Iowa State men's basketball readying for Baylor's attempt at revenge in Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Iowa State knows what to expect.
Not just because the Cyclones are acutely familiar with No. 10 Baylor after playing them last weekend, but because of what they did to the Bears in Waco.
They throttled them. At home. On senior night.
A top-10 team and a program with championship pedigree can only respond in one way in an immediate rematch.
“I know they’re going to come out hungry and aggressive, and it’s going to be a dog fight,” Iowa State senior Gabe Kalscheur said of the Bears ahead of Thursday’s Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal (11:30 a.m.; ESPN/2). “They’re going to have that chip on their shoulder. We know we’re still the underdogs in this game, but we know they're going to feel like underdogs themselves.
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“We’re going to get their best bullet, and I’m ready for it, for sure. I’m excited to accept that challenge and know they have to go through us.”
Iowa State (18-12) was up by as many as 20 points in the final minute of the game and ultimately handed the Bears (22-9) a 73-58 loss Saturday, two months after the Cyclones beat them by 15 at Hilton Coliseum.
“We shot 27% in the first half,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said of last weekend’s game. “It’s not all our fault. Let’s give (Iowa State) credit. Their defense was tremendous.”
Baylor, one of the country’s best offenses, turned it over 14 times and made just 36% of their shots from inside the arc.
“It’s crazy how we get another shot, another chance to show everybody that wasn’t us,” Baylor star freshman and potential lottery pick Keyonte George said.
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The question now is can Iowa State, the 5-seed in the tournament, repeat that performance? Especially against a team that will in all likelihood come out looking for revenge after a difficult defeat.
“We’ve got to recreate, do those same things defensively, on the glass, passing on the interior, finishing at the rim,” said Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger. “We also know for them, they’re a really good team, really well coached, they’re going to make adjustments.
“We have to be really intentional, stubborn to get it to be the game we need it to be and also understand there’s going to be adjustments and things we’re going to have to adapt to as we go through the course of the game.”
Iowa State showed itself adept at adapting over the weekend. The Cyclones entered the game having lost four straight and experiencing off-court turmoil with the dismissal of senior guard Caleb Grill from the program.
They responded by playing one of their best games of the season, displaying a level of energy, desperation and intensity that fueled their 15-4 start to the season and eroded during their subsequent 2-8 slide.
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“We learned that we’re still as connected as we were when we had that great winning stretch,” said freshman point guard Tamin Lipsey. “We really reminded ourselves that we’re a great team when we come together.”
With Saturday’s beatdown so fresh in both team’s memories, Iowa State knows Baylor, the tournament's 4-seed, will be buzzing right from the tip.
“We can’t come out lackadaisical, too comfortable,” Kalscheur said, “because we know if they come out and throw that first punch and we’re down a lot, it’s going to be hard to come back.
“We’ve got to match their punches.”
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: Cyclones aim to 'match their punches' against revenge-seeking Baylor
