Kentucky shares keys to a win over ‘physical’ Iowa State team that is ‘good at every position’

Joshua Jefferson is the star of the show for Iowa State, a player who does everything on both ends of the floor as a versatile game-wrecking talent — an All-American and senior leader. He’s officially ‘questionable’ to play vs. Kentucky with an ankle injury, but his own head coach said it’s ‘unlikely’ he will be able to give it a go on Sunday and, publicly, he wasn’t showing signs of any serious progress out on the town with the Cyclones early Saturday evening.

Everyone involved left the door open for a miraculous overnight recovery that could allow him to suit up in the Round of 32 — “I’d just say we’ll see how I’m feeling in the morning,” Jefferson told KSR — but it’s probably a safe bet we won’t see him this afternoon.

Kentucky can’t operate in that grey area, though, risking their game plan on maybe nots and unlikely. If there is any chance one of the best players in the sport can be on that floor, the Wildcats have to prepare for him.

That’s how they’re operating leading up to Sunday’s battle for a spot in the Sweet 16.

“They’re still good with him or without him, so we’ve still got to prepare the same way,” Otega Oweh said. “We can’t take our feet off the gas just because one of their best players aren’t playing. Everyone’s game elevates when the team needs you to step up, so they probably have someone on the bench that’s ready to play. So we’ve just got to be ready to go.”

“We just got to be prepared for him to play,” Denzel Aberdeen added. “It’s a big-time game, so we wouldn’t be shocked if he did, but either or, we still got to be ready and still got to compete.”

In terms of winning and losing, Jefferson’s absence would obviously help Kentucky’s chances — that is 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per contest to replace, after all — but not the ultimate deciding factor. What makes this Iowa State team so dangerous is that there is talent all over the roster with phenomenal depth, headlined by Milan Momcilovic, who is one of the best shooters in the country. He leads the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game while knocking down 49.4 percent of his 3-point attempts on 7.5 perimeter shots per outing.

Take that 108-74 win vs. No. 15 seed Tennessee State, for instance. Momcilovic knocked down a trio of treys with a total of 17 points, right at his season average, but two other Cyclones outscored him — including one player doing it in 27 minutes off the bench — with four total double-figure scorers, despite Jefferson being limited to three minutes. They can attack you in plenty of ways, not just relying on the stars.

“Number 22 (Momcilovic) is a dead-eye shooter, obviously,” Oweh told KSR. “We’ve got to find him at all costs. And then their point guard (Tamin Lipsey) is a really good point guard defensively. He’s the head of the snake, really. He’s going to facilitate, guard, score. So we’ve just got to lock in on him, too.”

“I feel like their team is good at every position,” Andrija Jelavic added. “They have good shooters, good playmakers, good bigs. Aside from that, they’re really physical. They always protect the paint, bring two guys to the ball always, so we’ll need to take care of the ball and make early passes to our teammates.”

Physicality was one of the bigger talking points when previewing the matchup, clearly a message the coaching staff has been trying to get across going in. Mark Pope brought it up himself multiple times at the podium, as did the Wildcats.

That bled into the locker room, too, with the players comparing this Iowa State team to a Florida or a Tennessee from the SEC.

“They’re a great physical team.They’ve got a great coach, great group of guys,” Brandon Garrison said. “They come out and play hard, play very scrappy. We just got to be prepared, be more physical. We’ve got to rebound. Santa Clara kind of got us on the glass last game, so we got to be able to prepare for them and rebound and hit first.”

Oweh himself played Iowa State multiple times at his previous stop with Oklahoma in the Big 12. That’s just the program’s culture and identity, nothing changing except for the personnel.

“How physical they are, that’s what I remember,” he said. “And it’s going to be different now because I’ve been in the SEC for two years, obviously, but I just remember how physical they are and the intensity they play with.”

The Cyclones enter this one ranked No. 4 in defensive turnover rate, No. 4 in turnover margin, No. 5 in defensive efficiency, No. 7 in scoring margin and No. 10 in steal rate. They’re also a top-15 3-point shooting team (No. 14) with an effective field goal percentage ranked No. 23 nationally.

Jefferson is the main attraction, but make no mistake about it, Kentucky will have its hands full no matter who Iowa State throws out there.

“Whoever T.J. (Otzelberger) rolls out on the court — he could probably go grab five guys from the rec center and give them a week and they would come out there and just be an incredibly intense defensive juggernaut that was finding ways to score in big ways,” Mark Pope said.

These Cats know they have to bring their A-game.

“Just play our game and not try to get too down,” Mo Dioubate said. “Try to get up as many points as we can. We’ve just got to play our game, protect the ball, rebound, and guard the three. Those are the things that are going to help us.”

“I think if we can do that (take care of the ball and pass it efficiently), we will definitely have a lot of open shots,” Jelavic added. “If we knock them down, we have a very good shot at winning.”

“I think if we can match that aggressiveness on offense that they play with defense, then we can use it to an advantage for us,” Collin Chandler explained.

We’ll see what happens when the ball is tipped at 2:45 p.m. ET in St. Louis, live on CBS.