Iowa State opens Big 12 men’s basketball play at Colorado, hoping to be itself

ORLANDO, Fla. — Don’t expect a repeat.

Not in terms of the final margin, anyway.

That’s Iowa State men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger’s overarching message as his No. 3 Cyclones (10-1) prepare to play Colorado (9-2) in the Monday’s 8 p.m. Big12 season-opener (CBS Sports Network) for both teams at the CU Events Center in Boulder.

ISU pounded the Buffaloes, 99-71, en route to a third-place finish in last month’s loaded Maui Invitational, but trying to tame them at home is a steeper challenge.

“They’ve been a team that has consistently been really good on their home court,” Otzelberger said.

How good?

Colorado has won 25 of its past 26 home games dating back to the 2022-23 season. The Buffaloes have yet to lose in Boulder this season and have won four in a row since being shellacked by the Cyclones in Hawai’i.

“They have a team that plays very smart, doesn’t do things to put themselves at deficit,” Otzelberger said. “They have a terrific coach (Tad Boyle). Their guys now, that when we played the first time, hadn’t had as much experience, because their roster was so new — now those guys have had more and more opportunities to play together and have success together.”

Senior guard Julian Hammond III leads three Buffaloes, averaging double figures in scoring at 13.1 points per game. He scored a then-season high 20 points in what was officially a nonconference loss to the Cyclones in Maui, and is one of four Colorado players in the rotation shooting 43 percent or better from 3-point range.

But as usual for ISU, playing winning basketball hinges more on Otzelberger’s three keys to success and less on the challenges opposing players pose.

“Monday is gonna be (about), defensively, guard the basketball, pressure the basketball,” Otzelberger said. “Try to generate turnovers and score off our defense like we were able to do last time. Win the rebounding battle, like we were able to do last time — I think we were plus-six on there glass.”

The Cyclones have’t played the Buffaloes in Boulder since 2011 and carry a six-game road losing streak into the renewed series. A combination of altitude, good Colorado teams, and sometimes onerous travel conditions helps explain why the Cyclones have struggled so much in Boulder, but Otzelberger believes the altitude piece is a bit overblown.

“I tend to think it’s a lot more talk than it is actually a factor,” he said. “To me, at most, what I’ve seen from guys I’ve coached, or what they’ve said, is, ‘Hey you’re a little more winded on your first run out there, and then everything settles in.’”

So bring on the Buffaloes in the latest version of a new-look Big 12 that features 16 teams — four of which are new this season. That expansion and newfound unfamiliarity dovetails with an unbalanced, 20-game conference schedule that presents unique challenges beyond the league’s recent round-robin slate.

Otzelberger and his players will roll with the changes, as always, locked in on how they play more than who they play.

“As much as we respect the (other) coaches, the players, and the programs, 90 percent of it for us is about being who we are and doing what we do,” he said. “That’s how we’ve done things in past years, and that won’t change this year.”

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