College Basketball

No. 25 Iowa State travels to Iowa for rivalry game

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:23 p.m. ET

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It might not have the national cachet of Duke-North Carolina or Kentucky-Louisville.

But the yearly meeting of No. 25 Iowa State and Iowa, which occurs Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, has a special meaning all its own, according to Iowa coach Fran McCaffery.

"This is a rivalry that means a lot to a lot of people," he said. "It means a lot to both teams for RPI, national rankings and NCAA Tournament potential. It has a lot of importance."

Even this season, with the Hawkeyes stumbling out of the gate to a 4-5 start that includes a four-game losing streak, including a bad home loss to an Omaha team that the Cyclones (6-2) routed 91-47 on Monday night, this game is one that's circled on everyone's calendar in Iowa.

How meaningful is this game? When a ranked Iowa State rallied from a 20-point deficit last season to topple the unranked Hawkeyes 83-82 in Ames on Monte Morris' floater with nine seconds left, Cyclones students stormed the floor and actually broke the leg of a Des Moines columnist on press row.

During a Tuesday press conference, second-year Iowa State coach Steve Prohm was still marveling at how his crowd reacted to the opening stages of the team's rally.

"This crowd was going crazy when we cut the lead from 20 to 18," he said. "A lot of places, the crowd would be quiet or booing. Iowa just came out and hit us in the mouth, but that was as good a rivalry performance as I've seen."

Morris led the charge last season with 20 points, nine assists and just one turnover, and Matt Thomas fired in six 3-pointers and 19 points. It was the third straight Cyclones win in the series, matching the program's all-time high against its rival.

If it's going to make it four straight, Iowa State will probably need to score a lot of points. Although the Hawkeyes are nowhere close to the ability of last year's team that was ranked in the top five at one point in February, they are still averaging 86.7 points per game.

Senior guard Peter Jok is the name of the game for Iowa. The lone returning starter from last season's team, Jok is firing in 23.9 ppg, hitting nearly 40 percent of his 3-pointers and going 47 of 51 at the foul line.

"He can get his shot any time he wants, whether they run good offense or bad offense," Prohm said of Jok. "We have to do a good job denying him the catch. Our defense will have to travel over there."

Cordell Pemsl (10.6) is also averaging in double figures for the Hawkeyes, which are still in the process of figuring out a playing rotation. Nine players have started games and only Jok has started all nine games.

Morris (14.2 ppg, 6.3 assists) leads four Cyclones in extra digits. Deonte Burton (14.1 ppg, 7.6 rebounds), Nazareth Mitrou-Long (12.8 ppg, 6.0 rebounds) and Thomas (11.3 ppg, 5.0 rebounds) can also score 25 on any night.

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