For comparison, Athlon has ISU as an 8 seed. Lindy's has ISU missing the field entirely. So the analysis you posted is about halfway between those. Not sure how far out of the tournament Lindy's expects, it doesn't make predictions for NIT. But Athlon has iowa state 5th in Big 12, Lindy' 7th.
That is a fair range.
The difference between a #5 or #6 and out of the tournament can be
frighteningly narrow. Winning or lose a few close games determines your fate either way.
This is a weird team to get a handle on, too -- in theory, we have a lot back and a lot of known quantities from other programs in Shayok and Jacobson, but the team last year could play really well
and really badly and was so often far from its full capacity factor that I am not sure what lessons you can really draw from much of the season.
You would think you would know where a team returning 4/5 starters is going, but I am not even really sure myself. I can see great, and I can see disappointing.