Iowa State men’s basketball seeks regular-season sweep Saturday at Texas

AMES — It’s no secret the key to Iowa State’s massively improved defense hinges on ball pressure.

Head coach T.J. Otzelberger talks about it all the time.

Properly applied, it decreases an opponent’s shooting percentage and also disrupts passing lanes.

Turnovers come in bunches and, when the Cyclones are successful, lead to instant offense in transition.

That often winning formula did not materialize in Tuesday’s 70-61 loss to 10th-ranked Kansas at Hilton Coliseum.

Why?

“We’re taking some more risks, probably, in trying to generate turnovers,” said Otzelberger, whose 20th-ranked Cyclones (16-6, 3-6 Big 12) face No. 23 Texas (16-6, 5-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Austin (Longhorn Network). “So what we’re seeing more and more is people popping their (post players) to the middle of the court, like (Kansas) did with (David) McCormack.”

McCormack drilled all seven of his field-goal attempts, including a handful of midrange jumpers near the top of the key at a critical juncture. It’s a plan the Longhorns will likely try to replicate — especially since ISU scored 23 points off turnovers in a 79-70 win in the first meeting.

“I think at times it’s played to our advantage and at times it’s created challenges,” Otzelberger said about forcing an opponent’s bigs to handle the ball more. “But that’s what we’re seeing more and more: people trying to spread us out and space us on the perimeter.”

So the Cyclones will simply add new wrinkles and amp up the aggressiveness instead of change things. They defend this way by necessity — and most of the time it’s worked.

ISU ranks third nationally in defensive turnover percentage (25.3) according to KenPom and sixth nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.

That intense and in-your-face defensive mentality rattled Texas in the first win and the Cyclones will rely on it to do the same this time around.

“We felt like we set the tone defensively,” Otzelberger said of the first meeting with the Longhorns. “We were the team that was aggressive. We were able to turn them over, especially early. We dictated things with our defense and as we built our confidence that way, I thought we did a great job. Our ball toughness was terrific. We had 22 assists if memory serves me correctly.”

It does. Four different ISU players had multiple assists with point guard Tyrese Hunter dishing out a game-high eight.

The Cyclones shot 57 percent in that win and must recapture that magic after draining just 41 percent Tuesday against the Jayhawks.

Izaiah Brockington led ISU with 24 points against KU but had to morph into a volume shooter to do so (11-for-28 from the field). That’s uncharacteristic for the Cyclones’ leading scorer and rebounder, and it’s because Kansas excelled at what ISU does best. The Cyclones were off-balance and uncomfortable on the offensive end. The tables were turned. Now they must be turned again.

“They were being disruptive,” said ISU guard Gabe Kalscheur, who scored a conference season-high 22 points in the previous win over Texas. “We’ve just got to be more physical with the ball. Not be too lackadaisical with it. Meet every pass.”

And respond in kind on the other end against another ranked team — the seventh such foe the Cyclones will have faced in their first 10 Big 12 games.

“The league is really strong, top to bottom,” Otzelberger said. “Everybody’s physical. Everybody’s defensive-minded.”

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