Iowa State Cyclones guard Izaiah Brockington (1) reacts after losing 69-75 against Kansas State during the second half in the Big-12 showdown at Hilton Coliseum, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, in Ames, Iowa.
AMES — Epic. Shocking. Unbelievable.
All three of those words describe Iowa State’s 12-0 start to this season in its first year under a new head coach who took over a program that won just two games all of last season and went winless in conference play.
Those same three words can describe the Cyclones’ 75-69 overtime loss to Kansas State on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum, but there are two better words for this game that saw Iowa State build a 15-point lead early in the second half then waste it away in a mix of stupid turnovers and depleted urgency.
Disappointing and inexcusable.
It doesn’t get more disappointing than this for a team that looked rejuvenated early on after changes to its starting lineup and rotation propelled it to one of its best halves of the season.
There is nothing more inexcusable than blowing a double-digit second-half lead in your own building when everyone knows your place in college basketball’s postseason is far from cemented.
“We talked a lot in the locker room at halftime about our identity is getting stops and being physical,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We got out-physicaled in the second half and overtime. They wanted to win more than we wanted to win. That’s something everyone in our program and on our team has to swallow and live with.”
The Iowa State team we watched play during the first half looked like an NCAA Tournament team. The Cyclones we watched play the second half looked like a team destined to spend the month of March in the NIT — or on their couches.
That first half success can be attributed to several things, including Aljaz Kunc’s torrid run to open the game in his first start of the season and an attacking mentality offensively that helped this team score 40 points in the first 20 minutes.
Both of those things were missing in the second half.
Kunc took just five shots after halftime, making only one, to finish with 16 points on 6-of-12 from the field and 5-of-9 from 3-point range. This came after he scored 11 of the game’s first 13 points, giving Iowa State an early 13-0 lead that forced a K-State timeout before the first media break.
Iowa State stopped attacking the paint with ferocity, settling for jumpers and playing as if they were scared to make a mistake. That fear of making a mistake led to sloppy passes and nine of the team’s 12 turnovers coming during the second 20 minutes.
The turnovers weren’t just boneheaded mistakes that led to dead-ball giveaways, either. These were of the live-ball variety and allowed Kansas State to attack against an unset defense or no defense at all, resulting in run-outs that produced multiple crucial and-one opportunities for Bruce Webers’s squad.
“We’re in mid-February, and it’s demanding and wanting to win. They know what we’re doing. We know what they’re doing,” Otzelberger said. “Throw a winning pass. Make a winning play. We know how critical those live ball turnovers are, especially when we weren’t turning them over in that same situation. We’re not coming out here trying to be a fun and gun offense. We’re trying to be a team that is tough with the ball, values every possession and understands that we need every possession and how vital it is. So I’m not here to cast blame on having those turnovers. But, if you really, really want to win, you find a way to value the ball in those key moments.”
In other words, Kansas State flipped the script and gave Iowa State a taste of its own medicine.
We’ve heard again and again how this program under Otzelberger will be built on intense ball pressure to create turnovers and bully opposing teams into submission.
Those things were certainly true during non-conference play and, at times, early on in league action, but we’ve seen that identity become more of a talking point than an action point in recent weeks.
Other teams are using Iowa State’s formula against it on a nightly basis.
The Cyclones are being out-physicaled, out-toughed and out-competed by teams in this league. On most nights, that’s by teams with significantly more talent than this Iowa State roster possesses.
Not on this afternoon, though. Kansas State isn’t any more talented than Iowa State, but the Wildcats wanted to win this game more than the Cyclones did.
That’s why the Wildcats won the game despite falling into a considerable hole and the Cyclones continue to search for themselves.
“It’s a gut punch,” Otzelberger said. “It’s not who we built our team to be and how we’ve gone about it. Obviously, the confidence got rocked a little bit as we took a couple of losses against some of those really good teams, but at the same time, we will be a team that keeps fighting competing through that. I know the expectations got higher as we had some success. But, our guys have to embrace how we do things, we don’t have the choice to come out here and make 15 threes. It hasn’t happened this year and it’s not going to. We have the choice to play harder, be more competitive, be more spirited and want to win more. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that for 40 minutes today and that’s my job to make sure that we do that every day.”
Don’t ask me what the answer is to fixing Iowa State’s offense because I think it has become blatantly clear that there is no easy answer. This group just does not have the pieces capable of being too much better than what it has been to this point from a schematic standpoint.
But, with that said, this team can take significant steps in the right direction by practicing, and sticking with, the principles that it preaches every time they step to a microphone.
Don’t just talk about valuing the basketball on every possession. Actually value every possession and be strong with the basketball for 40 minutes in order to avoid backbreaking plays that kneecap your chances at success.
Don’t talk about being tougher than people then stop attacking the paint at the first sign of adversity. Don’t talk about being the more physical group then allow a team you’ve nearly bullied into submission to get a reversal that has you on your heels.
At some point, for this Iowa State team to reach its maximum potential, someone has to step up and say they’re tired of people going away from the things that will make them successful.
There is no more time for talking about what needs to be done. It is time for this team to actually do what it needs to do and do it every single time.
“Disappointing day,” Otzelberger said. “We knew how important that game would have been. But, just like in life, you have a choice to make. Nobody cares. Nobody feels sorry for you. You fight back harder. Disappointing day and we will fight back harder.”
Iowa State has no choice but to fight back harder now with six games left on the schedule and the margin for error nearly non-existent.
Otherwise, this squad’s fall from grace will be near as epic, shocking and unbelievable as its early-season ascension. It will end in the same place this program has spent the last three months of March.
That, of course, is on the couch, while the teams who did what they needed to do to handle their business enjoy the spoils of postseason basketball.
