Oklahoma basketball: Sooners face hungry, home Iowa State crew

Five wins over ranked teams won’t mean as much if Oklahoma basketball can’t get by a young and improving but unranked Iowa State team on Saturday.

Iowa State (2-15, 0-12) keeps getting closer and closer to its first conference win, and this weekend a hungry and home Cyclones team gets a rematch against a confident Oklahoma team.

The ninth-ranked Sooners (13-5, 8-4) are 4-6 in their last 10 games against Iowa State. That includes a 79-72 OU win on Feb. 6 in Norman. And Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum has been a nightmare for Oklahoma basketball in the Lon Kruger era that is now in its 10th season.

Oklahoma has lost nine straight games at Iowa State. The Sooners last won there in 2011.

This will be the Sooners’ second in a stretch of three consecutive road games. That has not happened since 1996 in the inaugural season of the newly formed Big 12 Conference.

Although the Cyclones are still looking for their first Big 12 win in a dozen games this season, the earlier contest with the Sooners was just a four-point game with three minutes to go and the Cyclones were knocking down threes (16 of 31) with freakish consistency for a team that hasn’t won a game this calendar year.

This is a dangerous matchup for Oklahoma, which has won seven of its last eight games and has skyrocketed to national attention over the last month. The Cyclones played very well in the first meeting between the two teams this season. The Iowa State roster is young, but they play hard and are all good shooters.

The Cyclones are getting better every time out and are going to beat somebody before the season is over. If you’re a Sooner fan, you just don’t want it to be this weekend.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 5 p.m. CT and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

What fans should know about the Oklahoma-Iowa State rematch

• In the first game between the two teams in Norman, Oklahoma had to shoot nearly 55 percent from the field to overcome an Iowa State three-point firestorm and win by seven.
• Nearly half of the OU points in that first game (38) came in the paint area.
• Four Iowa State starters are averaging at least 11 points a game, led by junior Rasir Bolton at 15.8. Bolton had 21 points and was five of eight from behind the three-point line in the earlier game with Oklahoma.
• Playing against ranked teams seems to bring out the best in Iowa State juniors Rasir Bolton and Javan Johnson. Johnson is averaging 15.2 points and shooting 51.4 percent against top-25 teams this season teammate Bolton is averaging 16.9 points against ranked opponents.
• Senior Jalen Coleman-Lands has had a hot hand for the Cyclones in the last three outings. He’s averaged 19 points, including 9 of 23 three-pointers and 14 of 15 free throws during that stretch.
• Iowa State is near the bottom of the Big 12 in most offensive and defensive categories, but the Cyclones have replaced the Sooners as the best free throw-shooting team in the conference (77 percent to 75 percent for No, 2 Oklahoma).
• In two games back after missing two game because of COVID-19 contact tracing, OU scoring leader Austin Reaves has averaged 22.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists.
• When Oklahoma shoots a higher percentage than its opponent the Sooners are 26-1 over the last two seasons.
• OU junior transfer guard Umoja Gibson has started the last four games for the Sooners. In those four contests he has made 15 of 29 three-pointers and averaged 15.8 points.
• The Sooners’ five wins over teams ranked in the top 15 is tied with Ohio State for the most in the country.
• Oklahoma is 9-0 when it scores at least 78 points. The Sooners scored 79 in the first game with Iowa State this season.

Prediction

This is a game Oklahoma should win, but Iowa State is playing much better recently than its record indicates. And the Cyclones are playing at home, which has been a house of horrors for the Sooners. who are winless at Hilton Coliseum in nine consecutive trips. OU has played well on the road this season, and the typically raucous Iowa State crowd will less than 10 percent of the 14,000 capacity, which should be a factor in the Sooners’ favor if they continue to play up to the capability and confidence level. The nine-game skid stops here.

Oklahoma wins +8