Just some quick analysis after looking at their schedule.
-Bad road losses early in the season at George Washington, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech. Should have had an even bigger loss at Wake Forest if not for a miracle 3-pointer at the buzzer and complete incompetence by the opposition. I would compare that to us winning at TCU on a miracle Hallice Cooke 3 at the buzzer with a player right in his face.
-Huge top end wins home and neutral against teams like Cal, Villanova, West Virginia, Miami, North Carolina.
-Alot of their wins seemed to be in the 8-12 point range where they played a steady game, winning each half by 3 or 4 points
- 2 solid road wins at Louisville and Pitt but like Iowa State most of their damage came at home and on a neutral court
-Had a 7 game winning streak in February but not alot of competition during that stretch. Certainly with the unbalanced ACC schedule there are opportunities to get on runs against the conference bottom feeders where that is not possible in the Big 12.
- Alot of the highlights I saw were teams draining open 3's of their defense which looks like it can be defeated by quick ball movement around the perimeter and getting their defense to sag on the inside. I think if we are hitting our 3's we have a chance. I think Thomas and Nader will be huge in this game, as I think all of the focus will be them stopping Niang from driving the paint. We should get alot of good looks from 3.
I feel like Iowa State will have a huge home court advantage in this one. I think if we continue playing our game like we have the last couple weeks we can win.