Head coach Steve Prohm appears to have found that Iowa State magic that has been known from recent editions of the Big 12 Tournament, as he and his fourth-seeded Cyclones downright humbled the TCU Frogs on Friday, 84-63. They led the Horned Frogs – possibly too gassed from the emotional upset over Kansas – by 26 points at the halfway point of the second half and never looked back.
A couple of seniors led the charge for No. 23 Iowa State, as Deondre Burton put up a game-high 22 points and fellow guard Monte Morris scored 15 of his own. Collectively, the Cyclones committed just six turnovers on Friday and were once again locked-in from deep, making 12 of their 15 shots from three-point range. They’ve now made at last 12 three-pointers in each of their games in the tournament.
The boys from Ames find themselves in yet another Big 12 title game and will look to bring another conference trophy to their campus after winning it all in 2014 and 2015 under now-NBA head coach Fred Hoiberg.
Prohm’s resilient squad of equal-parts veterans and youngsters have fantastic momentum and recent tournament history heading into the finals versus WVU. The Cyclones are 8-1 in their last nine games (7-2 ATS) and the school also has a solid 9-2 record in the Big 12 tournament over the last four seasons. Furthermore, the team hasn’t lost in all three of their latest appearances at conference championship games.
Betting on the West Virginia Mountaineers (25-7, 12-6 Big 12)
In one of their ugliest performances this season, the No. 11 West Virginia Mountaineers did just enough to hold off the Kansas State Wildcats. They prevailed with a tense 51-50 victory on Friday to set up the title-game clash with Iowa State, thanks in large part to sophomore Esa Ahmad’s heroics.
Ahmad made just the second of his two free-throws to give WVU the one-point lead with 20 seconds left before Kansas State missed a desperation three-pointer to end the contest. He finished with a double-double that night (15 points, 10 boards), but appeared to be the only bright spot for the entire Mountaineers team.
Star guard Jevon Carter, in particular, was totally off-sync. Carter had just five points on a dismal 1-of-12 shooting night, including missing six of his seven shots from beyond the arc.
In essence, West Virginia was stunned by the Wildcats’ stellar defense and shot a pathetic 16-of-60 from the field (26.7 percent), and the team was clearly in total dysfunction on the opposite end of the floor as well. The Mountaineers sent Kansas State players to the free-throw line 10 times in the first half alone, while they failed to draw contact the entire half themselves.
Although WVU is headed to its second-consecutive Big 12 final, head coach Bob Huggins has got to do a better job of getting his boys to compose themselves against the Cyclones on Sunday if they truly seek to win their first conference title since 2010. They may do just that with Iowa State on tap indeed, as they’ve beaten their rivals from the Midwest in all four of their recent meetings (SU/ATS), including sweeping the season series by scoring no less than 85 points in each game and winning by an average of 12 points at that.
Writer’s Prediction
Iowa State wins its third Big 12 title in four years in a thrilling finale, 83-80.
