Unless we’re talking about March Madness or a season-changing victory behind an electric Hilton Coliseum crowd, there aren’t many moments where the women’s basketball program at Iowa State could get ‘bigger’ than it’s ever been.
If there was any regular season week that might compare, it’s this one.
I don’t mean to put the ensuing pair of 40-minute basketball games in the middle of February on such a pedestal. The last thing I want to do is hyperbolize the moment.
But what I want to do is attempt to break things down and I’ll let you be the judge at what’s at stake.
Firstly, the new slate of rankings that came out on Monday puts Iowa State smack dab at No. 6 in the AP Poll.
That’s a fighting chance at a one-seed in the tournament – something the program has never accomplished before – with six regular-season games left.
An opportunity like that is obviously something that goes a long way, and one that can create yet another pinch of motivation for a team that knows what it takes to be great already.
Nothing hurts in that ‘added motivation’ category.
The Cyclones are currently in the driver’s seat to win a Big 12 regular-season championship. They would become the first team not named Baylor to win one in eight years.
The race to the Big 12 championship:
| Position | Team | Ovr. | Conf. | GB |
| 1 | Iowa State | 21-3 | 10-2 | – |
| 2 | Oklahoma | 20-4 | 9-3 | 1.0 |
| 2 | Baylor | 19-5 | 9-3 | 1.0 |
| 4 | Kansas | 17-5 | 8-4 | 2.0 |
| 5 | Texas | 17-6 | 7-5 | 3.0 |
Include that Ashley Joens needs just 12 points to break the program’s all-time scoring record and you could say it gets bigger. But Joens and her teammates won’t worry about that on Wednesday against No. 14 Texas.
There certainly won’t be a ‘get-the-ball to Joens’ to have her score the first 12 points mentality. It might happen, but it won’t be planned. The same could be said about Emily Ryan, who’s playing her best basketball of her career at the moment.
The only certainty is that each of these players and staff members will have their eyes set on beating Texas on the road for the third time in four years.
Accomplish that feat, and the ceremony celebrating Joens’ record ahead of Saturday’s game against No. 15 Oklahoma will be all the more fun.
We’ll talk the x’s and o’s over the next 24 hours, but I expect a big crowd at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday night and I wanted to cover all of the angles of these games.
And if they win them both?
There will be a bigger crowd in the arena later this month for Iowa State-Baylor, which will essentially be a Big 12 regular-season title game. We’re in for a big week.
