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Oklahoma basketball: Sooners need to seize gettable win at Iowa State

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma Sooners guard Bijan Cortes (14) goes past Iowa State Cyclones guard Tre Jackson (3) during a men's college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Iowa State Cyclones at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022.Oklahoma Sooners Vs Iowa State Basketball
Oklahoma Sooners guard Bijan Cortes (14) goes past Iowa State Cyclones guard Tre Jackson (3) during a men's college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Iowa State Cyclones at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022.Oklahoma Sooners Vs Iowa State Basketball /
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Time is running short for the men’s Oklahoma basketball team to get the wins and enough good wins it needs to win over the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

The Sooners (14-12, 4-9) head to Iowa State and Hilton Coliseum this weekend for the second game in its season series with the Cyclones, who find themselves in a similar predicament to Oklahoma. The Sooners and Iowa State (17-9, 4-9) are tied for eighth place in the Big 12 standings, and the loser of Saturday’s showdown could find itself in the conference cellar by the end of that day.

Porter Moser’s OU squad is coming off a heartbreaking, two-point overtime loss at home to 20th-ranked Texas on Tuesday night. That same night, Iowa State snapped a four-game losing skid with a 54-51 road win at TCU behind a 20-point, seven-rebound performance by Izaiah Brockington.

Both teams are chasing a potential NCAA Tournament at-large bid and are in desperate need of a win on Saturday. Oklahoma won the first game this season between the two teams, a 79-66 win in Norman on Jan. 8. Brockington and Tyrese Hunter both scored 20 for the Cyclones in that game. Mo Gibson led OU with 20 points and Tanner Groves added 16. The Sooners shot 62 percent from the floor in the win.

Oklahoma owns a 121-91 record in the all-time series with Iowa State, but the Cyclones hold the advantage when playing in Ames with a 54-38 record. The Sooners won 66-56 at Iowa State last season, but before that they had lost in nine consecutive trips to Hilton Coliseum.

OU swept the regular-season series against the Cyclones last season, but Iowa State prevailed with a 79-73 victory in the Big 12 Tournament.

Saturday’s game will not be televised nationally but will be available on ESPN+.

What fans need to know about Oklahoma vs. Iowa State

  • Iowa State averages a Big 12-worst 67.3 points a game. The Cyclones rank in the middle of the Big 12 in offensive proficiency but are a better than average defensive team and rank second in the conference in guarding the three-point line and third in steals.
  • Neither Iowa State nor the Sooners are particularly good rebounding teams, ranking at the bottom of the Big 12, although ISU’s Izaiah Brockington is second in the conference, averaging 7.5 rebounds per game. The Sooners have won the rebounding battle in three of their last four games.
  • Brockington is the fourth leading scorer in the Big 12 with a 17.2 average.
  • Tanner Groves leads Oklahoma in scoring, averaging 12.7 points a game. Over the Sooners’ past six games, though, Groves has been an every-other-game contributor on the offensive end of the floor. He scored 13 in a loss at Auburn, followed that with just 4 points in a home loss to TCU, 23 the next game out at Oklahoma State, two points in the Sooners’ big win over Texas Tech, 19 against Kansas and then a four-point effort Tuesday versus Texas. If you follow that pattern, Saturday at Iowa State should be another high-output game for the Oklahoma big man.
  • Four of the OU starters average over 10 points per game and the fifth, Jalen Hill, scores at an 8.9 per-game clip. Mo Gibson is the Sooners’ second leading scorer with a 12.4 average and ranks third in made three-point shots per game (2.5).
  • As of the games of Feb. 17, ESPN Bracketology guru Joe Lunardi has Oklahoma and Iowa State as two of the last four teams to receive byes (avoiding a play-in game) in next month’s NCAA Tournament

Prediction

History in this series favors Iowa State in this game, but the Cyclones have had their struggles in the Big 12 this season. After going 12-0 to start the season, Iowa State has lost 9 of its last 13 games, including a 2-4 record at home against Big 12 teams. The Sooners are just 1-5 away from home against Big 12 opponents this season, their lone road win coming at West Virginia. Two of those road losses, however, have been by two or fewer points. Another bit of history that works against OU in Saturday’s matchup with Iowa State is the Sooners’ 1-9 record in Ames over the last 10 games. I’m looking for a big inside-out game from Tanner Groves and Jordan Goldwire. Oklahoma wins by 3 in a close game at the end.

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