Nov 29, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys cornerback Eric Fletcher (13) walks off the field as Iowa State Cyclones celebrate a touchdown during the first half at Boone Pickens Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images
Reflecting on this week’s sports slate is hard to do in just one article. It was one of the greatest Iowa State sports weeks in a long time.
The football win was ugly, but men’s basketball tore through the competition at the Player’s Era event in Las Vegas, the women’s team nabbed a pair of power conference wins and the wrestling team ended a multi-decade losing streak against Iowa.
Lots of fun was had, now it’s my turn to attempt to break it all down.
Football
There is no sugarcoating it, the football team was straight up bad Saturday. Oklahoma State has one (1) win on the year. The Cowboys are one of, if not the worst power conference team this year.
Winning 20-13 was embarrassing, but the team did improve to 8-4 to close out the regular season. Offensively, the Cyclones were just flat. The execution on a play-to-play basis simply was not where it needed to be to blowout a bad football team.
After looking completely lost for about a month, an eight win regular season is nothing to sneeze at. With Head Coach Matt Campbell announcing Caleb Bacon will return next year, the defense will bring back a lot of talent, even after losing a dominant force inside in senior Dom Orange.
Not coming within striking distance of a Big 12 title is a bit disappointing, in my opinion; however, I could see the team flying a bit more under the radar next season to sneak into 10 wins if the injury bug stays far away. The offense will, barring a transfer portal disaster, return the majority of its offensive production. It’s beyond too early to make any official predictions, but the offensive line is really the only spot that needs to patch a few holes that will be left by seniors. Adding a dynamic playmaker certainly would not hurt.
The Cyclones should get a solid bowl game, which will be an intriguing measuring stick heading into the offseason.
Men’s Basketball
When I said this is the best team in the T.J. Otzelberger era, a lot of people called me crazy. Flash does not win basketball games at the end of the day, and what they lack in flash is made up for and then some in tenacity. Junior center Blake Buchanan is one of the nation’s most impactful defenders on the inside. In an 83-82 win over No. 14 St. John’s, every late possession was met by a play at the rim. Buchanan answered the call more times than he didn’t, essentially willing the Cyclones to victory.
The one shadow over what would have been a perfect night was that senior Tamin Lipsey went down with an injury in the final minutes. Thankfully, it appears he will be back on the court sooner rather than later.
In the meantime true freshman Killyan Toure had an opportunity to break out and took it, scoring 20 and 19 in blowout wins over Creighton and Syracuse. It will be interesting to see if his role returns to what it was in the first few games, or if he hangs onto a larger slice of the scoring pie.
A storyline I feel got blown out of proportion was the outrage for not making the top-four of the tournament despite going 3-0. Yes, the tournament format is silly and the NIL money would have been nice. With that being said, winning basketball games is what matters at the end of the day, and Iowa State beat three good ones.
Wrestling
The wrestling boys got no-doubt the biggest win of the week, beating No. 3 Iowa for the first time since 2004. The last few years, Iowa State has closed the gap on the Hawkeyes in the dual, but a slight edge in composure kept them on top in wild duals. This time around, the team finally broke through.
In a win like that, there are always many stars, but the one that stood out most was No. 11 MJ Gaitan beating No. 2 Patrick Kennedy 9-8 in an overtime tiebreaker 9-8. Both guys were clearly gassed, but an attempted coach challenge from Kevin Dresser gave Gaitan the time to catch his breath for one final surge.
An even bigger shoutout to the person that got Gaitan riled up when he was just trying to pick up a breakfast pizza.
There is not a hole in the Iowa State lineup this year, making them contenders for one of the nation’s top spots.
Women’s Basketball
No. 10 Iowa State finally took on some major conference opponents, beating Marquette 84-73 and Indiana 106-95 to win the Coconut Hoops Blue Heron Division in Florida to move to 9-0.
There were not many insane storylines from the Marquette matchup. Against Indiana, though, Audi Crooks went absolutely crazy for 47 points on 19-25 shooting, breaking the single game school scoring record that she broke just weeks ago.
Jada Williams scored 23 points with 11 assists against the Hoosiers and Addy Brown also tacked on a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The last true test of the non-conference slate comes in a home matchup against Iowa on Dec. 10. The Hawkeyes are No. 11 in the country and are also undefeated.
I promise to not talk about every team every week, but I felt like I had to after the week they all had.
