The law of averages is starting to favor Iowa State’s men’s basketball team in enemy gyms.

“They will win on the road eventually. It’s going to happen this year, probably. We just can’t let it happen in Lawrence,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of the Cyclones (14-8, 5-6 Big 12 Conference), who take a 22-game conference road losing streak into today’s battle against the Jayhawks (16-6, 8-3).

Tipoff is 3 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse with a live telecast on channels 4 and 13.

The Cyclones, whose last league road win was a 62-51 victory over Kansas State Feb. 21, 2001, halted an similarly unsightly 13-game losing streak against ranked opponents Jan. 31.

That’s when the Cyclones dropped Kansas, 68-61, at Hilton Coliseum. It’s a game fresh on the Jayhawks’ minds.

“Revenge is such a nasty word,” KU junior Keith Langford said. “Let’s just say it’s a game we’re looking forward to playing.”

Self said he would show the Jayhawks tape of the first meeting, one in which Iowa State erased a 29-21 halftime deficit.

“I’m not a big believer in revenge as motivation,” Self said. “You’ve just got to play well. We’ll show tape on how they dominated us on certain possessions the second half. Hopefully that will be motivation.”

The Jayhawks’ loss in Ames was their first in league play. Since then KU also has lost at Oklahoma State and Nebraska.

Iowa State's Jackson Vroman (4) and Curtis Stinson (1) react during the waning moments of their victory over Kansas University Jan. 31 at Ames, Iowa. ISU has been tough at home this season, but the Cyclones haven't won a Big 12 Conference road game since 2001. They'll try to end that 22-game drought today at Allen Fieldhouse.

“This will be the first chance we get to play payback to somebody,” Self said. “They were our first conference loss. We play Nebraska later and we don’t get a chance to play Oklahoma State. Hopefully our guys will be excited because they dominated the second half on us.”

As in every game, there will be different motivations for different Jayhawks.

KU freshman J.R. Giddens is eager to even the series at 1-1 with ISU freshman sensation Curtis Stinson, who scored 19 points versus KU in the first meeting.

Stinson, a 6-foot-2, 21-year-old rookie guard from New York, scored 16 points in the second half — several with Giddens guarding him.

After that game Stinson said, “It did feel kind of easy (scoring against Giddens), but I made the right moves.”

Giddens scored nine points off 3-of-10 shooting in that first meeting.

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“I can’t wait to play Iowa State,” Giddens said. “Stinson has been bumping his gums. Not trash talking or anything, just saying he’s very confident. He’s coming to the fieldhouse now. I’m ready to play. I don’t like people bumping their gums.”

KU junior Wayne Simien, who had 11 points and five boards in the first meeting, one in which ISU outboarded KU 45-39, also hopes to even the score.

“They snipped us over there. We gave one away up there,” Simien said. “They are coming in here and we get another shot at them, definitely a chance at payback.”

The Cyclones will arrive in Lawrence a hungry team, one that’s trying to gain another win that would impress the NCAA Tournament committee.

“We’ve improved,” said ISU guard Jake Sullivan, noting ISU cut a 17-point deficit to four in Wednesday’s 82-70 loss at Missouri. “We’ve gotten a lot better on the road, and that’s the key. It’s a long season left. We’ve got five games left, and we believe we can win all five.”

Point guard John Neal is another believer.

“Our goal is to get to .500 or maybe 9-7 in the league,” he said. “If we do that I think we have a good chance for an at-large bid, but that’s not our decision to make.”

I think we all feel a sense of urgency,” coach Wayne Morgan said. “We have a very young team that’s working at trying to get better.”

The Jayhawks have to hope ISU’s perimeter defense continues to struggle away from Hilton Coliseum. In eight road games, ISU has allowed an average of 8.3 threes a game.

“We’ve got to attack their zone better than we did the last time,” Self said. KU hit 37.1 percent of its shots, but did cash eight of 22 threes, in Ames. “Defensively, we’ve got to do a better job on their perimeter guys and a better job on the glass. They killed us on the glass the last time.”

It all boils down to whether KU will invest the effort to do what it takes to outhustle ISU, Langford said.

“If somebody on our team is not ready, they don’t need to play,” Langford said. “Myself, I look at it it’s getting down to net-cutting time. We’ve got to be on top of our game.

• Padgett not productive of late: Freshman David Padgett has scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in KU’s last three games.

“His last three games have not been very productive. He played really well against Texas Tech (16 points, five boards),” Self said. “He may be hitting a little wall, but he’ll work his way through.”

• Bumps, bruises update: All of the Jayhawks with injuries practiced Friday. They include Simien (groin strain), Jeff Hawkins (back spasms) and Giddens (sore left foot).