Back on January 17, Kansas traveled to Ames and suffered its only defeat of the Big 12 season in an 86-81 loss to Iowa State. The Cyclones ran Kansas up and down the floor that day, leaving analysts wondering if this would finally be the year that the Jayhawks’ streak of 10 straight Big 12 regular season titles would come to an end. Flash forward two weeks and Kansas now sits alone at the top of the league standings with a 7-1 record. The Cyclones, meanwhile, have shaken off an embarrassing loss at Texas Tech with a pair of wins in their last two games. Tonight’s Big Monday showdown is a great opportunity for Iowa State to pull even with Kansas in the standings, but it’s also a chance for the Jayhawks to cement themselves as prohibitive title favorites. Fred Hoiberg recognizes the game’s meaning, saying recently, “It’s a heck of a challenge, but we’re chasing them right now. So it’s obviously an important game.”

Will Iowa State celebrate a second victory over Kansas on Monday? (Charlie Litchfield/The Register)

A motive of revenge is in play for Kansas tonight. Asked after the team’s victory over Kansas State on Saturday how quickly he’d transition to thinking about Iowa State, freshman Kelly Oubre Jr. responded, “Right now. We owe them.” The game will feature the Big 12’s two best offenses, and if recent meetings are any guide, it’ll be an up-tempo, high-scoring contest. The key for Kansas will be getting back in transition to prevent the Cyclones from finding easy looks. In the last meeting, Iowa State scored 10 of its points on baskets in transition within within 10 seconds of a Kansas conversion. The Cyclones were simply outhustling the Jayhawks down the floor. Kansas junior Perry Ellis agreed, saying that the most important thing for his team is to “get back on defense and limit transition.” The Jayhawks will need freshman Cliff Alexander‘s motor running on all cylinders to keep up with Iowa State’s Jameel McKay, and the Kansas guards will have to find the Cyclones’ shooters in transition, where 41.4 percent of Iowa State’s shots come from behind the arc.

At the other end of the floor, Iowa State needs to find a way to stop the big man Ellis. After an inconsistent start to the season, the junior has scored in double figures in four of his last five games and is again becoming the focal point of the offense. “[W]e want to play through Ellis as much as we can,” Bill Self said after Saturday’s win. The numbers say that’s a solid strategy for Kansas against Iowa State as well. In five games against the Cyclones when he’s played 20 or more minutes, Ellis is averaging 19.6 points per contest. Pay attention to McKay’s minutes tonight too. The transfer provides Iowa State with the sort of length that has troubled Ellis this season and also eliminates any height advantages that the Jayhawks have by allowing himself or 6’8″ Georges Niang to cover Ellis.

Tonight’s game will be a great one, as two of the league’s best teams match up in Lawrence with huge conference implications. Big 12 Play of the Year candidates Niang and Ellis will go head-to-head down low. And two of the league’s best coaching minds, Fred Hoiberg and Self, will match wits from the sidelines. The home atmosphere and efficiency numbers favor Kansas (Ken Pomeroy predicts an eight-point Jayhawks victory), but Iowa State knows it can beat the Jayhawks once again. “For sure,” Dustin Hogue said. “The fact that we got them this year — if we stick together and play basketball like we know we can, we can beat anybody.”

Chris Stone (136 Posts)

Chris Stone is a contributor to the Big 12 microsite. You can find him on Twitter @cstonehoops.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2015 at 4:56 pm by Chris Stone and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: big monday, bill self, feature, fred hoiberg, georges niang, iowa state, Jameel McKay, kansas, perry ellis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.