Mar 12, 2026; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones fans react to game play during the first half against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images
Iowa State fans were talking at an Ames coffee shop a couple months ago. Back when the NCAA Tournament selection committee projected T.J. Otzelberger’s very good team to be among the four No. 1 seeds, and way before Joshua Jefferson and Tamin Lipsey were combining to dismantle Arizona State and Texas Tech, as the Cyclones started their Big 12 tourney with a bang.
That early-morning conversation switched from discussing the Great Unknown of Iowa State’s new football roster to the Great Unknown of where the Cyclones would start their fifth NCAA Tournament under Otzelberger.
A one-seed in the South Region, or ultimately, a lower seed in St. Louis (Michigan locked up No. 1 in St. Louis a while back)?
Now, as we near Sunday’s Selection Sunday, the Iowa State question still remains:
Have the Cyclones done enough to open the Big Dance in St. Louis, starting Friday, March 20?
For loyal Iowa State fans, the preference is to start that Midwest Regional in St. Louis’ Enterprise Center, then move up to the Chicago Regional and then, cover your eyes, to the Indianapolis Final Four.
The Gateway City. The Windy City. Tyrese Haliburton City.
Drivable City. Drivable City. Drivable City.
Destination. Destination. Destination.
My hunch after Wednesday’s 91-42 Big 12 Conference tournament shellacking of Arizona State was a 2-seed — and that was even before Thursday’s 75-53 victory against Texas Tech.
That’s Iowa State’s best-case scenario — playing its first two NCAA Tournament games in St. Louis, but they have wishful-thinking company. Illinois and Purdue have the same hope.
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OBSERVATION: Iowa State players have overcome that dangerous floor of glass
U-N-C-L-E.
Enough is enough.
The basketball floor the Big 12 is using for its conference basketball tournaments never, ever should return to facilities in which college teams are playing.
Furthermore, is it too late to switch back to a traditional hard and safe court of wood in time for Saturday’s championship game?
Break the glass court into a trillion pieces. Do something before something really bad happens.
Did you see all the players sliding on the slippery floor during early-round games? Pulled muscles. Pulled groins. Rolled ankles.
It would be a travesty if a star player slipped on the LED glass flooring and became so injured that the player and team for whom he plays would be impacted significantly in the NCAA Tournament.
Multiple players have publicly christened the surface as unsafe. They’ve talked about the floor’s dead spots. One player said its flashing lights caused a migraine.
“We love being different,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told ESPN during the break between Thursday afternoon games. “Anytime you innovate, you never get 100% buy-in, but I like where we are.”
And then he added this:
“Obviously, it’s about safety, first and foremost.”
Furthermore, light grey mixed with darker grey, along with all those XII Roman numerals — that’s a bad look for TV.
Remember the grey uniforms Iowa State once wore? The court the Big 12 has leased is 1,000 times worse. We should have seen it coming.
Yormark came from the entertainment world to the Big 12 commissionership. You knew immediately that some changes would be made, which, to an extent, was fine and probably needed.
Yormark is a visionary in a college sports world where the audience looks to be trending younger.
“I think there’s opportunities — as I learn a little bit more about the brand and our fan base — to become a little bit more national, to position our brand a little younger, hipper, cooler, (in) how we connect a youth culture, (and) diversify some of the things we’re doing,” Yormark said at his introductory media gathering at the 2022 football Media Days in Arlington, Texas.
Boom. There it was.
But thinking back to that 2022 presser in front of the assembled Big 12 media, I recalled Yormark also saying this:
“Sometimes the best deals are the ones that don’t get done.”
Yormark has done good things for the conference since replacing Bob Bowlsby. He’ll do more — as long as he doesn’t move the Big 12 tournament way out west and away from downtown Kansas City.
Leasing the new-fangled Big 12 tournament basketball floor is one of those deals that never should have been done.
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OBSERVATION: Tamin Lipsey plays every play like it could be his last
Two words:
Tamin Lipsey.
Two more words:
No turnovers.
Two more:
No kidding.
Sure, Iowa State’s point guard scored 20 points, made four three-point shots and had four assists in 19 minutes of the quarterfinal victory against Texas Tech Thursday. Those were wonderful stats, but no turnovers — while playing on a slippery glass surface otherwise known as a basketball court?
“Lipsey just controlled the game,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland told reporters. “What a great competitor. He’s a senior that’s put his heart into this, and I’m telling you, he was slipping and sliding all over the floor and getting up and getting right back into the contest.
“He was the guy. He hadn’t been shooting it great against us in the games we played, but he was 4-for-7. He had 20. He had no turnovers.”
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OBSERVATION: Not enough respect for Joshua Jefferson
How was Jefferson, Iowa State’s best player and on final watch lists for all major college basketball awards, not a unanimous Big 12 first-team selection?
Arizona State couldn’t stop him Wednesday during Jefferson’s 20-point, 12-rebound, three-steal victory in Kansas City. Texas Tech couldn’t stop him during his 18-point, 13-rebound double-double Thursday.
Again — how was this guy not a unanimous Big 12 first-teamer?
(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.)
