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Iowa St.-Kansas Preview

Feb 12, 2010 - 11:13 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Iowa State (13-11) at Kansas (23-1), 8:00 p.m. EDT

As well as Kansas has been playing, coach Bill Self believes his team still can perform at a higher level.

The top-ranked Jayhawks appear to have a good opportunity to clean up some inconsistencies on offense Saturday night when they host struggling Iowa State.

Kansas (23-1, 9-0 Big 12) is pulling away from the pack in the conference and barring a complete collapse, the program will capture its sixth straight league title. The Jayhawks have a three-game lead with seven to play, and four of their next five opponents are in the bottom half of the Big 12.

"We've put ourselves in pretty favorable position (in the conference)," Self said after Monday's 80-68 win at No. 14 Texas. "Somebody can get hot and run the table, but it puts pressure on us to keep playing."

Though the Jayhawks pulled off a win in a hostile environment Monday, they shot 40.0 percent from the field - their worst in conference play - and two of their best players struggled. Sherron Collins finished with 15 points but was 3 of 13 from the field, while center Cole Aldrich had seven points on 2-of-10 shooting.

To make a run at the program's second national championship in three years, Self knows his top players need to get in sync.

"We can become more fluid offensively," said Self, one win away from career victory No. 400. "I still don't think we've seen consistently where our best performers are playing at a high level together. Certainly there is a lot of room for improvement with this team. That's one thing that I'm really excited about. Our ceiling hasn't been reached or come close to being reached yet."

Kansas experienced similar issues with its top players in an 84-61 win at Iowa State on Jan. 23, the Jayhawks' ninth straight victory in the series. Aldrich had a stellar performance, matching a season high with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds, but Collins missed 7 of 10 shots to finish with 11 points.

Neither Aldrich nor Collins had any trouble offensively in Kansas' last home game against the Cyclones, a 72-55 win last February. Aldrich finished with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting with 11 boards, while Collins had 22 points and six assists.

Kansas, which has the nation's longest home winning streak at 55 games, has outscored Iowa State by an average of 22.7 points in winning the last four at Allen Fieldhouse.

Ending those streaks won't be easy for the Cyclones, who have lost 19 straight to Top 25 opponents since a 72-60 win over then-No. 12 Iowa on Dec. 9, 2005. They haven't beaten a top-ranked team since defeating Kansas 39-37 in 1957.

To pull off the upset, Iowa State (13-11, 2-7) will likely need to slow down a Kansas offense which ranks third in the nation in scoring with an average of 83.6 points. The Cyclones have scored more than 75 only once in their last eight games.

Iowa State is averaging 64.5 points on 38.3 percent shooting - including 20.3 percent from beyond the arc - in its last four games. The Cyclones shot a season-low 32.8 percent in Wednesday's 65-56 loss at Missouri, its sixth defeat in seven games.

Senior Marquis Gilstrap had 18 points and nine rebounds, while Craig Brackins finished with 12 points and 14 boards. Gilstrap finished with 18 points and 12 boards against Kansas three weeks ago, and Brackins scored 13 but had only one rebound.