It was months and months of waiting before the Iowa State Cyclones finally got back in action for the first game of their college basketball season. And it went terribly.
Iowa State lost to the Memphis Tigers in Sioux Falls, SD, to open the season. It was an awful loss, as the Cyclones came in as a heavy favorite. In addition, Memphis was without their best player, Nemanja Popovic.
But the Tigers did look really good. Jayden Reid put up 26 points , hitting 12 free throws in the process. Luke Almodovar had 18 points, including three 3-pointers. Rihards Vavers finished with 15 himself, going 3-for-7 from deep.
Iowa State looked terrible , and many are wondering: Where do the Cyclones go from here? And the answer is pretty complicated.
The main issue is the defense. For years, T.J. Otzelberger has worked toward building Iowa State's defense into one of the best in the nation. But it's completely gone this year.
The perimeter defense looks much worse than expected, and they have given up an abundance of 3-pointers. In addition, the interior defense has also been underwhelming.
Big man Blake Buchanan, who was expected to be a fantastic defender in the paint, has really struggled thus far. The team needs to play more as a unit and tighten up space to get steals. They also need to be quicker on closeouts.
In addition, the Cyclones simply don't have the scorers to compete . Guards Jamarion Batemon and Tamin Lipsey were expected to be top scorers this year, but Batemon put up zero points in his first game, and Lipsey just simply hasn't improved enough each season to expect a massive scoring jump from him.
It feels like Ryan Prather Jr. is the only elite scorer, but it feels like his great shooting numbers won't last forever. Someone has to step up scoring the ball, both on the interior and exterior, or it could be a forgettable offense to watch.
The third and final issue is that the team simply doesn't work well enough together. With five transfers and three freshmen, there are lots of new guys who need to get used to everything. Many expected everyone to fit well simply because they are all great defensively, but the offense just hasn't flowed well at all. Everyone has different skill sets, and it doesn't translate from player to player. That needs to be a big fix soon.
Iowa State has potential this season, but nothing can work out unless they fix their big issues and work on building together as a team.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/iowa-state as What's Wrong With Iowa State Basketball and How To Fix It .
