Peterson: Iowa State basketball's impressive Cy-Hawk win puts Cyclones in a good place

AMES – Tamin Lipsey jumped high to steal a mid-court pass. In the same motion, he passed forward to teammate Keshon Gilbert.

Then came a 3-point attempt ...

Swish.

The Hilton Coliseum crowd, boisterous long before Thursday night’s Cy-Hawk game even started, became crazed. They wiggled juicy, or something like that.

Could it really be a 27-point lead against Iowa just 3½ minutes into the second half?

You betcha it was.

Lipsey-to-Gilbert was one of many big plays during the Cyclones’ 90-65 trouncing of the Hawkeyes before a packed house.

Game. Set, Dagger . . . .

With 16 or so minutes still to play.

A friend of mine who roots for the Cyclones suggested I look at the point differential in this game to the last time this Big 12 vs. Big Ten game played out. So I did. Iowa won 75-56 last season at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa State improved its offensive output by a whopping 34 points. They Cyclones went from a 19-point loss to a 25-point win. That's a 44-point swing.

Impressive.

More: Iowa State basketball goes inside to crush Iowa in Cy-Hawk matchup

For the second night in a row, the place was rockin’. Wednesday, it was for the women’s Cy-Hawk. Thursday, the men. Fans attending both games woke up Friday pretty hoarse, I presume.

“I've never been a part of a crowd like that,” UNLV transfer Keshon Gilbert said before Rob Jones told him it can get louder.

Wait until Kansas comes to town on Jan. 27, or even Houston on Jan. 9. Oh brother, will Hilton be jazzed -- if the Cyclones can give fans something about which to be jazzed. Like Thursday night. Like when student sections chanted "You need Caitlin."

Clearly, this was Iowa State’s best performance during its 7-2 start. If there’s such a thing as a perfect game – then T.J. Otzelberger’s crew certainly pushed that button against a team that was out-muscled in every way, shape and form. How’s this for proof:

First-half points in the paint? Iowa State 30, Iowa 2. For the game?

Cyclones 46, Hawkeyes 18.

"To come out strong, to come out physical, to let them know that we’re here," said Jones, Iowa State’s muscle man. "It’s our court. This is our arena, and we’re going to get the better of you guys.

"And that starts down low in the paint. You control the paint, you control the game, so we just had to make sure we bring that fight to them immediately."

If Thursday night was a snippet of how good Otzelberger’s team can be, then oh my. The Cyclones' first top-50 KenPom victory this season placed them in a wonderful position for an 11-2 record before the calendar turns, and I think you see my point:

Otzelberger’s third year can be just as promising as the first and second. Maybe better.

Next are Hilton games against Prairie View A&M (noon on Sunday), Florida A&M, Eastern Illinois and New Hampshire – a quartet of teams that went into Thursday night with a combined 15-17 record and a 283.5 average KenPom rating.

Then all hell breaks loose – 18 games against teams in college basketball’s best (by far) conference, the Big 12, starting Jan. 6 at Oklahoma.

Houston, per KenPom's ratings on Thursday, was No. 1. BYU was sixth and Baylor seventh. Kansas was No. 12, Oklahoma No. 18 and Iowa State No. 25.

“It’s great to get up for a rivalry game and have that extra little bit of motivation or excitement,” Otzelberger said. “We need to have that same motivation and excitement going into our game on Sunday.”

Let’s presume they do, albeit a smidge of slippage wouldn’t be surprising.

“It’s a good win in terms of the confidence of the guys showing what they can do over 40 minutes,” Otzelberger said. “Regardless of the next challenge in front of you, you’ve got to have the same mindset and the same approach.”

That must be the plan heading to Oklahoma for the Big 12 opener, a grinder of a schedule in which every game will be significant.

Again, the Big 12 is the best college basketball conference in the land. If there’s another 25-point blowout win once the calendar turns to 2024, I’d be shocked.

Speaking of the calendar, the Cyclones were 9-2 at the turn last season, and 12-0 during the 2021-22 season, Otzelberger’s first year as head coach. Eleven wins this time would put Iowa State in a good place, for sure. That’s obviously looking ahead. It’s assuming four more wins before New Year’s.

“It was a full 40 minutes,” Otzelberger said about his program’s most lopsided win in this rivalry. “There’s always going to be things from our end that we think we can keep improving on, but if you look at the full 40 minutes – the focus, effort, intent and execution of the game plan – our guys did the job and stayed locked in.”

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, on X @RandyPete, and at DesMoinesRegister.com/CyclonesTexts

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Peterson: Iowa State basketball could be 11-2 after Cy-Hawk rout