The only thing to expect from this year’s Big Four men’s basketball series is the unexpected. Last week was a perfect example. Just days after suffering a 35 point loss at Drake the Iowa State Cyclones bounced back with a victory over Iowa who earlier in the week won at UNI.
The Panthers opened the in-state series with a 13 point win at Iowa State. Iowa State coach Greg McDermott says the UNI program is strong, Drake is improving and the ISU and Iowa programs are in a transition period, so everything is up for grabs.
McDermott says intensity and effort were the difference between the two games. He says Drake deserves a lot of credit for outplaying and outhustling his team, and he says that was disappointing, but were able to improve that for the Iowa game.
The Cyclones don’t play until December 17th and McDermott says they will use the time off to try and let Wesley Johnson’s sore foot heal. McDermont says they’re going to give him four or five days of rest to see how he recovers.