For most of this season, the MO to beat ISU has been along the lines of this: Pack your defenders into a zone, limit the penetration by the guards, and force ISU to beat you with the three. For the better teams, this has worked.
But not for Bobby Knight and Tech. They went the other way, using their man defense to shut down Stinson, rolling the dice that the rest of the team couldn't do it without him. Blaylock tried, but after he got the same faceguard treatment Stinson was recieving, ISU's offense ground to a halt. Tech's offensive rebounding didn't hurt anything, either. It seemed that for most of the second half, every possesion by Tech resulted in either a bucket, a foul, or a 3 rebound garbage bucket by some big man.
The number of one missed shot possesions by Tech in the second half could be counted on one hand, and that may be the biggest liability for ISU the rest of the season.
Until the big men collectively learn to rebound and play defense, ISU will have to be very efficient on offense. They have no margin for error.
Now they face a Nebraska team that should be feeling good about itself. With wins over KSU and OU, they have the momentum that ISU lacks. I'll let Ryan at Crosscyed give you the nitty gritty breakdown, but this is already a crossroads game for ISU. NU's power ratings are in the 90's- like Tech's- so while ISU has dropped to around 50, this is still a winnable game. But with a whole slew of teams in the 70-115 range ahead, if ISU can't right the ship and start beating teams the are "better than", an NIT invite will be their only postseason hope.
Peterclone
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