Women's Basketball

MONDAY MUSINGS: Cyclones fall flat against K-State

Iowa State Cyclones forward Joshua Jefferson (2) drives to the basket around Kansas State Wildcats’ guard Max Jones (2) during the first half in the Big-12 men’s basketball showdown at Hilton Coliseum on Feb 1, 2025 in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Iowa State got ran out of its gym as it was downed by a Kansas State group that’s become an arch rival.

It’s like Jean Girard beating Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights,” but unlike the world-renowned motion picture, this defeat comes in the middle of a season coming off a defeat that shouldn’t have been one anyway.

So … let’s muse.

That performance fell flat.

Iowa State got out to a start that saw them get up by almost double digits and forced K-State to take a timeout before the under-16 mark.

Almost everything after that went wrong.

The Cyclones entered the halftime break still down by two after shooting 6-9 from the 3-point line.

They allowed K-State to go on a 15-4 run in the second half before T.J. Otzelberger went to drastic measures to try and get his team back in it.

For the first time since he arrived in Ames, the head coach got a technical – one that he had apparently been trying to get for a couple of possessions.

The call wasn’t what sent Otzelberger ‘over the edge,’ but more so how his team was performing.

It almost worked out, too. That 13-0 run that followed had all of the ‘Hilton Magic’ makings, but ultimately wasn’t enough.

Should that be concerning for fans? Maybe a little.

They’ve never seen Otzelberger have to resort to something like that. Not that I’m calling it disrespectful or anything – he’s just never pulled that ploy out of the book.

The Cyclones looked distraught, tired, and discombobulated.

This has to be the wakeup call.

It has to be.

Iowa State hasn’t had Milan Momcilovic for six games, and since his departure, the team has gone 3-3.

Keshon Gilbert isn’t as consistent as he had been. The post play and lack of rebounding was extremely discouraging. Nate Heise and Brandt Chatfield brought little-to-nothing to the court, and Heise’s got to get out of his own head.

But Otzelberger knows that, and he said all of the right things in his postgame press conference.

“Certainly, this was an unacceptable effort,” Otzelberger said. “You’ve got to understand why that happened. You’ve got to really care so that it doesn’t happen again. And then you’ve got to put your focus quickly on the next thing, because you can’t have the hangover of today carry over in anything we do tomorrow.

“So it’s going to be really important how we walk in the building tomorrow, how focused we are,” Otzelberger said. “This is a mental thing. This is a mental toughness thing. This is a care-factor thing. This is pride in putting on that jersey. That’s what it’s about. And we’re going to be extremely demanding that that is to the standard tomorrow, and as we move forward.”

You can watch the full thing below – this quote is around the 4:15 mark.

I have no reason to think that that wasn’t exactly the case on Sunday as the Cyclones were practicing on the court at Allen Fieldhouse to prepare for Monday night’s game against Kansas.

A crazy Big 12 hoops Saturday

That’s a Kansas team that just blew a 21-point lead to Baylor – the largest blown lead in program history.

Big Monday will be a contest of who can right the ship more, and Iowa State looked even more off course, at least Saturday.

It was even more eventful elsewhere.

Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley took his bench to the locker room with 30 seconds remaining in a loss to Arizona.

He blamed the ‘relentless chirping’ from some of the Arizona players for the move – which I respect. He thought it was going to escalate and didn’t want to shake hands postgame. That’s all good – there’s never been a game I’ve watched where I needed guys to shake hands afterward. Basketball remains one of the only sports where you see fans call for it.

What I can’t comprehend is the coach’s lack of awareness to trash talk. It’s going to happen, and the second that opposing players figure out that your players let it effect them is when you’re going to lose a game. That will be exploited by anyone that pays attention enough to use it.

Houston took its first loss of the year, even being without J.T. Toppin and head coach Grant McCasland for most of the game.

Somehow, Toppin was called for a flagrant 2 because his leg collided with a player while making a pass.

McCasland had every right to react like he did, and I hope we find some common sense in officiating to understand there was no intent here. At least it didn’t cost Texas Tech a win.

It’s down to seven

For the Iowa State women, the season has come down to the last seven-game stretch.

The Cyclones are on the bubble without a resume-defining win still, falling to TCU 82-69 in Hilton Coliseum on Monday.

Here’s the slate for the rest of the year:
Feb. 5 | @ Cincinnati (13-7, 5-5)
Feb. 8 | vs. Colorado (15-6, 6-4)
Feb. 15 | @ Kansas (14-8, 4-7)
Feb. 19 | vs. Houston (5-17, 1-10)
Feb. 22 | @ Baylor (18-5, 8-2)
Feb. 25 | @ UCF (8-12, 1-9)
Mar. 2 | vs. K-State (21-2, 9-1)

I wholeheartedly believe the Cyclones will need to go 5-2 during this stretch to feel good about their NCAA Tournament hopes.

Anything less, and they’ll need to make some noise in Kansas City.

The good news is they’ve been inching up to getting better and better almost every time out, but it’s time to put up or shut up for everyone outside of the pair of scorers that had 60 of the 69 points.

ESPN’S College GameDay is in town for Saturday’s game against TCU – some students have already set up camp for the week, softball starts Thursday and we get another rivalry game this Monday night. Let’s make it a week.

@cyclonefanatic