The "myth" of Georges being the key to a Final 4 run in 2013-14 started because he had just destroyed Kansas and our first round opponent (NCCU). He wasn't great against Baylor, but his play in those high-profile games as well as the Band-Aid incident contributed to a sense that that team was destined for something special.
I don't necessarily buy it, but hard to argue we wouldn't have had a much better chance had he not been hurt.
If you go by Barttorvik game scores, compared to the 2014 team...
The 2015 team played against better competition in Kansas City.
The 2017 team played against better competition and was playing better in KC.
The 2019 team was playing better in Kansas City.
The 2014 team was really good, but its efficiency numbers for the whole season, the Big 12, or late in the season do anything but scream "this one is going all the way."
But Iowa State fans love constructing a hypothetical national championship more than anything else. I would know as one of them. I am not sure the Kane-Ejim team makes it past UConn, much less Michigan State and the teams after it, late that year.
Nothing like the legend of what could have been, though, which Hoiberg himself and all the media members around the team have done plenty to try to cultivate ever since.