Texas Tech Hoops Roundtable | How do we beat Iowa State?

Up next for us on Saturday is the only Big 12 team that beat us this season by more than 10+ points. How do we go into Ames and try to knock off #11 Iowa State in the Hilton Coliseum?

Seth - The confidence for this team just has to be sky-high, it's strange to say this, but this team is playing on house money and I get the feeling that they have nothing to lose. On some level, that maybe speaks to all of our expectations prior to this season, but son of a gun, Tubby has exceeded expectations by double. It's just unbelievable. As to how to beat Iowa St. in Hilton? The same game plan for Oklahoma, which is to try to slow that offense down. I think Texas Tech has to stop DeAndre Kane first and foremost. Kane had 13 free throws by himself that game, so Turner and Onwuasor have to not let Kane get to the line, or drive and dish for his teammates.

MikeTTU - This will be difficult coming playing a team that beat us at our house, now going to theirs. However, the same scenario was for Oklahoma and we handled that pretty well. The only difference between that match-up and this one will be that Iowa State will have a pretty full house, unlike Oklahoma. A few things I believe have to happen for us to win. The first is to force the ball inside on Iowa State. Their biggest player is at 6'6", and if we can get Tolbert, Kravic, Tapsoba and Crockett to operate and find holes near the paint, we should be fine. This will also require players like Turner, Gotcher and Hannahs to find that open man and not be afraid to drive in the lane if it's there. The second is to watch the outside. I love what Tech did last game against Oklahoma, and if they can keep a good 3-point shooting Iowa State from shooting those 3, we should be in good handle. I don't think we'll have too big of a problem inside, but it's up to Turner, Gotcher and Crockett to press the ball and make sure a quality shot doesn't go off. Finally, make you damn free throw. I have feeling this will be a game where Tech will go to the line a lot and have to earn it. The last performance at this area wasn't great by the Red Raiders, and hopefully they'll improve and make them this game. I can't watch it live, but hopefully I can watch a replay and see a victory in the end.

DanSwany - West Virginia beat Iowa State 107-77 and one thing really stuck out to me on the stats sheet. Melvin Ejim only scored 6 points. He had scored in double figures every game on the entire season besides that game. He was 1-9 from the floor (0-4 from downtown). Star DeAndre Kane was held to 14 points on 6-15 from the floor (0-3 from 3-point range). Starter Monte Morris was 3-12 with 10 points (0-3 from downtown). Starter Dustin Hogue was 0-1 from the outside.

I realize that in the ass whipping that ISU suffered to WVU they were only 4-23 from three point range. That’s only 17.4%, which is really bad. WVU in that game was 13-22 (59.1%) from the outside, which is really good. Earlier in the year when ISU was undefeated and Oklahoma handed them their first loss, ISU was only 6-26 (23.1%) from downtown.

There are many factors that have to turn out right for us to get a win on the road in Ames, but to me the key to the game is defense beyond the arc. ISU is going to get points, but let our perimeter defense suffocate them like we did against Oklahoma last game. OU was only 6-27 (22.2%) from the outside in our victory on Wednesday night. Move our feet and play aggressive defense around the perimeter and we can win this game. We also need to make our shots and stick with our own style of play. Tech does not need to get into the back-and-forth run game that ISU loves. Wreck ‘em Tech!