On Friday night, LSU will face 11th-seeded Iowa State as it begins life without Will Wade. This is LSU’s third consecutive tournament appearance. In each of its previous two appearances, it has advanced on from the round of 64.
Iowa State, in a similar fashion to LSU, started the season 12-0 before running into trouble in conference play. The Cyclones have dropped three in a row but before that, they ripped off a four-game winning streak to cement themselves as a tournament team for the first time since 2019.
On the year, Iowa State has impressive wins against Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma, Memphis, and Iowa on the road to a 20-12 record.
Outside of a road loss at West Virginia and dropping an overtime game to Kansas State, the Cyclones managed to avoid any bad losses. Iowa State was a combined 10-0 against Quadrants 3 and 4 while going 10-12 vs Quadrants 1 and 2.
Away from home this year, Iowa State went 6-7, but that includes a 2-1 record in neutral site games. This is a Cyclone team that wasn’t expected to be in this position after it went 2-22 last season, but head coach TJ Oltzelberger has led one of the best turnarounds in the country and owns a 20-12 record.
Here are five things to know about the Cyclones as LSU prepares for tip-off.