After a fairly close game against the Oklahoma Sooners back home in Lawrence, the fifth ranked Kansas basketball team is now taking to the road to battle the Iowa State Cyclones in Ames.
The fifth ranked Kansas basketball team got its conference schedule started off on the right foot when they took down the 23rd ranked Oklahoma Sooners. The Jayhawks hosted Oklahoma and were able to fend off the Sooners’ second-half comeback attempt.
Can the Kansas Jayhawks carry any of the momentum generated from that game over into its road trip to Ames, Iowa?
If the Jayhawks are going to come away from this visit to Iowa State with a win, they’ll need to find a way to slow down the Cyclones’ Marial Shayok. Shayok transfered to Iowa State from Virginia after three seasons with the Cavaliers and, as it turns out, he has found a new level of success in his newest home.
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So far this season, the Ottawa, Canada native is scoring 19.8 points while grabbing 5.6 rebounds per game. Shayok is doing all of this while shooting a career high 50 percent from the field. It isn’t a stretch to think that he could potentially be a problem for KU in this game.
For the Jayhawks’ sake, it’d be great if they were able to carry some momentum over and could get off to a fast start.
What should concern Kansas basketball fans here is that Iowa State actually has a bit more firepower on offense and that could potentially be the difference between these two teams if the Cyclones come out on top.
Per sports-reference.com, Iowa State averages 82.5 points per game while hitting 48.5 percent of its shots while Kansas scores 80.8 points per game and makes 48.1 percent of its shots.
Should the Jayhawks come out on top in Ames, Iowa, it’ll likely be because of Dedric Lawson and Lagerald Vick. This season, the duo of Lawson and Vick combine for 34.6 points and 14.2 rebounds per game.
Kansas will need these two to step up on the road and make sure that Marial Shayok and the Cyclones don’t outdo them. These early season conference games might not seem like much, but when it comes to continuing the streak of consecutive Big 12 titles, every conference game matters for the Kansas Jayhawks.
Iowa State had a rare down season last year, but they’ll be back to being a worthy adversary in 2019. KU can’t sleep on them or this will be a bad loss for them early in conference play.