You can read the last analytics report here.

Last Week’s Notable Iowa State Game News:

Dec. 31st: Iowa State (7-4): 68 vs. Florida A&M (1-9): 70

This was obviously a game that all of Cyclone Nation would like to forget, but i’m here to tell you what exactly went wrong. It was pretty clear that Iowa State was missing Tyrese Haliburton on the offensive end. He has obviously been near the top of every major analytical statistic all year, so his production was going to be very hard to replace.

The guard play from the starting lineup was not the problem in this game. Rasir Bolton used his extra opportunity to produce a game with an offensive rating of 130 while scoring a very efficient 29 points on only 17 shots. On the other hand, even though he only played 11 minutes–Tre Jackson finished with an offensive rating of ZERO. He finished with four turnovers while shooting 0-2 from the field.

Continuing the negative trend, Michael Jacobson continues to struggle to find a rhythm offensively. He finished with an offensive rating 48 while shooting 1-4 from the field in 19 minutes of play. It has been hard to find positives in Jacobson’s game. He is “supposed” to be more of an offensive player, so while his defense is consistently poor and his offense is not much better it has been frustrating to watch at times.

Iowa State was never able to slow down Florida A&M’s big man DJ Jones who finished with an offensive rating of 163 on the night while 16 points on only 10 shots. This was hopefully an outlier in a long season for the Cyclones.

Jan. 4th: Iowa State (7-5): 79 @ TCU (9-3): 81 F/OT

To open Big 12 play Iowa State traveled to Fort Worth to take on the Horned Frogs of TCU. Tyrese Haliburton was able to pick up right where he left off following a one game absence. He recorded an offensive rating of 122 (second highest on the team) while notching a triple double of 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. The guard play as a whole was ISU’s strength offensively. Rasir Bolton and Prentiss Nixon recorded offensive ratings of 113 and 124 respectively. Unfortunately, Michael Jacobson continued to struggle, recording an offensive rating of 54 on the night.

Defensively, Iowa State struggled slowing down RJ Nembhard who torched the Cyclones for 31 points on a very efficient 6-8 from behind the three point line. Iowa State’s lack of three-point defense lead to TCU shooting 52%, and the Cyclones struggle’s continued–shooting 35% from behind the line.

Notable Iowa State Team Stats:

Currently 54th ranked team in the country on KenPom *(compared to 41st last report)

25th in adjusted offensive efficiency (109.4) *(22nd last report)

101st in adjusted defensive efficiency (96.5) *(76th last report)

Notable Iowa State Individual Stats:

George Conditt IV is 68th in the country *(4th in the Big 12) in Offensive Rebounding Percentage (13.2) *49th last report

George Conditt IV is 11th in the country *(1st in the Big 12) in BLK% (14.42) *4th last report

George Conditt IV is 28th in the country *(2nd in the Big 12) in 2P FG% (69.2) *9th last report

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Tyrese Haliburton is 28th in the country *(1st in the Big 12) in Offensive Rating (127.8) *36th last report

Tyrese Haliburton is still 57th in the country *(4th in the Big 12) in effective field goal percentage (62.8)

Tyrese Haliburton is 16th in the country *(2nd in the Big 12) in Assist Rate (39.8) *19th last report

Tyrese Haliburton is 70th in the country *(4th in the Big 12) in Steal Percentage (3.87) *82nd last report

Tyrese Haliburton is 72nd in the country *(3rd in the Big 12) in True Shooting Percentage (64.1) *74th last report

Tyrese Haliburton is 1st in the country in Offensive Box Plus Minus (11.0) *5th last report

Tyrese Haliburton is 6th in the country in Box Plus Minus (13.6) *unranked last report

Tyrese Haliburton is still 4th in the country in APG (7.9)

**no other ISU player is ranked in the top 100 of any major statistical category.**

Player by Player Efficiency:

Tyrese Haliburton (40 MPG)—> 21.4 USG%/29.8 PER WS: 2.9 (D+/-): [2.6]

