Iowa State is already being slotted among the nation’s top teams before the season even gets rolling, and that says plenty about where the Cyclones stand heading into a new year.
CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish recently updated his college basketball power rankings, and Iowa State climbed one spot to No. 12 after St. John’s slipped because of an injury to Donnie Freeman. For a program that has been trending upward for several seasons, the move fits the bigger picture: this is a team that keeps finding its way into the conversation.
Last season gave Iowa State a lot to build on. Joshua Jefferson, Tamin Lipsey and Milan Momcilovic formed one of the best trios in the country and helped push the Cyclones to a No. 2 seed in March Madness. Jefferson’s injury ended the run in the Sweet 16, but the roster had looked good enough to make a Final Four push if health had held.
This year’s version will look different, and there’s no getting around that. The roster turnover is real, and Iowa State has plenty to prove with so many new faces in the mix.
Even so, the outlook remains strong because of the combination of incoming talent, returning pieces and T.J. Otzelberger on the sideline.
Otzelberger has a track record of getting the most out of his roster, and that matters now more than ever. Iowa State did lose a lot from last season’s team, but it also kept some important players in place.
The biggest returning names in the backcourt are Killyan Toure and Jamarion Batemon. Both were major contributors as freshmen, and both now bring a much bigger level of experience into next season.
Toure started all year and established himself as one of the Big 12’s better defensive guards. His offense came and went, especially from outside, but he settled in more as the season moved along. For Iowa State to take another step, the Cyclones are going to need both young guards to keep growing.
That’s why the No. 12 ranking feels like a fair snapshot of where things stand right now: a team with real talent, real uncertainty and a chance to be dangerous again.
In Other News...
How Iowa State Went From Big 12 Newcomer To Rare Constant
A decade can make a conference look like a different sport, and Iowa State has had a front-row seat to the change. When Matt Campbell arrived for his first Big 12 Media Days in 2016, he was the rookie face of a league that still felt stable and familiar. By the time Jimmy Rogers took the same stage in 2024, the backdrop had shifted so much that the comparison said as much about the Big 12 as it did about the Cyclones.
None of the head coaches who were there in 2016 are still in the league, a reminder of how quickly college football now turns over even the people in charge. The Big 12 itself has gone from a 10-team round robin to a 16-team league stretched across four time zones, with NIL and the transfer portal helping remake the job description along the way. For Iowa State, the unusual part is no longer being the newcomer. It is being one of the constants. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Freshman Buzz Just Took A Brutal Turn Before Fall Practices
The Big 12 is kicking off its media days with commissioner Brett Yormark set to spend part of the week answering broader league questions, and Iowa State has its own subplot worth watching on the basketball side as fall practices approach. Christian Wiggins arrived with the kind of freshman buzz that can matter on a veteran roster, the sort of young perimeter piece who might have found a way into the rotation sooner rather than later.
Instead, his early momentum has been interrupted before preseason work even gets rolling, leaving the Cyclones to adjust their backcourt plans and wait on a player they were hoping could help stretch the floor and bring some two-way value off the bench. For a program that tends to lean on depth and development, the timing is especially rough, and it adds another layer of uncertainty to a month that was already going to be full of league-wide storylines. [Read more 🡒]