There are a number of reasons why Iowa State went from 16-0 to 16-2 last week — most of them on the defensive end of the court. But somewhere on the list of things that took a dip was also Joshua Jefferson.
In the loss at Kansas, he was 4 of 14 from the field. In the loss at Cincinnati, he was 4 of 12 from the field. Those performances doubled as two of his four worst shooting efforts of the season. So I was eager to see how Jefferson would respond when Iowa State returned home for the first time in 10 days to host UCF inside Hilton Coliseum on CBS Sports Network.
If you watched Tuesday night, you know he was great.
Final score: Iowa State 87, UCF 57
Jefferson took 11 shots, made six of them and finished with 17 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds and zero turnovers in 34 minutes. That stat-line represented the 6-foot-9 senior’s second triple-double of the season and thus made him the first Iowa State player to ever record multiple triple-doubles in the same season.
“I’d say, defensively, he had an edge to how he played, right?” said Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger. “Like he was really helping pressure and getting turnovers, and then for him, we’ve got to do the best job we can trying to [get into the] open the court. But when he can get a dunk in transition, and he can get a finish where the whole defense isn’t loaded up, that’s going to build his confidence. I think he earned that on the defensive end. And then he took a leadership position in terms of, we’re going to move the ball, we’re going to share the ball, we’re going to keep it on the move. And, I mean, to have 12 assists and no turnovers, I mean, that’s ridiculous. And not to mention the rebounds and the points. So, I’m just proud of his ability mentally to lock in on the things that are important for us to be successful, and now we just gotta work together and maintain that every night out.”
Iowa State is No. 11 in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 for the 11th consecutive day. The only new addition to the Top 25 And 1 is Miami (Ohio), which won 107-101 on Tuesday to improve to 20-0 on the season.
The Redhawks are now 26th in the Top 25 And 1.
Is Miami really the 26th-best team in the sport? Man, who knows? And I know the Redhawks haven’t played the toughest schedule — but that’s at least partly because they had a hard time scheduling non-league games because everybody assumed they’d be good. Either way, 20-0 against their schedule to date is still undeniably impressive — and one way to illustrate that is to highlight that Miami’s strength of record ranks 21st nationally.
So … welcome to the Top 25 And 1, Redhawks! Now tell your most famous alum to stop bullying me at work, please.
