All can be well again with Iowa State men’s basketball. Absolutely it can. Get on one of those winning rolls we’ve seen multiple times, and just like that — Tuesday night on that hideous white floor in Fort Worth never happened.
Those six turnovers Tamin Lipsey and Joshua Jefferson combined for in the second half — and nine for the game? What turnovers?
The 18 missed 3-point shots over the final 20 minutes?
Fake news.
Winning is the best cure-all, but unfortunately for coach T.J. Otzelberger’s Cyclones, there’s no “just like that” in the Big 12 Conference.
There are more games against Final Four-capable teams remaining than there are opponents that provide regular-season scheduling relief. There’s more Kansas, Houston, Texas Tech and Arizona than there are Utahs, Kansas States and Colorados.
The conference’s top five are Final Four-worthy, and yes, that can include an Iowa State team that, at times during the past three halves, hasn’t consistently played stellar ball.
When your best players don’t make bewildering turnovers, and when the Cyclones are making shots — this team is among the nation’s finest.
But when you’re getting outscored 12-0 in the TCU game’s final 2½ minutes (after leading by five) — something’s not right. A game earlier, Baylor scored the game’s final 11 points, yet Iowa State won because it had built a comfortable cushion.
While some conferences provide at least a game or two for rest, recovery and recalibration against lesser opponents — there’s as much a chance of that happening in the Big 12 as there is the Chicago Bears moving to Des Moines.
Not happening.
At 8-3 and seven games left before hitting the always-celebratory streets of downtown Kansas City, Iowa State certainly can reach one of the top two seeds at the Big 12 Tournament. Can the Cyclones be at least a 2-seed on Selection Sunday?
That depends on what happens between Saturday and their regular-season finale March 7 against Arizona State at Hilton Coliseum.
In an intriguing way for a team that didn’t play particularly well in beating Baylor and was unrecognizable at times in losing Tuesday night at TCU, Iowa State’s closing schedule actually sets up all right — assuming the A-team resurfaces for the next month or so.
Games leading up to the Big 12 tournament, for the top handful of teams, are so loaded with intrigue that you wonder if influential television networks had something to do with the scheduling.
Suspicious?
Not just with Iowa State, whose defining month of February includes back-to-back home games against Kansas (on Saturday) and Houston (on Big Monday), but also with other legitimate Big 12 Conference championship (and beyond) contenders.
Saturday, for instance, includes big games between No. 8 Kansas at No. 5 Iowa State, and No. 16 Texas Tech at No. 1 Arizona.
Other major games between now and the conference tournament include:
Feb. 16: No. 3 Houston at Iowa State
Feb. 18: No. 22 BYU at Arizona, and Kansas at Oklahoma State
Feb. 21: Arizona at Houston, and Iowa State at BYU
Feb. 23: Houston at Kansas
Feb. 24: Arizona at Baylor
Feb. 28: Kansas at Arizona, and Texas Tech at Iowa State
That’s just through February. During those 15 days, up to five teams can either make a case for the conference tournament’s No. 1 seed — or fall completely out of the league’s top half. Play well, and you still might not win.
That’s intense stuff, for sure, in this top-heavy conference. That also includes Iowa State, which, when playing well, has Elite Eight — and beyond — capability.
(Columnist Randy Peterson, a past Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at [email protected] or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)
