The Iowa State Cyclones had the weekend to celebrate their 72-64 upset of fifth-ranked Kansas in Ames Saturday, but have to be ready to face another big challenge at home on Tuesday. Scott Christopherson talked in the post-game about the importance of beating a top-ten team.
“It feels great, obviously playing in the NCAA tournament is a goal of ours…if you want to play in the NCAA tournament you’ve got to beat some of the best teams in the country and you’ve got to have the quote, unquote signature wins, but at the same time, we’re not going to get into the NCAA tournament with five conference wins,” he said.
Christopherson said they need to have another good home performance against 22nd ranked Kansas State. “We’ve got a short turnaround, we’ve got another top 25 team coming in here on Tuesday, and hopefully we can lock in and focus and come back and take care of business,” according to Christopherson. The player’s comments echoed what coach Fred Hoiberg told the team after the win.
“We’ve got another big game on Tuesday, I told ’em how proud I am of them, how big a win this was for our guys, enjoy it, but come back ready to go,” Hoiberg said. It’s the first Cyclone win over a top five team since a win over Kansas in 1996 when Hoiberg was a player.
“It’s a great win for our program, I love our guys, they’ve really done a great job of buying into everything we’ve talked to them about, and we need to use this game as a momentum builder for us, a confidence builder, and go out and play well the rest of the season,” Hoiberg said.
Iowa State is now 15-6 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12.