Iowa State men’s basketball seeks third straight win Wednesday against West Virginia at Hilton

AMES — They made them in transition and late in the shot clock.

They made them in the paint and on the perimeter.

Just about everything was going in for Iowa State in Saturday’s 75-54 rout of Oklahoma, but that’s the least interesting — or important — element of success to Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger.

“It's great that we made shots,” said Otzelberger, whose Cyclones (18-9, 5-9 Big 12) seek to win their third straight game Wednesday at 6 p.m. against West Virginia at Hilton Coliseum (ESPNU). “Certainly that's part of it. But the rhythm of that game was dictated by our defense, by our ball pressure, by getting stops, by getting turnovers. And that allows guys to have the confidence to play in that open court.”

A stifling, unyielding defense — not stellar shooting — is what set ISU on a path toward NCAA tournament contention in the first place. The lack of it, particularly on the turnover front, is what doomed the Cyclones to their most lopsided loss of the season — a 79-63 setback two weeks ago against the last-place Mountaineers (14-13, 3-11) in Morgantown, W. Va.

“We can’t do things to hurt ourselves,” Otzelberger said. “I mean, we started down. It went turnover, 3, turnover, 3, and before you know it we’re down 18-5 and we were never in the game. So we can’t do things to put ourselves in a deficit. We've got to dictate offense and dictate defense.”

And not rely on relatively rare hot shooting. ISU drained 67 percent of its shots against the Sooners, but has shot 41 percent or worse in seven conference games. The Cyclones have allowed Big 12 foes to shoot 50 percent or better from the field just four times — and one of those lackluster defensive efforts came in the previous meeting with West Virginia.

The Mountaineers haven’t won a game since. ISU has won two in a row in league play for the first time since 2019.

“We’re telling our guys to just focus on winning the next possession, whether that’s offensively or defensively,” Otzelberger said. “And that was something we didn’t do a very good job of in Morgantown and probably was as poor of a game as we’ve played.”

Now the Cyclones are playing as well as they have against conference competition in at least two seasons and it’s not surprising that seasoned graduate transfers Izaiah Brockington and Gabe Kalscheur are leading the way.

Kalscheur’s excellent ball pressure hasn’t ebbed when he’s struggled on the offensive end. And Brockington — the first ISU player since DeAndre Kane in 2013-14 to earn at least five weekly Big 12 honors — has been consistently efficient and explosive on both ends of the floor.

“Both of those guys on the court have a very workmanlike way of doing things,” Otzelberger said. “They come every single day and practice hard. They do different things well and have different strengths, but they lead through their actions.

“Off the court, they’re very responsible and mature. They do the right things when it comes to the classroom, the community, their teammates. They have great character, so to me, if you look across the country, or (at) every team I can think of, when your best players are great guys and great workers, that usually paves the way to have success.”

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