Instant analysis: Iowa State basketball routed by Iowa Hawkeyes
IOWA CITY – Iowa State lost its bragging rights Thursday night, and probably quite a bit of its pride along with it.
The No. 20 Cyclones were completely demolished by No. 24 Iowa, 75-56, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in one of the worst performances since Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger took over the program last year.
The Cyclones (7-2) trailed 15-0 and did not score their first points until 6 minutes into the game. They never seriously challenged the Hawkeyes the entire night.
"We just came out flat," said freshman Tamin Lipsey. "We didn’t play like we normally do."
Iowa State’s to-this-point ferocious defense was gouged by Iowa (7-2), which shot 50% from the field and went 12-of-23 (52%) from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, the Cyclone offense failed to produce much of anything, shooting 40.7% overall while going 3-of-22 (13%) from distance.
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Gabe Kalscheur scored 12, while both Lipsey and Robert Jones had 11 for the Cyclones.
The Cyclones return to action Sunday when they host McNeese State (5 p.m.; ESPN+).
Was the defense exposed?
Iowa State’s defense has been mostly excellent this season. The Cyclones are ranked in the top-15 nationally with a defense that creates turnovers and guards shooters well.
Given the sample size – and the track record from last year’s team – this Iowa performance is probably a simple outlier. A bad night against a very good offense. It happens.
There should be, though, some pause about adopting that opinion as gospel.
It’s not just that Iowa shot the cover off the ball and put up big numbers, it’s that they did it by creating really good shots. This wasn’t the case of a team getting hot and making impossible shots.
Iowa solved the Iowa State defense, getting open jumpers and straight driving lanes to the bucket.
"We gave them a lot of good looks, a lot of wide open looks that they were able to knock down," Lipsey said. "They had great looks. We gave them too good of looks that they weren’t going to miss."
That’s what Otzelberger is going to be fixated on as he watches film on the ride back to Ames. It’ll certainly be the focus the next time the team gets on the court at the Sukup Basketball Complex.
"We’ve got to be who we can be, and that’s going to be a physical, tough defensive team," Otzelberger said. "That’s not who we were out there tonight.
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"Part of it is us not pressuring the ball. The ball shouldn’t be able to move as free as it did tonight. We were late to closeouts. We were late to rotations. Just felt like across the board we were on our heels, and that’s not going to be a good formula for us moving forward."
That 'formula' seemed to be what irked Otzelberger the most in his postgame comments. Iowa State knows the identity it has to own in order to be good, and it did not live up to that Thursday.
"We’ve got to be who we can be," Otzelberger said. "We’ve got to get locked in on that. We can’t take for granted our defensive habits, our rebounding habits, physical offense."
Given the Iowa State offense is going to have its limitations, maxing out the defense is an absolute, no-negotiating, must-have for the Cyclones if they’re going to be successful this season.
Whether Iowa is uniquely constructed to cause Iowa State defensive issues, if the Cyclones just had a bad night or if Iowa State has some structural issues, it needs to be immediately addressed. The Cyclones’ season hinges on getting every last ounce out of its defense.
That offense
It was clear coming into the season Iowa State’s offense was likely to suffer many of the same deficiencies that beleaguered last year’s squad, which ranked 171st nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom.com.
The performance against the Hawkeyes, though, should raise some concerns that this group could be in an even bigger hole.
While Iowa State had Izaiah Brockington, a top-notch collegiate bucket-getter, a year ago, this group doesn’t have a clear go-to guy.
Jaren Holmes is their leading scorer, but he hasn’t consistently shown he can carry a team on his back offensively. And if he’s not the guy, who is? Gabe Kalscheur’s struggles and his inconsistencies are well-documented, and there really doesn’t seem to be any other candidates on the roster with the playmaking or shot-making needed to fill that role.
The offense has a real ceiling on it given the roster, and that’s just a reality this team will have to live with throughout the season.
The task has to be to find the tweaks to wring just a little more efficiency or consistency from an offense that is probably going to struggle to find much of either without a go-to scorer or real outside shooting threats.
On the road
Playing in its first true road game of the season, Iowa State looked like the hostile environment got the better of them.
While falling behind 15-0, the Cyclones looked rattled with an unsure offense and an unusually passive defense.
"First time on the road for our group, and it seemed like it got to us," Otzelberger said. "We didn’t set the tone with our defensive physicality and intensity that we usually do.
"We’ve got to maintain mental toughness when we’re on the road. We’ve got a lot of road games ahead of us, so we’ve got to make sure we stay in that moment and focus on the job we need to do and not get caught up in the environment. I think today that’s what really got us.
"Not only did we not do what we needed to do and do that job early on each possession, then the environment had an effect on us. We’ve got to do a better job staying locked into the moment."
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The trip to Iowa City was the Cyclones' lone road game until Big 12 competition rolls around, and it is an especially difficult league to navigate away from home. Iowa State went 3-6 in Big 12 road games a year ago.
After opening the league season at home against Baylor, Iowa State has three of its next four contests away from Hilton Coliseum in what will likely be a crucial stretch of games.
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State basketball stifled by rival Iowa Hawkeyes
