Iowa State Declined Warmup Time After Rim Adjustment; Shot 23.3% in Loss to Pitt

Iowa State basketball decided to forego additional warmup time ahead of its first-round matchup against Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament after a slight adjustment was made to one of the rims at the Greensboro Coliseum, the NCAA said in a statement.

It is a decision that the Cyclones may have regretted as they had their worst shooting performance of the entire season en route to a 59-41 loss against the Panthers. They shot just 23.3 percent from the field and 9.5 percent from three-point range.

The statement also said that Iowa State asked the NCAA to check the rim levels.

"It definitely wasn't a factor," Cyclones forward Tre King told reporters after the loss. "One thing we always talk about is we know adversity is coming. We have to deal with it."

While Iowa State hasn't been a great offensive team this season, it was much better than what it showed Friday. The Cyclones shot 44.3 percent from the field and a respectable 33.1 percent from beyond the arc for the year.

It wasn't a particularly sloppy game with just eight turnovers, the offensive struggle were obviously the biggest issue for coach T.J. Otzelberger's team. After going into halftime down just seven points, the Cyclones scored 18 in the final 20 minutes.

Pittsburgh didn't exactly light the world on fire either at 34 percent, but it was more than enough to seal the double-digit win. The Panthers were allowed to continue warming up on the other end of the floor during the rim adjustment.

Iowa State was the six seed and a five-point favorite going into the matchup. Prior to Friday its lowest scoring game came in a loss to Oklahoma on Feb. 25 in which it scored 50 points.