The Iowa State Cyclones and Kansas State Wildcats are both on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament. A huge road win over Kansas for Iowa State helped their chances immensely and the Cyclones kept it up with a win against Oklahoma on Saturday. As for Kansas State, the Wildcats currently sit at 5-7 in conference but have a very manageable schedule the rest of the way. A win here for the Wildcats would be a big step in the right direction.
At 7 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Wednesday, February 15, 2017, at Fred Bramlage Coliseum. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Wednesday schedule.
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Iowa State has been a mixed bag on the road this year. The wins over Kansas and Oklahoma State were great and really boosted this team’s profile. However, losses against Texas and Vanderbilt are tough and will be held against them on Selection Sunday. Five of Iowa State’s last six road games have ended up over the total.
Kansas State followed up a big road win against Baylor and an excruciatingly close home loss against Kansas with a blowout loss at the hands of West Virginia. The Wildcats ran out of gas in the second half, getting outscored 51 to 32 in the final period and looked flustered by the Mountaineers constant pressure.
Matchup to Watch
It will be strength against strength when Iowa State is trying to score on Kansas State. The Cyclones have one of the better offenses in the conference, led by their quartet of senior guards. Monte Morris, Nazareth Mitrou-Long, Matt Thomas, and Deonte Burton have all taken over portions of games this season and will look to be effective against one of the best defenses the Big 12 has to offer.
The Wildcats are allowing just 66.5 PPG, but that number has gone way up since conference play started. Kansas State has held just one team under 70 points over its last nine games and allowed three teams to hit 80-plus in that time frame. The main problem has been Kansas State’s inability to defend the three-point line. The Wildcats have allowed opponents to hit 39 percent of their treys against them and that has played a large part in their failures.
Last Meeting
Three weeks ago these teams met in Ames and Kansas State almost rallied back from a 17-point first half deficit to get the victory. Iowa State started out strong from the field, hitting 60 percent of its three-point attempts in the first half before going ice cold and managing just 15 points in the first 15 minutes of action in the second half.
Thomas was the story of the game for the Cyclones, knocking down 9 of his 12 shots from the field and also went 7 of 10 from beyond the three-point arc. His hot shooting, coupled with better than usual defense from Iowa State, ended up giving the home team the win and the cover at the end of the day.
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This game is extremely important for both teams but for slightly different reasons. The Wildcats are looking to get as close to .500 as possible in conference play after repeatedly stumbling against other mid-tier teams in the Big 12, while the Cyclones have a tough schedule the rest of the way and need to win every winnable game.
Home court advantage has proved to be bigger than ever in college basketball this season. Time and time again we have seen lesser teams knock off much better sides at home and although Iowa State is the better team here, look for Kansas State to pull out a gritty win.
College Basketball Odds: Kansas State 73, Iowa State 69
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