Iowa State drew the Fighting Irish on St. Patrick’s Day as their opponent in the N-C-A-A tournament. The Cyclones are seeded tenth will play seventh seeded Notre Dame on Friday in Dayton Ohio.
Cyclone Senior Korie Lucious talked about the selection. “I’m just excited to be back in the tournament, unfortunately we are going to Dayton, I don’t really know if it’s too warm there….I’m just happy to be playing,” Lucious says.
Iowa State was in the last region announced, but Lucious says they were confident they were in. “We felt like we were going to be in for sure, we just really wanted to see where and who we were going to be playing. We’re playing Notre Dame and now it’s time to get ready and get to work,” he says.
Freshman Georges Niang, likes their opponent. “That’s a good draw, I’ve got a couple of Massachusetts buddies on Notre Dame, so it’s going to be good to see them….I’m excited we are in the tournament, this is my first experience at this,” Niang says. He says they are going to be ready to go and “shock the world.”
Niang was a little nervous as it took awhile to see their name called. He says he kept asking if they were going to get in until their name showed up. “I’m just happy to be playing meaningful basketball in March,” Niang says.
Coach Fred Hoiberg has the team in the tournament for the second straight year. “I’m excited, I’m happy we got in, it took a long time where last year I got spoiled in my first go round as we were the second team called,” Hoiberg says. “It’s exciting, it’s a great team, it’s a great program…I look forward to breaking them down on film and trying to put a game plan together.”
Hoiberg was a little worried that it took so long to see his team on a bracket. He says he was sweating a little as one of the analyst said they were 98-percent in, and he wondered if the analyst knew something.
Notre Dame is 25-9 and the 10th seed after losing 69-57 against Louisville in the Big East tournament semifinals. Iowa State is 22-11 overall after finishing 11-7 in the Big 12.