Iowa State Basketball Accomplishes Feat Not Seen Since Kentucky in Over 30 Years

The Iowa State Cyclones have been playing fantastic in the Big 12 tournament so far. With two lopsided wins, they have been able to accomplish a bit of history along the way with some staggering numbers to back up what has been a great two-game stretch.

Coming into the Big 12 tournament, the Cyclones weren’t playing their best brand of basketball to end the regular season. Iowa State was a team that might have won its regular-season finale against the Arizona State Sun Devils, but prior to that, they were not playing great.

However, against that same Sun Devils team, Iowa State was able to jump them early in the Big 12 tournament and completely dominated the game by a score of 91-42. This was one of the best performances of the campaign for the Cyclones, and it certainly put everyone in the conference on notice.

With revenge on their mind against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Iowa State was able to have another outstanding performance and won by a large margin in that game as well. With a 22-point win on Thursday, the Cyclones have had the largest margin of victory in their first two conference games of 71 points since the Kentucky Wildcats in the 1992-93 campaign of 72.

Iowa State Thriving

Iowa State has outscored its first two conference tournament opponents by 71 points, the largest margin in the first two games of a major conference tournament since 1992-93 Kentucky (+72). pic.twitter.com/iCWS5NsXfr
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) March 12, 2026

This is an extremely impressive feat for the Cyclones and shows how good a team they can be at times. While they might not have performed as well as they would have hoped in Big 12 play this year, this was a team that was ranked second in the nation and 16-0 at one point.

While in the lopsided wins, obviously, there are a lot of things going right for the team. However, the performance of Joshua Jefferson has arguably been key for them to really perform at a high level. When the senior forward was at his best, the Cyclones looked like a team that could beat anyone in the country.

Currently, he is performing at that Player of the Year caliber level once again, and that’s a great thing to see for Iowa State. With back-to-back games with a double-double, Jefferson is red hot, and the Cyclones are dominating.

While the margin of victory in the first two games was impressive, Iowa State will now be facing the Arizona Wildcats in a massive showdown in the semi-finals. This will be a very telling game between two of the best teams in the country and Iowa State should feel good going into the matchup.