Iowa State guard Emily Ryan (11) reacts after a basket against Arizona State during the fourth quarter at Mullett Arena in Tempe on Jan. 8, 2025. © Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES – Iowa State point guard Emily Ryan will practice on Tuesday after missing Saturday’s game – an 82-68 loss to now No. 16 West Virginia – with an illness.
Ryan, who’s in her fifth year and serves as the captain of the team, is an integral part of the Cyclone offense and plays a big role on the bench when she isn’t playing in games.
“She’s going to try and practice today,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said during his pregame press conference Tuesday. “She did not practice yesterday… and if she’s feels okay, will give it a shot (Wednesay).
Fennelly said that the illness had affected some members of the coaching staff and sidelined the point guard Saturday.
“The good news is that she’s going to give it a shot today and she feels a lot better, so we’re definitely trending in the right direction,” Fennelly said. “We’re definitely hopeful she will go tomorrow.”
Iowa State (13-7, 4-3) will take on BYU (10-7, 1-5) Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum and it can’t afford many more losses.
The Cyclones are currently listed in the ‘last four in’ category of ESPN’s bracketology. The squad has an integral stretch of 11 games coming up that will shape its resume, with four games against ranked opponents remaining.
That resume lacks a big win, and this team likely needs Ryan on the court to get that.
“Obviously, it kind of showed that we needed her her calming presence against West Virginia,” sophomore forward Addy Brown said. “We kind of got sped up pretty easily, and she definitely would have helped some of that. At the end of the day, you’ve got to look and kind of take in the perspective that she’s not going to be here next year, so we’ve got to get used to playing without her, which sucks, but that’s just how it goes.”
There’s optimism that Ryan will return soon, but with Iowa State’s next pair of games being at Hilton Coliseum against teams at the bottom of the Big 12 standings in BYU and UCF, look for a ‘pitch count’ as Fennelly would put it.
“I think having a point guard that’s played in this league for five years is huge, regardless of what they would produce,” junior guard Sydney Harris said. “But obviously, she does produce a lot for us. So, it was definitely hard without having her… but, I think she’ll be back shortly.”
