Hoops: Oklahoma Sooners welcome undefated Iowa State Cyclones

Jan 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger speaks to an official about a play in action against the Kansas Jayhawks at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not too often the Oklahoma Sooners get the opportunity to host an undefeated Iowa State Cyclones team on a Saturday.

No, while the football team in Ames is still trying to climb its way up the Big 12 ladder, the basketball program is doing fairly well for itself.

The Cyclones are 14-0 and ranked ninth in the country coming in to today’s game. Similar to the Sooners, the Cyclones are averaging 87.0 points per contest, but the big difference between these two? The Cyclones are winning games on average by 19.5 points.

Oklahoma’s defense has given up some big numbers, and in order to upset the Cyclones, they’ll need to slow down a really solid Iowa State team.

The Cyclones have already faced three Top 25 teams this season. Iowa State won all three of those match-ups, one over the seventh-ranked Baylor Bears by 13. The Sooners lost to both of their ranked opponents this season, one to the then top-ranked Michigan State Spartans and this past Wednesday against the Kansas Jayhawks.

Oklahoma hung with Kansas. The Jayhawks staved off the Sooners, but OU gained some of the country’s attention this past week after beating the Texas Longhorns in Austin and a close one against KU.

To pull off a big upset against the Cyclones, Oklahoma will need another big game out of Cameron Clark. OU will need to see a return, though, of Ryan Spangler, who didn’t have the greatest stat line Wednesday.

Oklahoma’s squad will all need to be on top of things as they try to stop the likes of Melvin Ejim and DeAndre Kane. Both are seniors with a lot of experience that could be problematic for a young OU team.

Ejim is averaging is 17.8 points per game and 7.2 rebounds. Kane is averaging is doing it all, though, averaging 16.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.3 assists.

Both guys will be key to shut down if Oklahoma hopes to win this one and improve to 2-1 in conference play. Though, this Iowa State team is sixteenth in the nation in shot percentage, scoring on 49.2% of their field goal attempts.

Oklahoma’s defense is going to need to put together their best performance of the season, which a bad shooting day could become a factor with an extremely early 11 a.m. tip-off inside Norman’s Lloyd Noble Center.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.