Remember when this season’s Iowa State team was “Sweet 16 is the floor” instead of “Sweet 16 is the ceiling”? The bracket wags have, but they haven’t forgotten about the Cyclones’ other classic tournament flops.
“Just look at last season when Final Four favorite Iowa State bowed out in the first game,” says one at the Washington Post, who thinks ISU is the least likely of the three teams from Iowa to win their first game.
Noted Iowa State hater Pat Forde says ISU is a “pretender who will be bounced early” and lumped the Cyclones and Hawkeyes together in the Jeb Bush pool (not fair, because ISU isn’t nearly as effective at setting money on fire). Forde isn’t doing best case/worst case scenarios this year, but ISU’s worst is getting bounced in the first round again, Kansas beating Iowa in the Elite Eight on the way to a national championship, and Oklahoma, Michigan State, and North Carolina rounding out the Final Four. (Astute observers will spot a worst-than-worst-case scenario in there, in which case, see yesterday’s post.)
And then there’s Matt Norlander at CBS Sports, who has Iowa State vs. Iona (yes, that’s confusing, and yes, the selection committee loves playing pranks like this) as one of his five first-round games to watch, which can be good or bad. Norlander ranks ISU 11th out of the whole field with a shot to make the Elite Eight, but rounds out that rundown with:
63. Hampton: The Pirates have made the tournament for the second straight season — and they’re better than last year. Think back to 2001. No. 15 seed. Upset Iowa State. Hey, you never know.
Never, ever, ever able to live it down…
UPDATE: If ISU and Purdue ever played each other in football, would it create a singularity of stomach punches?