This is such a weird take. By an Iowa State fan.
23-3 with a legit #1 seed resume, by every single metric and eye test imaginable. Literal proof on the court results, backed up by the record, backed up by the analytics and predictive metrics. Yet, you were the "realistic" Cyclone fan that saw through that thinking - Nah.
Do we even want/care to be great? On February 21 - the very, very real opportunity existed for Iowa State to level up and go solidify their #1 seed resume. That is a really big deal to be in that position. The idea that losing all 3 of those ranked opportunities is "OK" is just an insane fan take to me. Are we really THAT f*cking scared of expectations? JFC. Maybe we need to ask Kenpom and Torvik and all the sites to factor in a "nervousy Cyclone fan energy" factor into their algos to ensure we don't look too good (in the numbers) at any point. That way us silly unrealistic fans don't get too overly excited or start getting too crazy with expectations based on past results. I mean, hell, after all - we weren't even predicted back in October to be in the Top 4 in the conference - See! See! We knew all along!