The Missouri Tigers will host the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena and the oddsmakers say Mizzou is favored by 9.5 points. With Big 12 conference play starting, we're getting a pretty good idea of what each team is about but that's not the case right now with Iowa State.
Bill Connelly of SB Nation's Rock M Nation has a terrific preview of Saturday's game as he tries to figure out who Iowa State is.
They played nobody of any value in non-conference season -- their best four opponents were California, Northern Iowa, Virginia and Iowa, against whom they went 2-2 -- but they rather easily handled every cupcake in their path and entered conference play at 13-2. They've only gone 1-3 in conference, but it's agood 1-3; they whipped Baylor at home and only fell to Kansas by five, and they've lost a one-pointer (to Nebraska) and an overtime game (to Oklahoma State) on the road.
He comes up with the conclusion that they don't do anything incredibly well but they also don't do anything very poorly. If Missouri plays their game the way we've seen them this year, they can beat them. But if they struggle, Iowa State is well-rounded enough to make it a game.
It should be an interesting one Saturday night at Mizzou Arena. Check out Rock M Nation for more on the game.