Iowa State Basketball Could Have Made Final Four With Healthy Star

Could the Iowa State Cyclones have made the Final Four if their star was healthy?

Mar 22, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger speaks during the postgame press conference after the game against the Kentucky Wildcats during a second round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. | Jeff Le-Imagn Images

With the Final Four set in Indianapolis, the Iowa State Cyclones likely can’t help but feel like they could have been one of the last teams standing if things had gone right. 

Coming into the season, the Cyclones were expected to once again be a solid team in a loaded Big 12 conference. Arguably, both the conference and Iowa State were able to exceed those expectations in what ended up being a fantastic regular season. 

To begin the campaign, the Cyclones got off to a fantastic 16-0 start, which included some impressive out-of-conference wins against the St. John’s Red Storm and the Purdue Boilermakers. Both of these teams ended up having excellent seasons, and they were some early signature wins for the program. 

During conference play, Iowa State did have some issues playing on the road, but there were some more good wins against conference opponents mixed in as well. The Big 12 was a gauntlet at times, and toward the end of the season, the Cyclones did seem a bit worn out. 

Fortunately, when the conference tournament came around, the team was impressive once again and playing at the level that was seen earlier in the season. A major reason for that was the play of star Joshua Jefferson, who looked like one of the best players in the country. Unfortunately, despite having a ton of momentum heading into the tournament, the injury to Jefferson eventually caught up to them. 

Cyclones Could Have Made Final Four with Healthy Jefferson

Iowa State Cyclones forward Joshua Jefferson | Jeff Le-Imagn Images

If not for a severe ankle injury to Jefferson in the opening minutes of their game against the Tennessee State Tigers, Iowa State had all of the ingredients to be a Final Four team. 

With guard play being so important in March, Tamin Lipsey, as a senior, provided them with what they needed in the backcourt. In terms of shooting from beyond the arc, they had a strong group led by Milan Momcilovic. However, the absence of their best player was understandably too much to overcome. 

In the loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, Jefferson’s ability to rebound at a high level was sorely missed. The Volunteers punished the Cyclones on the glass, and that likely wouldn’t have happened if their star forward were there. 

While the matchup against the Michigan Wolverines would have been a challenging one, this was a Cyclones team that had just recently gone down to the wire with the Arizona Wildcats. It would have been an amazing matchup, and certainly one that Iowa State could have won. Overall, the campaign finished as a ‘what-if’ for the program, but there is no doubt that they were a Final Four caliber team with a healthy Jefferson.