MBB preview: Texas seeks revenge at home against Iowa State (1pm tip, LHN)

Izaiah Brockington leads ISU on offense and in rebounding, despite his poor performance versus Texas in the first matchup, where he had just eight points, two turnovers, and four fouls. Gabe Kalscheur led Iowa State in scoring last time around with 22 points on 6/12 from three. Iowa State ended the game hitting 4/5 field goal attempts, which put the Longhorns away for good.

Though they only had two players in double figures, Kalscheur and Tyrese Hunter (13 points), they had four other players just shy with 8-9 points. It was a balanced attack outside of the top scorer, meaning Texas can't just hone in on ISU's best players, and will have to focus on the entire roster.

Texas had 20 turnovers in their loss earlier this year to the Cyclones, as well as being outscored in points in the paint (30-22), points off of turnovers (23-12), bench points (29-17), fast break points (13-2), as well as topped in steals (11-8), and assists (22-13). The fact that they lost by just nine points is kind of mind-boggling after being dominated in so many facets of the game. They had a chance in this game fairly late as well before ISU went off on a run that sealed the game.

Here's Iowa State's starting lineup.

Texas comes into this matchup reeling after Texas Tech put it on them in Lubbock. In the same way, Lubbock put it on me, as I got snowed in after the game and was stuck in a Best Western near campus until yesterday. I talked to three total people in the three days I was there. It was a ghost town. It felt like The Shining. I was just waiting for two twin girls to walk down the hall at me while I picked up my Uber Eats.

Here's Texas' starting lineup.

What Texas needs to do today to win:

• Not turn the ball over 20 times.

Texas had a lot of trouble taking care of the ball the last time they were in Ames, which led to 23 points off of turnovers for Iowa State. Texas had just 12 points off of 14 Iowa State turnovers, which made the difference in the game. In order to pull this off today, Texas has to control the tempo and avoid errant passes into the teeth of the Cyclone defense.

• Defend the three-point line.

Texas gave up 10 threes against ISU on 23 attempts last time, mainly to Gabe Kalscheur, who, as I mentioned, hit six threes by himself on 12 attempts. They also went 8/22 themselves. Those two threes made a difference in the last game, so making sure the Cyclones don't get hot from outside should be a priority for Texas today.

• Score more on assisted baskets.

Iowa State had 22 assists to Texas' 13 in their last matchup, which indicates that the offense for Texas wasn't flowing and they were scoring a lot of their buckets on iso-motion plays. While this is fine usually, Texas needs to look to get more offensive sets where passes set up scores, like backdoor cuts or some kind of pick and roll action. Having Carr play off ball works in these situations, and despite his poor performance against Texas Tech, Timmy Allen needs to have the ball in his hands to start most possessions.

Prediction:

Bafflingly, Texas is an eight-point favorite over Iowa State in this game, especially after the loss to Texas Tech and the loss in Ames by nine earlier this season. I'm not going out on a limb here picking either Texas money line or Iowa State spread, but that's what makes the most sense to me.

ML: Texas (-355)

Spread: Iowa State (+8)

O/U: over 122