Having won consecutive conference games for the first time, the Texas men’s basketball team will look to extend that streak – and another – when 8th-ranked Iowa State visits the Erwin Center Saturday.
Texas hasn’t won three consecutive regular[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] season conference games since the 2011-12 season, when the Longhorns beat Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas State and Oklahoma successively. Though they enter as a top 10 team, the Cyclones have lost two in a row this season and five straight to the Longhorns in Austin.
Iowa State hasn’t won in Austin since Feb. 5, 2005, when the Cyclones upset then 20th ranked Texas 92-80. Tasheed Carr scored 13 of Iowa State’s 24 overtime points in the win. Since then, Texas has defended its home court. In 2007, with all eyes on Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin scored 31 to spark a 77-68 win. In 2009, Damion James and Gary Johnson combined for 36 points while the Cyclones concentrated on stopping A.J. Abrams in a 75-67 win. In 2011, Jordan Hamilton broke out of a slump and Tristan Thompson had a double-double to lead a 76-53 rout. Myck Kabongo scored 13 and Texas’ defense stifled the Cyclones in a 62-55 win in 2012. Last year, Kabongo’s return from a suspension got the headlines, but Texas forced overtime on Ioannis Papapetrou’s three-pointer at the buzzer and Sheldon McClellan scored all 10 of Texas points in the second overtime to spark an 89-86 win.
On paper, Saturday’s game pits Iowa State’s strength – three-point shooting – and Texas’ weakness – three-point defense. After tightening its defense behind the arc in wins against Texas Tech and West Virginia, the Horns must toe that line again.
The Cyclones enter the game ranked sixth in the league in three-point shooting percentage, converting 34.3 percent. Ironically, that’s the percentage the Longhorns have been allowing opponents to make, which ranks ninth. Though they’ve struggled with their accuracy in back-to-back losses, Iowa State still ranks as the most prolific three-point shooting team in the league. The Cyclones lead the league with 137 threes despite playing one less game than nearly everyone else, and their 399 attempts is more than 40 clear of the second most frequent bombing team – Oklahoma.
As a team, the Cyclones embody the shooter’s code: shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot. They’ve struggled with the latter. Iowa State has missed 41 of its last 51 threes, Randy Petersen points out in the Des Moines Register, a success rate of just 19.6 percent. Texas, which struggled mightily defending the three, has allowed its last two opponents to make just 23.2 percent from beyond the arc.
To continue its winning ways – upsetting a top 10 team and bolstering its NCAA tournament resume in the process – Texas must chase Iowa State off the three-point line and into shots that can be contested by Cameron Ridley, Prince Ibeh and Johnathan Holmes. That formula worked Monday night in Morgantown, where Texas limited West Virginia’s open three-point looks and pressured them into tighter spaces inside, where Ridley and Ibeh did their damage. Leaders of the league’s leading shot-blocking team, the trio blocked four shots and grabbed 29 rebounds while committing just five fouls between them, a welcome sight to head coach Rick Barnes’ eyes in the 80-69 win.
“We have shot blockers but what we did great tonight was standing in front of the ball,” Barnes said after the game. “Up until this point, they have been in foul trouble for most of our games.”
Holmes, Ridley and Ibeh must stay out of foul trouble against the smaller Cyclones, whose frenetic pace is driven by the attacking DeAndre Kane. Kane attacks the basket, where he’s equally adept at getting shots and drawing fouls or kicking the ball out to a plethora of shooters spotting up on the three-point line. The Cyclones average 85.6 points per game, second in the league and sixth in the country. They’re an exciting show, writes Kevin Lyttle in the Austin American-Statesman.
Win or lose, Texas doesn’t get much of a break. The Horns are back in action Tuesday night at home against nemesis Kansas State, the only unranked team on the schedule between now and a Feb. 1 showdown with surging Kansas.
The Wildcats, who beat Texas three times last season, are the anti-Iowa State. Bruce Weber’s team leads the league in team defense, allowing just 60.1 points per game. They rank second in the league in field goal percentage defense (39.9 percent) and first in three-point percentage defense (26.7 percent). They also rank ninth in scoring offense and last in all three shooting categories.
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