In the midst of unexpected adversity, LSU looks to begin its March Madness journey against 11-seed Iowa State. The Tigers are without their head coach, but are looking to rally together and make a deep run in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Leading up to the matchup I had the opportunity to talk to Matt Belinson of Iowa State Daily, who serves as Sports Editor and covers men’s basketball.

Rauterkus: Despite not watching a ton of Iowa State this season, I can tell that they’re a defensive-minded team. How would you describe their defensive identity?

Belinson: I mean, you kind of hit it right there, honestly. I would describe them as a defensive first team. TJ Otzelberger and his players have openly admitted to the media and amongst themselves that this is not an overly gifted offensive team. Obviously they have players like Izaiah Brockington that obviously was named first team all Big 12, Big Twelve newcomer of the year, all coming over from Penn State. He’s averaging I think 17 and a half points a game. He’s obviously a very gifted scorer and can find his spots in the mid range. But the identity of this group is not. Brockington and this group preaches defensive ball pressure. They want to get in the face of their opponents. They want to turn people over. It’s actually kind of crazy just how similar these teams are comparing LSU and Iowa State. I believe LSU is one of the best defensive teams in the country at turning people over. They have a lot of size and athleticism that can kind of overpower some teams. And obviously Iowa State does not have that sort of personnel, but they make up for it with a lot of scrappiness.

Rauterkus: Iowa State turns the ball over close to 14 times per game. Would you say that’s the Cyclones’ biggest weakness?

Belinson: Yeah, I would definitely say so. Like I just mentioned, it’s kind of like it’s a new season for a lot of teams, but I think it is fair to look at a team’s most recent body of work. And if you look at Iowa State, they come into the tournament losing its last three games. In those three games, they’re averaging 16 turnovers, which is obviously not a recipe for winning. Obviously, they’ve lost those games, but throughout the course of the season they’ve had their ups and downs. Obviously, they have a true freshman point guard and Tyree Hunter leading the offense, and certainly he was good enough to win Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He’s had a great season, don’t get me wrong, but he’s obviously still new to the college game. He’s an 18 year old kid playing in what I would consider to be the best top to bottom conference in college basketball, especially from the defensive side of things. So I feel like the turnovers were probably expected to some extent for this team just because like I said earlier, there’s not a ton of gifted ball handlers. 

Rauterkus: Talk about Tyrese Hunter and what he brings to the team at the point guard spot.

Belinson: Yeah, to start with the offense, Tyrese is a six-foot guard, pretty undersized for the position, especially in a league like the Big 12 where most teams are going to throw at you guys 6’5″ or taller. And just from a physicality standpoint, he’s often outmatched. But to his credit, he’s an attacking guard. He loves to get to the rim. He doesn’t go to the free throw line a whole lot. Again, maybe that’s just because of the physicality that he plays with and his undersized nature. Maybe a lot of referees don’t view the contact that he draws deemed worthy of drawing a foul. When he’s at his best he’s not taking a lot of threes. I’m sure as you look through the stats he certainly does take a lot of three pointers, but he’s not exactly a great three-point shooter. Again, that might come with time but at least his first season he’s not a great three-point shooter. He certainly can knock down maybe one or two a game, but I would say if you ask him and Otzelberger what they want him to do on offense, it’s not taking 60 threes a game.

Rauterkus: Much like LSU, Iowa State is not a great shooting team. What’s the overall offensive philosophy and how do they work around the inefficiency from the three-point line?

Belinson: I think that is the most puzzling part about Iowa State this season is that they’ll be the first to admit to you like I mentioned before, that they’re not an offensively gifted team. That being said, they brought in personnel on paper like Gabe Kalscheur and Caleb Grill that were pretty much brought in to unlock their three-point shooting and give that wrinkle to the Iowa State offense. Kalscheur is shooting 24% from three this year, and he’s taking the most threes on the team by a pretty good margin, so that’s not a recipe for success. I think if you’ve watched Iowa State over the last couple of weeks, though, the identity has changed just a little bit. Obviously, Otzelberger has changed his starting lineup. He took Tristan Enaruna out of the starting lineup and put Aljaz Kunc in there. Kunc is a pretty productive three point shooter. He doesn’t take a whole lot of them compared to the rest of the team but when he does shoot it’s at a pretty efficient rate. When they’re at their best, they’re not attempting 25 threes a game. They’re getting the ball to Brockington, to Kalscheur cutting to the basket, trying to draw fouls. Obviously working with those high dribble handoffs with George Conditt, letting Brockington get to his spots around the screen, that’s pretty much all this team has in terms of offensive identity. They don’t really have anyone that’s in the paint posting someone up. Terry Hunter doesn’t throw the ball into Conditt or Robert Jones to back someone down. There certainly has been a criticism of this team that they don’t really have a lot of wrinkles to throw at teams.

Rauterkus: Looking at a guy like Izaiah Brockington who doesn’t jump off the charts physically, what makes him so dominant as a scorer and on the glass?

Belinson: I think one thing that stands out about his game is that it’s not something that you can just tangibly point your finger to. He just has an ability to kind of outwork people. I know that it’s not really something that from an analysis standpoint you can really point to, but I think if you’ve watched a couple of games where he’s been at his best, you point to the West Virginia game, where he scored 35 points, pretty much led Iowa State back from what could have been a disastrous loss and other games too. He is constantly out working people. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but last I looked, I think he finished the regular season leading the Big Twelve and rebounding, which is insane because he’s a 6’4 guard in a league that has some pretty dominant post players, some pretty dominant forwards in its ranks. So I think if you’re just looking at Brockington, he’s constantly out working people. He’s constantly moving on the floor. Like I mentioned with those high dribble handoffs with Conditt, teams kind of understand that that’s what Brockington wants to do and they try to deny him catches.

I think for Brockington it’s just about stacking possessions because obviously we’ve seen at the offensive end, against West Virginia, I think he scored 25 points in the second half. So when he’s going on both ends of the floor it’s pretty hard to turn off. I feel like for him when he’s at his best, he’s getting into the rhythm and he’s not really afraid to go up against the other team’s best.