Iowa State Men’s Basketball: Grades Against Kansas Jayhawks

Feb 25, 2013; Ames IA, USA; Iowa State Cyclones player Chris Babb (2) defends Kansas Jayhawks player Ben McLemore (23) in the first half at Hilton Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

The Iowa State Cyclones lost to the Kansas Jayhawks 108-96 in overtime at Hilton Coliseum on Monday night. They fall to 19-9 overall and have a 9-6 Big 12 record. Kansas moves to 24-4 with Bill Self’s 500th career win, and they keep pace with the Kansas State Wildcats leading the conference at 12-3.

Here are this game’s grades on offense, defense, and keys to the game for the Cyclones.

Offense: A-

Kansas has the best field goal percentage defense in the nation at 35.5 percent. Iowa State was just slightly above that average with 35.7 percent from the field. Georges Niang’s 3-17 field goal shooting certainly didn’t help matters, but they hit 17 3-pointers which is the most in one game for the program. Two players, Korie Lucious and Tyrus McGee, had over 20 points with McGee fueling the team off the bench as always. Even Anthony Booker came off the bench and added five points to the game.

The only disappointing effort was from Melvin Ejim who had just four points and suffered through foul trouble in most of the game. Ejim only saw the floor for 22 minutes. The Cyclones also had 10 offensive boards, which is pretty good against Jeff Withey.

Defense: C-

It’s hard to bang on the defense when a team that has so much shooting be able to launch up ridiculous shots and make them numerous times. That’s what Kansas did, specifically Travis Releford and Elijan Johnson late in the game. What sealed the deal was Johnson’s crazy make that made it a 103-96 Kansas advantage with under a minute left. But giving up 108 points at home, even in overtime, is incredibly bad. It’s still bad even when Iowa State averages giving up the second-most points in the conference.

The defense gave up over 50 percent shooting from the field, even from the perimeter, 21 assists, and had 11 less defensive boards than the Jayhawks. One spotlight was forcing eight more turnovers. Another was holding Ben McLemore to just seven points on the night.

Keys to Victory

• Melvin Ejim and Georges Niang need to stay away from foul trouble.
  C. Niang was able to still be out there 31 minutes, but Ejim couldn’t even get close to a double-double despite starting off the game hot thanks to foul trouble.
• Force turnovers.
  A. Kansas had 15 compared to Iowa State’s seven.
• Attack from the perimeter early.
  A-. They certainly were hitting them early going 6-15 in the first half, but became more efficient in the second half hitting 11-20 (including overtime).

Brian Spaen is the lead editor of Clones Confidential. Get more Cyclones coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook.