Game of the Week: Kansas vs Iowa State
After No. 9 Kansas ended the undefeated streak of No. 1 Arizona, the Jayhawks go on to face No. 5 Iowa State at the Hilton Coliseum at 12 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14. How does this rematch check out?
Yes, a rematch both of these teams met up in January which resulted in Kansas beating a No. 2 Iowa State at the time.
Kansas Jayhawks
The Jayhawks are one of the blue bloods of college basketball. They are always present, and always a threat. This year, they are led by sophomore forward Flory Bidunga who leads the team with 14.9 points per game and nine rebounds per game. Senior guard Melvin Council Jr. leads with 5.1 assists per game. The Jayhawks have come off an electric win against Arizona, so lets see who stood out. Bidunga and Council Jr. both scored 23 points. Bidunga had 10 rebounds in the game and Council Jr. had six rebounds and six assists. Freshman forward Bryson Tiller scored 18 points and had eight rebounds.
Each of these players are strong shooters but the entire team matched Arizona in rebounds 41-45. The Jayhawks also don’t turn the ball over often with only 11 turnovers and they don’t have a lot of fouls with only 12. All around, the Jayhawks are a very solid team that are going to be tough to beat.
Looking at the first win against Iowa State, the Jayhawks beat the Cyclones 84-63. In the same vein, the Jayhawks only had nine turnovers and nine fouls, but they also shot 51% in field goals and 50% from three-point range. It was definitely solid statement win that the Jayhawks are looking to repeat.
Some of the other wins Kansas has had this year are No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 13 BYU, and No. 17 Tennessee.
Players to watch: Flory Bidunga, Melvin Council Jr., and Bryson Tiller.
Iowa State Cyclones
The Cyclones are looking to win round two. They are led by junior forward Milan Momcilovic with 18.4 points per game, senior forward Joshua Jefferson with 7.7 rebounds per game and senior guard Tamin Lipsey with 5.4 assists per game.
Looking at the previous game against Kansas, Jefferson scored 12 points and eight rebounds. Freshman guard Jamarian Batemon also scored 12 points off the bench. Momcilovic scored 11 points and five rebounds. Freshman guard Killyan Toure also was prominent with seven rebounds, and Lipsey had five assists. One of the keys in the game against Kansas is that Jefferson had a turnover problem in the game with five turnovers. That was one of the glaring issues for the Cyclones in the game, so ball security will be a thing to watch in this game. Momcilovic also faced foul trouble, but one of the biggest issues was the shooting. The Cyclones only shot 24-65 (37%) and 9-27 (33%) in three-point shots. Other than that, the Cyclones were matched up pretty well against Kansas. So, if the Cyclones can clean up their shots, they have a chance to beat Kansas.
One of the things in question is Iowa State’s strength of schedule as the Cyclones have not played a ranked team until they upset No. 1 Purdue back in December (Kansas was not ranked when they played the first time.) So, this will be a big test for the Cyclones.
Players to watch: Joshua Jefferson, Milan Momcilovic, and Jamarian Batemon.
All that said, my prediction is that the Jayhawks win again. It may not be as comfortable of a win as the first round but they will win.
Photo Attribution: AlexanderJonesi, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons