SI:AM | Iowa State Prevails Against Houston in Matchup of Final Four Hopefuls in Ames

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Will this be the last time I plug my daily Olympics podcast with Mitch Goldich? Maybe! We have less than a week left, so make sure you get on board now.

In today’s SI:AM:
🌪️ Iowa State’s big win
🏀 Pistons’ incredible turnaround
🇺🇸 U.S. Olympian’s inspirational story

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Cyclones surge from behind

It was a great day for the Heise family yesterday.

Hours after Taylor Heise scored one of the five goals in the U.S. women’s hockey team’s victory over Sweden in the Olympic semifinal in Milan, Nate Heise helped lift the Iowa State men’s basketball team over Houston in a matchup of teams with Final Four aspirations.

The meeting between the No. 2 Cougars and the No. 6 Cyclones was just the third game this season between teams ranked in the top six of the AP poll.

The fans in Ames, Iowa were amped up from the very beginning and created an excellent atmosphere for a massive game. It lived up to the hype, too. The first half was a wild back-and-forth affair that featured six ties and five lead changes. Houston began to pull away in the second half, eventually stretching its lead to 10 points on a Kingston Flemings three-pointer with 7:09 left to play.

But then Iowa State staged a furious comeback, finishing the game on a 17–4 run. Houston finished the game shooting 2-for-6 from the floor in the final seven minutes, while the Cyclones knocked down six of their seven field goal attempts. (As Kevin Sweeney explains, there was also a controversial call in the middle of Iowa State’s run that helped tilt the game in the Cyclones’ favor and highlighted an issue with college basketball’s challenge process.)

Heise’s clutch three came with 1:17 left on the clock and put Iowa State up 69–67. With the shot clock winding down, he had no choice but to pull the trigger on a contested shot, but he still buried it.

Nate Heise no dip in the clutch pic.twitter.com/8R69EtO4RK
— Shabazz 💫 (@ShowCaseShabazz) February 17, 2026

“It was one of the easier mindset things because you really have no other choice,” Heise said. “You’re not going to be able to pass the ball—there's not enough time. When you’ve got no other choice, it’s muscle memory.”

It was the 11th time in program history that the Cyclones had beaten a team ranked in the top two of the AP poll and the fourth such win in the past three seasons. That includes a blowout win over the top-ranked Cougars in the 2024 Big 12 championship game.

Both teams are legitimate national title contenders. Houston is seeking its third trip to the Final Four in the past six years after losing in the championship game to Florida last year, while Iowa State has continued its rapid ascent under coach T.J. Otzelberger. The Cyclones went 2–22 in the season before Otzelberger’s arrival, but they have reached the NCAA tournament in each of his first four seasons and made the Sweet 16 twice.

Monday night’s game was one of several potential Final Four matchups set to take place this week. No. 1 Michigan will face No. 7 Purdue tonight, Houston will seek to rebound against No. 4 Arizona on Saturday and Michigan faces No. 3 Duke in a neutral-site game also on Saturday. Who said college basketball season starts in March?

The best of Sports Illustrated

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham — David L. Nemec/NBAE/Getty Images

Elana Meyers Taylor’s gold medal win in women’s monobob was a long time coming, but her wait for Olympic glory is just one part of why she has one of the most inspirational stories of these Games, Pat Forde writes.
Michael Rosenberg was on hand for the U.S. women’s hockey team’s semifinal game against Sweden, which ended up being little more than a gold medal tune-up.
Today’s Digital Cover is Chris Mannix’s story on how the Pistons went from winning just 14 games to becoming legitimate NBA championship contenders.
A couple of SEC teams fell in Kevin Sweeney’s latest men’s bracket watch.
With players beginning to report to spring training, Nick Selbe gives each team in the National League a grade for their offseason moves.
Andrew Brandt explains why the NFLPA report cards might not remain private, despite a recent arbitration ruling in favor of the league.

The top five…

… moments from Day 10 of the Winter Olympics:
5. Japanese figure skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara’s reactions to their world record score in the free skate that would eventually win them the gold medal.
4. The amazing visuals of the ski jumping men’s team event in heavy snow. (It looked cool, but the competition had to be cut short due to the weather.)
3. Canadian legend Marie-Philip Poulin’s goal to set the all-time Olympic scoring record.
2. 41-year-old Elana Meyers Taylor’s reaction to winning her first gold medal in her fifth Olympics.
1. Three goals in less than three minutes by the U.S. women’s hockey team to put the semifinal against Sweden out of reach.