I'll Happily Take The Better Team, Even On The Road

Iowa State vs. Arizona, 10:30 ET

We had two college hoops plays this weekend and we went 1-1, so nothing special, but nothing too bad. I've been on a bit of a heater with these basketball plays lately, and I'm hoping that can continue all the way through to the end of the year. Sure, there will be times where we have some upsets, and there will be times when we have some lucky wins, but those are part of the game as well. Tonight, we have arguably the most intriguing game on the board with Iowa State taking on Arizona.

Iowa State enters tonight's game as the underdog, but they are the third ranked team in the country. You won't find too many games where a ranked team, specifically one of the top-10 teams, will not be favored in a game. If you do, it will almost always be in this situation where they are on the road. So far, the Cyclones have had two losses this season, one was against Auburn on a neutral court during their Thanksgiving tournament, and then just a few games ago when they went on the road and faced West Virginia. Auburn has been one of the best teams in the country - arguably the best - and West Virginia has had some impressive wins, but is a bit inconsistent. They still have won 17 games and seven wins in their conference, so it isn't like the team is struggling or anything. On Saturday, they faced Arizona State, and they coasted to a 76-61 victory. That was behind a 33-point effort from Curtis Jones. It doesn't appear that anyone is sitting out or missing for Iowa State in this game.

Jan 25, 2025; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Anthony DellÕOrso (3) points after he made a three point basket during the first half of the game against the Colorado Buffaloes at McKale Center. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

Arizona is a talented team, one that made a bit of noise lately, but started the season rather poorly. They were just 4-5 after nine games, and had losses to Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and UCLA. Since that point, they've gone 9-1 over their past 10 games. The only loss they've experienced in these 10 games was against Texas Tech. They beat Colorado with relative ease on Saturday, another home game. Their team is led by guard Caleb Love who is putting in 15.3 points per game and they have two other strong guards in Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis, both averaging over 10 points per game. The team is rather deep overall though with eight players averaging at least seven points per game, but one of them, Motiejus Krivas, a center, has only played in eight games and hasn't played since December 7th. What I like about the team is that they've had five different leading scorers in the past six games. Love leads the team in scoring for the majority of the games, but there are enough others who have shown they can be the primary scoring option as well.

How much is home court worth to a team in college? To me, it is worth a lot, but I am not sure that it is a guarantee of victory that just because you are at home you will win the game. Iowa State is definitely the better team, and I'm not sure that Arizona is a good enough defense to completely stop the Cyclones. They should make things difficult on them, but I would feel worse about Iowa State's chances if they were traveling far for this game. They were in Arizona Saturday and I'm sure they didn't leave. Iowa State will win this one. 

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