ISU @ Kansas - GameThread

Remember when Iowa State scored that huge victory over Kansas when GameDay came to town just a few weeks ago?

Yeah, that was big... But a win tonight would be to the victory on January 17 as Shaquille O'Neal is to his wife. Observe below:

The #8 Kansas Jayhawks have won all four of their conference games leading up to tonight's rematch against the #11 Cyclones, which puts them all alone at the top of the Big 12 standings at 7-1. Iowa State trails the Jayhawks by one game at 6-2, and a win tonight would be the Cyclones' first regular season sweep of Kansas in over a decade. It would also thrust ISU into a "control your own destiny" situation for the rest of the regular season... A spot that they haven't been in since, well, January 17.

Game Info

The Opponent: Kansas (18-3, 7-1)

Tip: Monday, 8 p.m. CST - Phog Allen Fieldhouse - Lawrence, Kansas

TV/Webcast: ESPN (Brent Musburger, PxP; Fran Fraschilla, Analyst) / WatchESPN

Radio: Cyclone Radio Network

Kansas SBN Site: Rock Chalk Talk

Kansas

Y'all know the names... Perry Ellis, Frank Mason, Kelly Oubre, Cliff Alexander... But if you need a refresher, here's We're Talking Kansas round deux, along with enCYCLONEpedia STATSPLOSION!

A couple more interesting reads to get you pumped ready angry before tonight's game:

Under-the-Radar Reasons to Hate Iowa St

Jayhawks say they 'owe' one to Iowa State

Prediction

A win in Allen Fieldhouse is one of the hardest things to come by in sports if your name isn't Kansas. The good news is Georges Niang looked the best he has in a long time in Saturday's win over TCU, and Bryce Dejean-Jones has played more like he did at the beginning of the year too. When those two guys are performing at a high rate, it takes a lot of pressure off of Iowa State's other players to produce points.

In the first meeting between these two teams, ISU was able to get a ton of easy points in transition against a Jayhawk defense that Bill Self himself described as "lazy". I expect KU to make a point of not allowing Iowa State to get easy buckets tonight, so the Cyclones will have to be ready to go to battle on offense and execute if they want to win this game. I'm not saying Kansas is going to slow the game down ala Northern Iowa, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Jayhawks be a little less aggressive on the offensive glass out of respect to Iowa State's transition offense.

I expect tonight's game to go how Niang goes. If the junior forward has a good game, the Cyclones will be in it until the buzzer. If he has a poor or even medocre outing, it's going to be tough for Fred Hoiberg's crew to escape with a win.

Kansas 80 - Iowa State 71