Iowa State Cyclones Will Be Tested During Players Era Festival

The Iowa State Cyclones will be facing some excellent teams in their upcoming tournament.

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The Iowa State Cyclones are off to a hot start in the 2025-26 basketball season, and the program will be hoping to continue to build that momentum. 

Coming into the year, expectations were high for the Cyclones, and they are living up to them so far. While the schedule hasn’t been overly challenging so far, they do have a statement win against a good SEC school in the Mississippi State Bulldogs. In that win, the defense was incredible for Iowa State, and that has been an early trend for them so far. 

While the Cyclones are known for their defense mostly, they have been able to take it to a new level, and they are also getting some solid performances on the offensive end of the court as well. If making a run in March is going to be the ultimate goal, the team will have to find ways to put the ball in the basket as well. 

Even though the schedule might not have been demanding to start the campaign, the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas will change that quickly. The Cyclones will be facing the St. John’s Red Storm and the Creighton Bluejays from the Big East on Monday and Tuesday. 

Players Era Tournament Will Test the Caliber of Cyclones Early

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With two very tough games lined up to start the week for Iowa State, the team is going to find out really quickly how good they are. While Creighton might not be the program that they have been in recent years, they are still going to compete for a spot in the NCAA Tournament this year, and that makes them a threat. 

That will undoubtedly be the more winnable of the two games, but the matchup against the Red Storm will be a heavyweight clash. St. John’s has one loss on the resume already, at home to an excellent Alabama Crimson Tide team so far. Rick Pitino has a very veteran group that is still blending together, and the Cyclones getting them at this stage of the season could be a plus. 

Furthermore, while those two games will hold significance, the team will be playing a third as well, depending on where they land in the standings. This tournament will decide who plays for the championship based on a number of factors, including win-loss record, points scored, points allowed, and the differential. With a number of other great teams heading to Las Vegas, the Cyclones might have to face another strong opponent if they are successful early on.