No. 3 Iowa State will take on Arizona State for the first time as a Big 12 Conference foe when the teams tip off Saturday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz.
Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger acknowledged that it felt a bit different as he prepared to face a program he had never coached against. The Sun Devils joined the Big 12 this season after spending more than four decades in the Pac-12 (formerly the Pac-10).
“You look at the game as it presents itself,” Otzelberger said. “You watch the film with the team and figure (it) out.
“For us, it’s 90 percent of what we do and doing that to the best of our ability. Certainly, we respect our opponents, and there’s 10 percent that, ‘Hey, this guy’s a great shooter; this dude tries to play through the post.’ Those sorts of things we incorporate, but … (we) just focus on the game that comes.”
Iowa State (16-2, 6-1) is heading on the road for the first time since sustaining a 64-57 loss at West Virginia last weekend. The Cyclones returned home for a 108-83 win over Central Florida on Tuesday before heading west.
Arizona State (11-7, 2-5) is looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since winning six straight non-conference games from Nov. 14-Dec. 3. The Sun Devils jumped to an 8-1 start but have lost six of nine games since then.
In their most recent game, the Sun Devils held on for a 65-57 win over No. 23 West Virginia on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said he wants his team to carry its good habits from the most recent win into Saturday’s game against Iowa State.
“We had to rebound and show toughness and try and score around the basket,” Hurley said. “I thought we drove it at key moments. We executed on our out-of-bounds plays. We did all the things that you need to do out of timeouts — executing to get a great shot down the stretch.
“All of those things equal winning. Hopefully, we can bottle that.”
Curtis Jones leads Iowa State with an average of 17.8 points per game on 46.8 percent shooting from the field, including 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. Keshon Gilbert is next with 15.7 ppg to go with a team-high 4.9 assists per contest, and Joshua Jefferson is third in scoring with 12.8 ppg and leads the team with 8.2 rebounds per game.
BJ Freeman is Arizona State’s top scorer with 13.2 points per game. Joson Sanon (12.8), Basheer Jihad (12.6), Alston Mason (11.4) and Jayden Quaintance (10.3) also are averaging double-digit point totals.
Otzelberger said it was clear on film that Arizona State could pose a challenge.
“They play hard, they compete on the glass, they’ll get up and down in transition,” he said. “They really can score in spurts. They’ve got the ability to get it going quick. And they’ve got some gifted personnel that if you’re not very intentional with your pressure defensively, they can create some matchup issues and get baskets.”
–Field Level Media
