IOWA CITY, Iowa – Curtis Jones knows how good the group around him really is, even if most of the attention at the top of the college basketball world is largely elsewhere.
The final six minutes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night proved it.
No. 3 Iowa State rallied from a 13-point deficit Thursday to earn an 89-80 victory over Iowa, which played as good a game as it could have asked for before falling in the standings. That brought the Cyclones to 8-1 on the season with conference play right around the corner.
While there are plenty of other great teams, both in the Big 12 and elsewhere, Jones doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to ranking him and his teammates. They belong right at the top.
“I don’t feel any pressure about that. I feel confident about it,” Jones said. “Yes, we are one of the best teams in the country.
“I feel like it shows. We have the talent, we have the personnel, we have the union. “I feel like we have everything it takes to go far and I have a lot of confidence in our abilities.”
Iowa State rallies to beat Iowa
Iowa gave the Cyclones almost everything they had Thursday night. And for most of the game, it looked like it was going to work.
The Hawkeyes, who made seven 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, took a 13-point lead just before halftime. Every time the Cyclones responded in the second half, Iowa responded to stay one step ahead. But unlike the Lahaina Civic Center in Maui last month, Iowa State held firm.
The Cyclones finally took the lead in the final six minutes of the game once Iowa went cold. The Hawkeyes scored just two field goals thereafter, both in garbage time, and Iowa State took full advantage. It was a slow battle (they didn’t take the lead for the first time until three minutes into the second half), but they cruised to a nine-point victory.
Jones scored a game-high 23 points off the bench for Iowa State while shooting 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Joshua Jefferson added 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Dishon Jackson added 12 points inside.
“That’s one of the best teams in the country, if not the best right now. We were there with them for a long time,” said Iowa’s Payton Sandfort, who finished with 13 points and five rebounds in the loss. “Congratulations on the way they made the plays… It speaks for itself the way they have energy throughout the game. “They have a lot of guys who can play, they have shooters, they have rebounders, they can defend… They are going to win a lot of games.”
How far can Iowa State really go?
With the non-conference slate behind him, barring games against Omaha and Morgan State in the coming days, head coach TJ Otzelberger will now be tasked with leading the Cyclones through the best conference in basketball.
The Big 12 can ruin any team, no matter how good it is. Just look at Kansas last year, which began the season as the nation’s top-ranked team and then lost nine of its final 18 conference games. But Iowa State, which currently has its highest ranking in program history, is perhaps best positioned to compete for what would be its first regular-season title since 2001.
The Cyclones’ only loss this season came after Auburn scored the victory at the Maui Invitational last month. Otherwise, business is handled when necessary. The Cyclones led almost all the way by beating Kam Jones and then-No. 5 Marquette last week, and cruised to a nearly 30-point victory over Big 12 foe Colorado in Hawaii.
The Cyclones also don’t have a single star, like Duke has Cooper Flagg or Kansas has Hunter Dickinson. All five of the Cyclones’ starters are averaging double figures, led by guard Keshon Gilbert’s 17.4 points per game. He had nine points and seven rebounds Thursday night.
They can and should turn to anyone at any time. Otzelberger attributed the success of this strategy in part to the fact that they brought back nine players from last year’s team.
“I think it’s dangerous, because you can only put your best defender on one player,” Jones said. “We have a lot of weapons… I really trust whoever has the ball, which is what I think makes us so dangerous. If you have a weak link on defense, I think we will try.”
Iowa State will surely find itself in situations similar to Thursday night’s in the coming months. But now that they’ve “weathered the storm” and earned a win in a big game, Jones and the Cyclones know what they’re capable of. It’s just a matter of achieving it again and again.
“We didn’t break up (tonight), which happens with a lot of programs when things start to go wrong, especially with the pressure the outside has on us,” Jones said. “I don’t really think we feel that pressure, but that’s a credit to our experience.”