Viterbo vs. Iowa State men’s basketball: Game preview and prediction

We’re finally here. Well, almost. Tonight begins Iowa State’s quest to get back into March Madness and finish things off this time around. There is no underdog chatter — national media pundits may not consider them a championship contender, but everybody that’s sniffing what Fred Hoiberg’s cooking in Hilton Coliseum knows what this team’s all about.

There’s only one goal this year — winning the whole damn thing in April. Exhibition action on Friday night will give us the first glimpse of what’s to come.

Viterbo V-Hawks vs. Iowa State Cyclones

Preseason Exhibition
Hilton Coliseum | Ames, Iowa
Friday, November 7th, 2014 | Tipoff – 7:00 PM CT
TV/Web: Cyclones.tv

What is Viterbo?

Mar 15, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones cheerleaders entertain the crowd during the second half against the Baylor Bears in the championship game of the Big 12 Conference college basketball tournament at Sprint Center. Iowa State won 74 – 65. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Viterbo, known as the V-Hawks and not just simply the Hawks (which is good because they’d lose by 100 points otherwise), is a school that hails from La Crosse, Wisconsin. It’s not even in an actual NCAA division. Instead, it’s in the NAIA. To give you a sense of what the NAIA is all about, their volleyball team defeated the AIB College of Business recently. Yes, AIB has something like that. You and I just learned something right now!

Here’s more things to learn: The V-Hawks already have played two games this season, and are 1-1. Most recently, they lost to Silver Lake College at home, 84-72. Viterbo went 5 of 22 from downtown (Silver Lake went 7 of 22) and had more turnovers (14) than assists (13). A whopping 322 people were tallied in the crowd.

3 1 key opponents

There’s one. David Shepard. He’s made 63.3 percent of his field goals this season and leads the team with 44 points and 19 rebounds.

What to watch for

Honestly, there’s only one reason to watch these exhibition games, and it’s to finally see this team in action in Hilton Coliseum for 40 minutes. The outcome doesn’t matter. What does matter is how this team looks as it runs the up-tempo offense that’s reportedly as fast as its ever been under Fred Hoiberg. How great is Bryce Dejean-Jones looking with his shots? What about newly in-shape Georges Niang? Is it just me, or does it feel like Christmas yet we have to wait until night to open our gifts?

Prediction

It doesn’t matter, but it’s probably not going to be close. Even if it is — even if Viterbo magically played the greatest game of their lives and beat Iowa State — nothing will matter in the win-loss column.

Iowa State [A LOT], Viterbo [NOT VERY GOOD]