint patrol. No one was successful.

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“I’m not here to cast blame on whose fault that was,” Otzelberger said. “I’m here to look at what we need to do, to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Whoever’s in that goalie position needs to have the physicality to make that play.”

It’d be troublesome if the reason Iowa State lost Tuesday night was a season-long pattern. It’s not. What happened doesn’t often show up, so there’s no reason for alarms and red flags.

Also: Kansas is good. Very good, even without Agbaji.

But so is Iowa State. This was a winnable game.

“They made big shots, but part of it to me was that we weren’t as aggressive guarding as we need to be,” Otzelberger said. “We respect their team and their program.

“We’ve proven that, when we really guard, that we dictate the shots that we want. Those shots at times were just too open and too uncontested.

“I know what we practice. I also know that we’ve been a team at times, that when things haven’t gone our way offensively, we’ve still stayed the course by doing physical things.”

That certainly wasn’t the case Tuesday inside an arena full of fans just waiting for a reason to erupt.

“On our court, it’s unacceptable to not be the more physical team,” Otzelberger said. “We’re going to continue to demand that every single day in practice. We’re going to demand that when we show up for games, and not put ourselves in this position again.”

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson embarked on his 50th year of writing sports for the Des Moines Register in December 2021. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, 515-284-8132, and on Twitter at @RandyPete.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Why Iowa State basketball's loss to Kansas was 'unacceptable'