Blake Buchanan's board work will be key for No. 9 Iowa State at Oklahoma State

AMES — Iowa State big man Blake Buchanan’s spent his entire life looking up to — then down on — a net.

As a youth, he attended volleyball camps led by his mother, Debbie, who served as the head coach at Idaho for 22 seasons. He liked the sport but didn’t love it. So instead of trying to clear a net, the 6-10 junior is rising above it as the No. 9 Cyclones’ leader in dunks with 28.

“I’m happy with the route I picked,” Buchanan said on media day.

So is ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team (17-2, 4-2) enters Saturday’s 2 p.m. game at Oklahoma State (14-5, 2-4) in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Big 12 standings.

“In space, when he can run and jump, he can really make a lot of plays,” Otzelberger said of Buchanan, who’s averaging 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds while playing 24.3 minutes per game. “And if we move the ball and get the defense shifted and open up the paint, then he has clean runs at the glass. So I felt (in Tuesday’s 87-57 home win over UCF), I thought one of the biggest plays of the game was his and-one offensive rebound two and a half minutes into the game. That kind of set the tone for everything as far as I see it.”

The Cyclones will all need to be tone setters early in Stillwater, where the Cowboys have won four of the past five meetings. ISU won the first meeting this season, 83-71, two weeks ago in Ames and will face a talented, but struggling Oklahoma State team that’s lost three of its last four games in conference play.

“In the Big 12, no road game is gonna be easy,” said the Cyclones’ star senior point guard Tamin Lipsey, who ranks second nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 5.7-to-1. “So we’re just going in there with the same mindset we attacked UCF with and trying to dictate from the jump.”

That’s precisely what ISU didn’t do in consecutive Big 12 road losses at Kansas and Cincinnati. But the Cyclones recommitted to embracing their grit-based identity against the Knights and they notched just their 10th 30-plus point conference win in program history.

“We talked about it after we lost to Kansas and we started practicing a little bit harder,” Buchanan said. “I think we had a really good practice before we played UCF and that really translated over. Just kind of getting back to being hungry again.”

Buchanan also got back to playing with an edge. He averaged just three points and 3.5 rebounds in the losses to the Jayhawks and Bearcats, but scored 11 points while grabbing six big boards against the Knights. The early 3-point play Otzelberger referenced above isn’t the only quick boost he gave the Cyclones, either. Five of the Virginia transfer's six rebounds came in a three-minute span midway through the second half while UCF tried in vain to climb back within striking distance.

“His mindset is super big for our team,” Lipsey said of Buchanan. “Just how he attacks the glass and sets screens. He plays physical, so all of that is super important to us, and when we see him doing that, we know he’s on his ‘A’ game.”

Just as all of ISU’s players need to be if the team hopes to climb back into contention for a Big 12 title and secure a desirable NCAA Tournament seed in March.

“The competing part — playing hard and being physical, that’s our cornerstone,” Otzelberger said. “And that’s when we’re at our best.”

Nelson cleared to play

Otzelberger said backup guard Dominick Nelson has been cleared to return to the court after sitting out the UCF game because of concussion protocols. “He practiced (Thursday), so he’s good to go,” Otzelberger added.

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