As the 2024-25 regular season begins to wind down, one team dealing with the injury bug happens to be the Iowa State Cyclones.
Two key athletes for T.J. Otzelberger’s squad have been banged up recently, guards Keshon Gilbert and Curtis Jones, and the two have been designated with a game-time decision tag for Tuesday’s game vs. Oklahoma State.
Jones and Gilbert have been two key pieces of the ninth-ranked Cyclones this year, with the duo leading the team in scoring. Jones is one of the Big 12’s best scorers, averaging 17.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game, while Gilbert is posting 14.1 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.7 rebounds per contest.
Both players missed Iowa State’s last outing, a 68-59 loss to No. 4 Houston, and their impact was certainly noted. The Cyclones came out of the gates flat and showed very little fight, entering halftime down by 12, with just 22 points in the first half. The group figured something out as the game continued, however, as they rallied back to a one-possession game, before slipping away in the final minutes.
Ahead of the game against Houston, Jones was dealing with an illness and had a decent shot of playing against the Cowboys. Gilbert’s injury is a bit more complex as he continues to deal with muscle tightness, a situation that ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported as “day-to-day, not week-to-week.”
Iowa State enters the game as a 10.5-point favorite, and if they can get their two stars back in action, that number could skyrocket. Iowa State and Oklahoma State tip-off on Tuesday, February 25th, at 7:00 p.m. central.
