Peterson: Iowa State basketball has some things to fix before Big 12 Tournament
MANHATTAN, Kansas – What happened Saturday afternoon inside the Purple Palace, otherwise known as Kansas State’s Bramlage Coliseum, becomes significant only if Iowa State basketball's 65-58 loss leads to something far worse happening in the Big 12 Tournament next week.
If the NCAA Tournament selection committee had T.J. Otzelberger’s team a 2-seed, they might be a 3-seed when the next major bracketology projections come out. If they were a 3-seed, they might stay there, and if they were headed to a regional in Omaha...
Here’s hoping that hasn’t changed.
More: Offense falters again as Iowa State basketball falls at Kansas State
The Cyclones should have built up enough resume cache to offset Saturday’s blip of an otherwise outstanding season. However, a recent trend is alarming.
Last Wednesday, Iowa State trailed BYU by 14 points in the second half, rallied and pulled out a big win.
Three days later, on a Saturday afternoon in the Little Apple, the Cyclones trailed Kansas State by 17 points with about 14 minutes to play.
This time, they didn’t rally. This time, they didn’t win and that’s at least somewhat of a red flag heading into the defining part of the season.
“It’s not what you want to have happen,” a very hoarse Otzelberger said after the game. “We’ve had a great regular season. We didn’t have focus (Saturday). It’s a one-game deal. On to the next game.”
Absolutely. His 24-7 team had a great regular season:
The Cyclones had a head-spinning six different players lead the team in scoring. Seven players have scored 20 points or more in a collegiate game.
Iowa State's 13 Big 12 victories tied for the second-most league wins in school history.
The Cyclones won 18 games in a row at Hilton Coliseum, the fifth-longest active home winning streak in the country.
Get back to playing Iowa State basketball. That’s the deal. That’s the remedy.
That’d be a defensive-minded team that generates offense from turnovers – something that didn’t happen Saturday.
Just 11 points off Kansas State’s 15 turnovers? That’s not the Iowa State basketball team I know.
“We have a higher standard for our guys in being able to generate points off our defense,” Otzelberger said. “That’s who we are...and that’s what we will get back to doing.”
Sure, there’s time to fix it before playing Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City. You bet there is, but is there a fix for bad shooting?
I mean, shooting just 29.4% from the 3-point line the past three games?
During that span, his team has shot a miserable 28.5% from the floor.
Here's where I’d usually add a line that says 'At least the Cyclones have their usually persistent defense on which to rely,' but that wasn’t even the case all the time Saturday.
A breakdown on both sides of the court?
You could say that, but let’s not forget this has been a memorable season – for many reasons.
While finishing this chapter with a disappointing thud, losses like Saturday happen, especially on the road. The only way the timing could have been worse was if it happened in an early round of one of the postseason tournaments.
“We get in stretches where we force things – take bad shots,” point guard Tamin Lipsey said.
I have more faith in the defense returning for the season’s next phase than the Cyclones suddenly going on a 3-point shooting rampage.
It’s the Cyclones’ defensive M.O. Without it, this team struggles.
“We lost focus,” Otzelberger said. “We were up 18-10. We settled for a lot of early-clock jump shots. We had costly turnovers that were uncharacteristic of our team. We didn’t have enough focus defensively. Credit to K-State for making us pay when we didn’t do the job.”
I suspect Otzelberger will have his guys ready to play the brand of ball we’ve seen throughout the season. He knows the buttons to push.
"They were the more physical, more aggressive team," Otzelberger said of K-State, "and they did a better job in some of the areas we take pride in, in terms of rebounding and being physical.
“As much as I’m going to be hard on our guys about what happened (Saturday), I don’t think anybody can question the focus and intensity of our team over a 31-game season, because we had one bad game. We’re going to scrap it and move it to the side.”
Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 52nd year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, on X @RandyPete, and at DesMoinesRegister.com/CyclonesTexts
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Otzelberger confident Iowa State basketball will improve in tournament
