Three Thoughts: Iowa State dominates Texas Tech 84-50

No. 14 Iowa State built off the tough wins on the road against Oklahoma and TCU with the best conference win I’ve seen from this group in the TJ Otzelberger era. Iowa State had Hilton Coliseum rocking last night, 84-50 and are 4-0 in Big 12 play. Senior guard Gabe Kalscheur led all scorers with 25 points.

Here are my three thoughts:

Gabe Kalscheur had the hot hand.

Gabe Kalscheur couldn’t miss. Plain and simple. He shot an outstanding 71.4% from the field and 83.3% from three against a program that is notorious for their defense.

Kalscheur defense was also outstanding last night. He grabbed 7 rebounds and had 2 blocks in 31 minutes of play. Kalscheur looks so much more confident as of late and his numbers are showing.

“When you work how he works, it comes comes around for you. He’s earning that confidence” stated Otzelberger when he talked about Kalscheur strong play recently.

He’s becoming a consistent ‘3 and D’ guard for the Cyclones and this huge leap offensively is only helping the Iowa State in Big 12 play.

Grill and Holmes were solid offensively.

Seniors Jaren Holmes and Caleb Grill both contributed offensively as well. Both guards poured in 15 and 14 points, respectively. Holmes and Grill both shot 50% from three and really helped put Tech away early.

Grill is now shooting the ball at a Matt Thomas rate and is getting Matt Thomas results. He isn’t hesitating when he has an open look anymore and it’s great to see him shooting at this clip.

Holmes has just played solid basketball. Doing a little bit of everything and it’s resulting in winning.

Defense got stop after stop.

Iowa State was incredible on the defensive end. The Cyclones caused turnovers all night for Tech, which resulted in easy buckets. Iowa State forced 19 turnovers and out-rebounded Tech 45-28.

Usually if you win those two categories, you come out victorious. Iowa State did just that. This can only do wonders for their confidence going deeper into Big 12 play. Iowa State has the ultimate challenge this Saturday as they travel to Lawrence to take on defending national champion No. 2 Kansas. Both teams are on 6 and 9 game winning streaks, something’s got to give.