Iowa State University Cyclones guard Jaren Holmes (13) and Iowa State University Cyclones forward Aljaž Kunc (5) celebrate after a three-point score against Kansas during the second half at Hilton Coliseum Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.
AMES — Iowa State went into the halftime locker room with a 33-21 lead over Kansas on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.
The No. 13 Cyclones had led for the majority of the first half. They had connected on nearly twice as many field goals as the No. 8 Jayhawks. Kansas had attempted only three shots at the rim while firing up 14 3-pointers. The reigning national champs had even turned the ball over 11 times in the first 20 minutes.
Still, nobody in the building felt comfortable, especially since Iowa State had blown a 23-point second-half lead just four days earlier in an overtime loss to Texas Tech.
Yes, the Cyclones were ahead, but this game was not over.
Perhaps nobody in the arena felt more uncomfortable than Iowa State senior guard Jaren Holmes, who was 0-of-4 from the field and 0-of-2 from deep before the break. He’d looked a step slow and a little bit sluggish in the first half.
Everyone’s comfort level dipped even further once Kansas opened the second half with a 1`0-3 run to pull back within five points with 16:03 left on the clock. Flashbacks to Monday in Lubbock were starting to flow through the minds of the Iowa State faithful as the Cyclones left the under-16 media timeout.
Holmes scored his first point of the night after that break, connecting on the first of two free throws to extend Iowa State’s lead back to six at 37-31.
The Romulus, Mich. native missed the second shot from the charity stripe, but Robert Jones was there to corral the offensive rebound for Iowa State. The putback opportunity was missed, but a scramble for the ball deflected it out of bounds off of Kansas.
Holmes lined up in the middle of the paint as Iowa State set up a sideline out-of-bounds play from deep in the corner in front of their own bench. He set a back screen for Caleb Grill, then cut around off a screen near the top of the key from Jones toward the left wing.
Iowa State point guard Tamin Lipsey found Holmes wide open as Kansas defender Kevin McCullar trailed around the screen a step behind. Holmes’ 3-point attempt breezed past McCullar’s out-stretched arm — and found nothing but the bottom of the net.
The Cyclones’ lead was back to double digits less than a minute later after Holmes secured a rebound and took it the length of the floor for a transition layup, forcing a Kansas timeout.
Holmes scored 12 of Iowa State’s first 14 points after halftime. His third 3-pointer of the afternoon, with 12:21 left, gave Iowa State a 13-point lead, its biggest of the day to that point. Holmes’ fourth 3-pointer of the second half pushed the Cyclones’ lead to 19 with 8:29 to play.
Once it was all said and done, Holmes’ second-half dominance had propelled Iowa State to a 68-53 win over the Jayhawks. It is the program’s fourth win over an AP Top-10 team this year, a new school record.
What changed for Holmes after halftime?
“I went in the locker room and I threw up,” Holmes said in a deadpan voice after the game that sounded more like a joke than reality. “I’m 100 percent serious. I’ve been dealing with some sickness over the past week and a half. Today was more so stomach. I felt better after I threw up.”
That last fact was made abundantly clear by the senior combo guard who continues to step up in the moments when Iowa State needs him most. He tallied all 15 of his points after halftime, shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from deep.
Holmes was tremendous in the second halves of the Cyclones’ wins over Texas and Kansas State. He’s actually been fantastic at Hilton Coliseum the entire year, averaging 15.3 points per game at home compared to 10.0 points per game on the road.
Iowa State was starting to teeter early in the second half against Kansas, but it was Holmes who put the team on his back and carried them to the finish. He knew someone needed to do it after the way the final 10 minutes of the game in Lubbock on Monday had played out.
“Ultimately, I’ve been in situations like that not scoring in the first half and not having a strong start,” Holmes said. “I just trust the work that I put in and knowing those shots are going to fall because I put in the work and I’m going to reap those benefits. Tamin’s going to keep passing me the ball so I’m going to keep trying to get him those assists.”
Speaking of Lipsey, without Holmes’ second-half burst and colorful postgame commentary, the freshman point guard from Ames would’ve been the story coming out of this game. He’d been one of the stories coming out of Monday’s game, too, but for completely different reasons.
He was the first player on the floor pregame, putting in work and getting up shots with Iowa State assistant coach J.R. Blount. Iowa’s reigning high school Mr. Basketball was chomping at the bit to bounce back after playing one of his worst stretches of the season in the final 10 minutes against Tech.
