Iowa State cyclones guard Keshon Gilbert (10) drives to the basket towards Mississippi Valley State throughout first half within the NCAA males’s basketball residence opening at Hilton Coliseum on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. No. 5 Iowa State received its season opener by 39 factors, however that does not imply coach T.J. Otzelberger is absolutely glad.
The group’s mentality is to all the time discover areas to enhance, and that would be the case as Iowa State (1-0) ideas off towards Kansas Metropolis (2-0) on Monday night time in Ames, Iowa.
“Yeah, we have now to do a greater job of enjoying easy basketball,” Otzelberger mentioned.
“I feel, offensively, there are occasions the ball obtained caught with one man and we over-dribbled it,” he mentioned. “There are performs on the defensive finish that we did not end with two palms. We (would get) a rebound, we dribble it off of somebody’s foot or we have now a careless turnover. Issues that have been simply sloppy which can be uncharacteristic of how we play.”
Regardless of these imperfections, Iowa State cruised to an 83-44 win over Mississippi Valley State in its opener final Monday. Keshon Gilbert scored 17 factors, Tamin Lipsey contributed 16, and Joshua Jefferson and Milan Momcilovic added 10 apiece to guide the Cyclones, who shot solely 23.8 p.c (5 of 21) from past the arc.
That is an space Otzelberger will look to enhance upon towards Kansas Metropolis.
“I believed we had attractiveness,” he mentioned. “Curt (Jones) and Milan, particularly, had actually attractiveness. Total, we wish to shoot the ball higher than we did. However I did not assume it was as a result of we did not have attractiveness. It was as a result of they weren’t falling for no matter cause.”
Kansas Metropolis will purpose to problem the Cyclones after opening its season with back-to-back, double-digit victories. The Roos cruised to a 124-36 win over Kansas Christian of their most up-to-date sport Friday night time.
The 88-point margin of victory towards the NCCAA Division II program is the most important in program historical past for Kansas Metropolis. The earlier file was a 73-point win over Bacone (111-38) on Nov. 18, 2019.
“I felt like we put ourselves in place early to only execute and never have to fret about successful the sport, so to talk,” Roos coach Marvin Menzies mentioned. “That is one thing we did not do in our final sport (91-68 win over Hannibal-LaGrange final Monday), so I felt like we took a step in the fitting path.”
Anderson Kopp scored 22 factors to guide Kansas Metropolis on Friday. He added 5 rebounds and three steals.
Kasheem Grady II additionally will look to remain scorching for the Roos. He scored 21 factors on 7-of-11 capturing from the sector, together with 5 of seven from past the arc, towards Kansas Christian.
Menzies mentioned his workforce must be centered for a tricky take a look at at Iowa State.
“The prepare is out of the station now,” he mentioned. “So it is rolling. We’ll put this sport behind us and put all our focus into the following possession.”
Menzies and Otzelberger share a connection: Each males have been head coaches at UNLV. Menzies spent three seasons there (2016-19) and was instantly succeeded by Otzelberger (2019-21).
Monday will mark the sixth assembly between Iowa State and Kansas Metropolis. The Cyclones are 5-0 within the collection.
–Discipline Degree Media
