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Monday, January 28, 2013
 Impact of Iowa State's win over K-State
By Joe Kaiser

 There's a lot to like about this year's Iowa State squad -- the Cyclones score, rebound and spread the ball around really well. But after a 3-2 start to Big 12 play, they needed to come up with a win over Kansas State on Saturday to stay in the NCAA tournament conversation. Now that they can check that off, what does that mean to their Big Dance chances going forward?

A win over the No. 11 ranked team in the country certainly helps, but there's still a long ways to go for the guys from Ames. The schedule doesn't do them any favors, either -- next up are a pair of big games on the road against Oklahoma State and back home against a Baylor team that is currently right behind Kansas in the conference standings.

Prior to the win over K-State, ESPN's bracketologist Joe Lunardi listed the Cyclones as a No. 12 seed squarely on the tournament bubble, so you can probably move them up a notch after their biggest win of the season. But they will certainly have to pick up a few more big Ws before they can feel good about their NCAA tournament chances.

Here's our own Eamonn Brennan with more.

Eamonn Brennan
Iowa State needed the win over the Wildcats
"The Cyclones will have other opportunities to get big résumé wins in Big 12 play, but they took advantage of a major one when they toppled No. 11-ranked Kansas State 73-67. Led by Will Clyburn's 24 points and 10 boards, the Cyclones shot 64 percent in the second half, hoisting up 47 points on a good K-State defense. In Bubble Land, these are the kind of games -- against good but beatable teams at home -- you have to take advantage of. For Iowa State, which suffered a horrible loss at Texas Tech on Wednesday night, it was just what the doctor ordered."