PETE: Did you really expect Iowa State to go 20-0 in the Big 12? No, and a hard no without Milan Momcilovic’s deep-shooting prowess

Sorry, but Iowa State was never going to be the first 20-0 Big 12 Conference basketball team in the history of you, me or anyone else that knows college basketball. Obstacles, also known as road games in arenas that aren’t exactly cozy places to spend a couple hours, are throughout this conference that spans from the desert to Disney World and the Alleghenies. Injuries happen. So do fluke losses during games when you just don’t have your best stuff. Coaches are not exactly fresh-faced bench rookies.

Ames. Lawrence. Houston. Morgantown. Lubbock. They’re maybe nice towns to take your family, yet for a coach and 13 or so college basketball players? 

Not so much – especially when one of this wonderful conference’s top mis-matches can’t even play.

That’d be 6-foot-8 Milan Momcilovic and that’s what T.J. Otzelberger and his very good staff must figure out during the hours between Saturday’s 64-57 loss at West Virginia, and Tuesday’s 7 p.m., game against very good UCF in Hilton Coliseum.

“It’s going be about how we handle this -- and not having it be something that lingers,” Otzelberger said on his postgame radio show Saturday night. “Learn from it. Be better for it. Be at our absolute best on Tuesday evening.”

And find a way to combat collapsing defenses with a tall(ish) player than can make 3-point baskets.

With Momcilovic, Iowa State has a 44.3% three-point shooter (best on the team) who draws opposing bigs from playing near the hoop. With him recuperating on the bench, paint-packing opponents can dare the Cyclones to score from the perimeter.

Kansas isn’t equipped that way, and had just 24 hours last week to prepare NOT to face Momcilovic. West Virginia had longer to figure out its defensive strategy, and the rest of the Big 12 now has even longer.

“They did a great job being physical, and not letting us get what we wanted,” Tamin Lipsey said on the postgame radio show. “We’re not going to win many games shooting 1-for-17 from 3-point range.”

Amen to that.

Nationally, Saturday’s loss did more to expose the Cyclones, than cause irreparable harm. Iowa State can always linger around the Top Five in the analytics, and the Top 5 of the not-so-scientific Associated Press and Coaches’ rankings.

With 14 regular-season games left, they’ve got plenty of time to shore up all that went wrong Saturday. Maintaining respected spots in KenPom, Net, and BPI is an every-game given in the Big 12 – as long as last Saturday remains in the past.

Defense and long-range shooting were Iowa State go-to’s while ascending to No. 2 in the nation with records of 15-1 overall and 5-0 in the Big 12. When both aren’t so good, like against Darian DeVries’ Mountaineers, bad stuff can happen.

Without Momcilovic, and with everyone else struggling to make shots, and with West Virginia clogging the middle -- the offense doesn’t flow. When the offense doesn’t flow, neither do the Cyclones.

That ball is now in the court of Otzelberger and his staff. Make a few long shots, and the entire Cyclones’ basketball world changes. Curtis Jones, Keshon Gilbert, Lipsey can make deep shots – but they’re not Milan-like mismatches. No Cyclone has shown to be that. That’s why it’s imperative the guards not go 1-for-12 again.

We don’t know when Momcilovic’s left hand will be healthy enough to play, but I presume against UCF is a no, and so’s the Arizona road trip – Saturday at Arizona State and Monday in Tucson against Arizona.

Regardless, I don’t anticipate another performance like Saturday’s at West Virginia.

I mean, how often will you see this Iowa State team commit 14 turnovers and cause just nine, attempt just seven free throws, miss all but one of its 3-point attempts, play less-physically, and don’t win the loose-ball battle it’s won all season?

Not happening.

(Randy Peterson can be reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close)