Bears get rematch with ISU in the 4/5 Quarterfinal on Thursday at 11:30am

https://www.big12sports.com/sports/mbball

But can you beat me 3 times?

15…20…25?

Time to man up

It all depends on the players & their attitude. The coaches will do what they can but this one will be on them.

Meh yes and no. ISU is clearly a matchup issue for some reason. Hopefully the Bears show up and grind a W. But then losing by north of 15 yet again won't surprise me

C'mon Bears beat these Clowns!!!

Um, sorry I mean Clones.

Unfortunately, that is possible too.

wongobear said:

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But can you beat me 3 times?

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50/50 at this point

MrGolfguy said:

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wongobear said:

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But can you beat me 3 times?

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50/50 at this point

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Definitely 50/50, either they do or they don't.

I give them more than a 50% shot to beat us a 3rd time. They had lost 4 in a row and then got right against the best offensive team in the Big 12! It is 2 games in a row and this one will be more of a home game for them. They have no reason to fear us at all - maybe we'll catch them a little overconfident.

To win, we'll have to play the way we did against Texas and feed the ball inside. That means we need a productive game from all 3 of Flo, JTT, and Bridges. Otherwise, I am thinking they get a 3rd.

I travel with 4 other families every year to this tourney and it would be a shot in the arm to this part of our trip (we ski prior) if Bu could make a run.

Last Big 12 tourney for Thamba, JTT, and Flagler. I expect the team to be hungry, and I don't think we've thrown two consecutive duds all season. I give us a 75% chance to beat ISU. Their victory over us stopped the chatter about their nosedive and they are not at risk of missing the big dance.

I think we could have a big weekend. Not as confident about the rest of the season. We haven't been 'hot' for 4 consecutive games all year, much less 6.

Needless to say, if we want to beat Iowa St we can't have Cryer, George and Bridges shooting a combined 3-14 (21%) from 2 and 4-16 (25%) from 3, like they did Saturday. And gotta do something on D about the easy bunnies we gave up that allowed Iowa St to shoot 62% from 2, mostly on basic backdoor moves that went completely unguarded.

JTT is eligible next year if he wants to return. Keyonte is also eligible but 99.9% gone.

I like that they need to matchup with a team that ran them off the court twice. Its a mettle test. I would agree with the "bad matchup" folks bc it is a slightly bad matchup for the team.. but it isn't like Iowa St is some uber athletic overwhelming squad. They have decent athletes, they have good length, and they play very hard.

So in spite of a bad matchup you need to find a way to win. Arkansas is longer, more athletic and they found a way to win. KU is ranked close to Iowa St on D and they found a way. UCLA is way better on both D and O than Iowa St and we pulled that off (still surprised at that).

If you are a good to very good basketball team, you will find a way to beat a team like Iowa St 1 of 3. I like they have to face this team again. Unlike other years I think the team needs to find a way to make a run in the conference tourney this year for their own benefit.

Can we run some sets when the offense stagnates. Feast or famine is how you get beat in the tourney. We run offense like we have multiple pro level penetrators this year and we don't. Or when all else fails space the floor and let Jon try to work the block with a baby hook or turnaround two or three times. Anything to reduce the stagnation.

I wouldn't be opposed to experimenting with spreading out and putting George on block to post up a guard with the option to pass or shoot a turnaround. Now of course being turnover prone we would trust it more but Im thinking a Brunson/Villanova type set up. Probably just don't have the guys to execute it.

Offense is not "the" problem but the lulls are killers when the defense is so bad. And we just haven't seen any signs of improvement. The roster is deficient there and the effort level is just so volatile on that end.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Quint. It's been a bad matchup but there's no reason for it to be a bad matchup. They truly aren't stocked with uber athletic unguardable high volume scorers and while they're good at D, they're not shutdown defenders across the board. If we can't adjust to it by the 3rd chance, then it says a lot about how far we're likely to make it in the NCAA tournament.

Bingo, I've watched a ton of ISU games live this year. They're an average team athletically and that's generous. Osun is a slightly average athletic big but that's about it. If that kind of roster gives us struggles we're out R32 because despite this belief by some on here that ISU is some elite team they're not. Not by a long shot. Zero reason to get 3 straight beat downs from this ISU roster. Their guards are tall ish but that's about it

Their defense yesterday was very good while ours was terrible. But you are correct: there is no reason we shouldn't be able to beat them in KC.

I would say on this Iowa Bear is right. I can't believe I'm saying that but in this case he is.

DanaDane said:

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Needless to say, if we want to beat Iowa St we can't have Cryer, George and Bridges shooting a combined 3-14 (21%) from 2 and 4-16 (25%) from 3, like they did Saturday. And gotta do something on D about the easy bunnies we gave up that allowed Iowa St to shoot 62% from 2, mostly on basic backdoor moves that went completely unguarded.

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I thought we had so much offensive firepower that we would never have a game - especially at home - where literally all of our normal scorers would be ice cold at the same time virtually the entire game, but that's pretty much happened last Saturday. I've given up on trying to predict this team, but it's hard to believe it could happen twice in a row against the same opponent. We'll obviously find out on Thursday.

They will high press on the 3 point line and put a really tall lanky big guy high in the passing lane. You beat this by driving to the free throw line and hitting runners. I bet we were 2 -10 if that with runners. It was wide open all day.

We can drive around their aggressive high press but we have to quickly hit that mid range shot.

If we can be ready for that. We can win. If not, we won't. Thats their plan. We know how to beat it...we just have to execute. We will not be able to run our normal offense. We have to adjust not just keep trying an offense ISU has figured out how to stop.

Turnovers too, ISU struggles mightily in the half court offensive sets. Limit the live ball To's and east buckets. Force them to shoot jumpers. Don't let them back door cut us to death. They struggle mightily when teams force them to be a jump shooting team