He responded by tallying nine points, eight rebounds, 10 assists and three steals with only two turnovers. He secured four offensive rebounds, prompting Kansas head coach Bill Self to call Lipsey “the best offensive rebounding point guard he’s seen.”
That’s high praise from one of the most revered basketball minds on the planet right now. It is praise that is well deserved, and the only bad news is how rapidly we’re running out of good things to say about Lipsey that hasn’t already been said.
“There’s nobody that loves being a Cyclone and wants our team to win and cares more than Tamin Lipsey,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “His 21st college game, down in Lubbock, he took that really personally. He felt bad. He really wants to play his best for his teammates and this program. He cares so much. How he bounced back, it wasn’t words, it was actions. It was everything that everybody saw these last few days. Look, the guy’s going against a national championship starting point guard in (Kansas’ Dajuan) Harris. Tamin won that match-up and he won it in a lot of ways.”
The numbers prove how spectacular Lipsey was offensively for the most part in this game, but he was equally as awesome defensively. The entire Cyclone roster was locked in defensively as they held one of the nation’s best offensive teams to just 53 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 26.1 percent from deep.
The Jayhawks were forced into 20 turnovers on the afternoon, including five from star freshman guard Gradey Dick, who was never comfortable in his first Hilton Coliseum experience, scoring seven points on 2-of-6 from the field and 1-of-4 from 3-point range.
Iowa State almost completely eliminated Kansas’ ability to get into the middle, winning the points in the paint battle 36-16. The Cyclones attempted 32 shots in the painted area. Kansas attempted just 12 shots in the paint while also taking 23 shots from 3-point range.
The Jayhawks found considerable success in the first meeting between these two teams by utilizing center KJ Adams as a short-roller off of ball screens. Kansas made that an emphasis early in the game, getting a couple of open looks in the game’s opening possessions, but Iowa State adjusted and was able to eliminate the middle of the floor from Kansas’ attack.
“We did nothing to make them play bad,” Self said. “They did some things to make us play bad. Believe it or not, I actually thought we had some good possessions early and missed a lot of shots. After that, we didn’t have many good possessions. They were better from start to finish.”
The thing that will stick with me the most from this game is just how purely dominant Iowa State was in the middle of the floor. When was the last time we saw an Iowa State team physically kick Kansas’ butts in the frontcourt?
It has been a long time.
Osun Osunniyi scored 13 points on 6-of-8 from the field and snagged five rebounds. Every game Osunniyi seems to get more comfortable in his role with this team, and his ability to take another step over the next few weeks could take even further pressure off of Iowa State’s shooters.
Tre King was fantastic off the bench tallying 10 points and grabbing five rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. The Cyclones’ offense will go to another level once they figure out the way to best utilize King’s gifts in the mid-post, where he made a couple of the day’s best moves to convert some tough buckets.
Along with Jones and the newly healthy Aljaz Kunc, Iowa State is going to have the frontcourt bodies to keep up with nearly any team in the country. They have so many different strengths and such contrasting skill sets that you can find a mismatch with someone on any given night.
Kunc’s return is especially felt (or noticed) in the way Iowa State runs its motion offense in the half-court. The senior forward is one of the Cyclones’ best cutters, does a great job being in his spots on time and rarely allows the ball to stick when he’s in the ball-reversal role at the top of the key.
“He’s been busting his tail throughout practice while he’s been on the sidelines hurt,” Holmes said. “He ultimately adds a different look. He’s a bigger guard, in my opinion, that can handle the ball, make great decisions and he can knock down the three. It’s easy for him to space the floor. He can pick and pop. He’s not a selfish player. He cares about winning regardless of him starting or coming off the bench, playing five to 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter to him. He wants to be part of something great.”
It was easy to forget about all the great things about this Iowa State team after its two-game slump leading into this game. The Cyclones’ limitations had started to show a little bit and opponents were able to take advantage of those things.
Iowa State had allowed a pair of teams that play a desperate style of basketball to rattle them. Saturday was a reminder that the Cyclones are one of those teams, too.
When this team plays with desperation, it can play with and beat any team in college basketball. When it plays with desperation inside Hilton Coliseum, it is going to require an absolutely Herculean effort by an opposing team to beat them.
“Today we came out and played desperate,” Holmes said. “We were the more desperate team. We needed to win this game. We’re just going to try to continue doing that and playing our best each and every night.”
