The Iowa State Cyclones face a tough challenge in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday when they face the South Region’s top seed Kentucky in Louisville. The Cyclones improved to 23-10 with an impressive 77-64 win over defending national champion UConn on Thursday night.
The Wildcats opened with an 81-66 win over Western Kentucky to improve to 33-2 on the season. Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg says they will try to expose any weaknesses they can against Kentucky and try to keep the game close.
The Cyclones canned six three pointers in the first 12 minutes on Thursday night to build a 36-14 advantage. Senior guard Scott Christopherson says UConn limited the Cyclones’ three point attempts the remainder of the game and he expects Kentucky to try the same thing.
“We still did a good job when they started taking away threes of attacking the paint…all you can do is get yourself good looks at the basket and from that point on it’s having faith that they are going to go in,” Christopherson says.
The Cyclones will be a substantial underdog and guard Bubu Palo says that’s what they want. “Obviously they are a great team and noone is really giving to give us a shot…we just have to go out and execute,” Palo says. He says they’ve played some great teams in their league and won’t be intimidated by Kentucky.
Tip off is 6:45 Iowa time.