Iowa State basketball: 3 things to watch when the Cyclones play at Oklahoma State

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The college basketball regular season has been flying by. Iowa State is gearing up for its final game of February before things ramp up even further in March.

The Cyclones (21-6, 11-5 Big 12 Conference) are headed to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for their second-to-last road game of the season Tuesday against Oklahoma State.

Iowa State will try to rebound from a 68-59 loss to Houston on Saturday, which broke a four-game winning streak.

Oklahoma State (13-14, 5-11) is returning home from a 96-64 loss at Kansas on Saturday. The Cowboys have lost three of their last four games.

Tuesday night’s game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

Here are three things to watch:

Oklahoma State likes to play fast, but not exactly furious

There will be some whiplash as Iowa State goes from playing Houston’s deliberate half-court style that ranks as the third-slowest pace in the country to going against Oklahoma State, which runs at the second-fastest pace in the Big 12.

UCF is the only conference team that operates at a faster tempo than the Cowboys.

Much like UCF, the Cowboys have had their struggles in league play. Their breakneck tempo has cost them on both ends of the court.

Offensively, they turn the ball over on 18.8% of possessions, which ranks 284th in the country. Within the Big 12, that’s the third-worst mark in the 16-team conference.

They also haven’t been an efficient bunch. Oklahoma State shoots 32.3% from the 3-point line (262nd in the country) and 48.5% from inside the arc (281st). In addition to committing turnovers at a high rate, the Cowboys have had 11.3% of their shots blocked, an alarming statistic that has risen to 14.0% in conference play.

Oklahoma State does excel at drawing fouls and getting to the charity stripe. According to KenPom, the Cowboys boast the 12th-highest free-throw rate in the country and sit atop the Big 12 in that category.

Defensively, the Cowboys tend to gamble and overcommit for steals. They force their opponents to generate…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/iowa-state-basketball-3-things-121421875.html

Author : The Des Moines Register

Publish date : 2025-02-25 12:14:00

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