The second-ranked Iowa State Cyclones were overwhelmed on the road at Allen Fieldhouse against the unranked Kansas Jayhawks, who stormed to an early lead and never looked back en route to an 84-63 win on Tuesday night.
After the game, which saw Iowa State trail by as many as 26 points at one juncture, head coach T.J. Otzelberger didn't mince words about his team's first defeat of the season.
“They were extremely well-prepared, well-coached, like we knew they would be," Otzelberger said. "Extremely urgent [for Kansas] to come out and play with a tremendous spirit, which they did, so credit to them. There's not a coach and a program that we have more respect for.
"And that was an absolute beatdown from the start, in their favor, unfortunately.”
The Cyclones, one of the better teams in the country at taking care of the basketball, were anything but that against a swarming Jayhawks defense. Iowa State turned the ball over on six of its first 11 possessions of the game.
“I think the physicality on both sides—I think the defensive physicality guarding the dribble, getting into the basketball and pressuring the ball, we didn't have that mentality to how we did things,” Otzelberger said. “That carries over to the offensive side because we got sped up. We didn't finish through contact. We didn't keep our composure to play later in possessions and move the basketball.
“We appeared a little bit spooked and panicked. The moment got us...”
The contest was a statement win for the Jayhawks, the program's second victory against a ranked opponent this season. Tuesday's result comes with big implications for both teams.
What Iowa State loss means for Cyclones, Jayhawks in AP top 25 rankings
Entering the game, Iowa State was in the conversation to be the top-ranked team in the country, garnering No. 1 votes in the top-25 this week on the back of an impressive resume that includes a 23-point win on the road over the then-top-ranked Purdue Boilermakers. Kansas denied Iowa State a chance at securing the No. 1 ranking—for now.
The Cyclones are destined to slide down the rankings, though their win over Purdue figures to keep them situated within—or at least just outside—the top five. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks, a top-25 team in the preseason poll, are set to rejoin the ranks and could rise as high as to the top-20 after the exclamation point victory.
Speculation aside, both programs will be earnestly waiting for the AP's top 25 poll results to release next Monday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Iowa State Coach Had Blunt Take on His No. 2-Ranked Team's Blowout Loss to Kansas.