*last report: (29 MPG) (20.8/29.1) WS: 2.6 (D+/-): [2.9]

Solomon Young (16.5 MPG)—> 22.8 USG%/19.7 PER WS: 0.9 (D+/-): [0.6]

*(20 MPG) (24.2/21.2) WS: 1.4 (D+/-): [0.4]

Rasir Bolton (36.5 MPG)—> 24.3 USG%/17.6 PER WS: 1.4 (D+/-): [-0.7]

*(26 MPG) (23.5/15.5) WS: 1.0 (D+/-): [-0.4]

Michael Jacobson (20.5 MPG)—> 17.8 USG%/PER 14.3 WS: 0.9 (D+/-): [0.2]

*(22 MPG (18.0/16.4) WS: 1.0 (D+/-): [0.8]

Prentiss Nixon (38 MPG)—> 18.6 USG%/11.3 PER WS: 0.9 (D+/-): [0.5]

*(27 MPG) (19.7/11.1) WS: 0.7 (D+/-): [0.9]

George Conditt IV (26 MPG)—> 22.5 USG%/31.2 PER WS: 1.6 (D+/-): [6.2]

*(22 MPG) (20.7/32.2) WS: 1.3 (D+/-): [8.1]

Zion Griffin (12.5 MPG)—> 19.7 USG%/15.0 PER WS: 0.4 (D+/-): [0.4]

*(11 MPG) (21.4/15.8) WS: 0.3 (D+/-): [0.7]

Caleb Grill (5 MPG)—> 11.9 USG%/7.3 PER WS: 0.2 (D+/-): [1.6]

*(10 MPG) (11.7/8.8) WS: 0.3 (D+/-): [2.4]

Tre Jackson (19.5 MPG)—> 14.6 USG%/4.9 PER WS: 0.1 (D+/-): [1.0]

*(15 MPG) (14.7/7.1) WS: 0.2 (D+/-): [1.3]

Terrence Lewis (23 MPG)—> 20.8 USG%/21.7 PER WS: 0.3 (D+/-): [-1.7]

*(15 MPG) (22.9/33.9) WS: 0.3 (D+/-): [-2.2]

Previewing Week 10 for Iowa State:

Jan. 8th: Iowa State (7-6) vs. #3 Kansas (11-2)

Iowa State welcomes their best opponent of the season, Wednesday night to Hilton Coliseum. The Kansas Jayhawks rank as the number two overall team on KenPom’s rankings. They’re 15th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, while being second in defensive.

They Cyclones might have to play a nearly perfect game to find the victory in this one. Kansas has only suffered two losses this season by a combined THREE points. KU is led by sophomore guard Devon Dotson who has averaged 18.5 PPG this season. Dotson vs. Haliburton should be one of the best matchups in all of college basketball this season. In the post the Jayhawks are led by senior big man Udoka Azubuike who is averaging 13.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game. Hopefully George Conditt IV will receive more playing time, because he has proven to be the most effective post defender this season for the Cyclones.

The three point line should be the biggest factor in this game. If ISU is able limit Kansas’ makes from behind the arc, and if the Cyclones themselves are able to miraculously knock down some threes for once, we could see another high ranked team go down in college basketball.

Jan. 11th: Iowa State (7-6) vs. Oklahoma (10-3)

This will be the type game that Iowa State will need to find a win, if they want to make the big dance. After six loses in non-conference in play, there is not much room for error. Oklahoma is ranked as the 49th team in the country on KenPom. They’re 49th in adjusted offensive efficiency, and 57th defensively.

Oklahoma is led by forward, Kristian Doolittle–who is averaging 16.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per contest this season. I don’t think there will be a special formula for Iowa State to win this game. Oklahoma is a solid team, but they are the level of opponent that Iowa State needs to find a way to beat. The Sooners are also putrid from behind the three point line–shooting 30.7% on the season, so something has to give in this matchup.