Tigers still searching for respect

AMES, Iowa — Stefhon Hannah insisted revenge wasn’t a factor in Missouri’s 77-55 win Tuesday night at Iowa State. He even said he didn’t get any extra satisfaction from beating former junior college teammate Mike Taylor.

“No, that’s my man,” Hannah said. “I told him before the game, like, ‘I owed him one.’ He laughed, like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ We’re even now.”

If he had heard some Iowa State players’ comments, however, he may have said something else. What Iowa State players said after the game hinted at a lack of respect of the Tigers, something no team would want to hear.

“They didn’t do anything different, it was just our lack of preparation and us not coming out focused for the game,” Cyclones forward Wesley Johnson said. “We just didn’t practice hard.”

Iowa State forward Rashson Clark concurred.

“It was probably a lack of focus when it comes down to it,” Clark said. “We just weren’t focused, we weren’t battling on every single possession. We didn’t have enough heart, enough composure.”

The first time these two teams played, the Tigers squandered a 16-point, second-half lead to lose by one at home. That loss was the first of four straight for Missouri (14-8, 3-6 Big 12) in conference play. It also revealed some of the Tigers flaws, many that weren’t evident on Tuesday. The Tigers forced Iowa State to play faster than it preferred, controlling the speed of the game for most of the night. They also outrebounded the Cyclones 37-30 after allowing Iowa State to grab 10 more rebounds in their Jan. 6 meeting.

In the postgame press conference, Iowa State coach Greg McDermott was asked if his team came out overconfident. If that were true, he said, “we really have problems.”

“We’re not talented enough to ever think we can step on the floor and just think that we’ll win because we have better players,” McDermott said.

BIG KALEN: There must be something about poor performances that inspire center Kalen Grimes.

After scoring only two points and getting zero rebounds last Wednesday against Kansas State, Grimes has averaged 9.5 points and seven rebounds in Missouri’s past two games. He also blocked two shots and altered many more in Ames.

“I thought that Kalen played one of his better games,” Missouri coach Mike Anderson said of Grimes, who had 12 points and nine rebounds Tuesday. “I thought that he was the beast that I talked about. He was rebounding the basketball, controlling the lane. There was no double-ups so he was able to score, so that enabled us to get in our defense.”

Partly because of Grimes, Iowa State (12-11, 3-6 Big 12) scored only six points in the paint, compared to 34 by the Tigers. Cyclones center Jiri Hubalek, who scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against the Tigers in January, had only five points and four rebounds on Tuesday. The Cyclones were outrebounded for only the third time in conference play. The previous two times were against Kansas on Jan. 13 and Colorado on Jan. 17.

UP NEXT: Hannah said the win over the Cyclones would give Missouri momentum heading into Saturday’s game against Kansas.

“It gives us motivation, I mean we can win,” Hannah said. “We haven’t had too many wins in the Big 12, so it shows us that we can do it if we just play the way we want to play.”