It’s March, and we all know what that means: madness!

For Iowa State, it begins at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas City’s Sprint Center with the men’s basketball team set to take on Texas.

Now, we admit, it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows for the men this season — what with all of the injuries, suspensions and defections — but there couldn’t possibly be a better time to make a run than in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.

Who says the Cyclones can’t take a little of their Hilton magic on the road with them to Kansas City?

Who says the cardinal and gold can’t make an improbable, though still possible, run for the Big 12 title and break into the NCAA Tournament?

The road will be difficult.

The Cyclones will have to get big games from Craig Brackins and Marquis Gilstrap, they’ll have to get wins against sixth-seeded Texas in the first round and likely matchups against No. 22 Baylor, No. 9 Kansas State and No. 1 Kansas — in the championship game.

The Cyclones were 1–6 against those teams in the regular season.

The odds are against them, but we believe it can happen. We’re not afraid to dream.

Of course, the women’s quest for the Big 12 Championship begins Friday night against the winner of the game between Oklahoma State and Kansas on Thursday night in Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

At 23–6, Iowa State comes into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and has a legitimate shot at bringing home coach Bill Fennelly’s third conference championship in his 15th season at the helm.

The “twister sisters” could have a couple of tough matchups lying ahead of them, too, with a possible game against Oklahoma State looming on Friday — the Cowgirls beat Iowa State 78–70 last week — and then Oklahoma.

Iowa State topped the Sooners 63–56 back in January.

The championship matchup would likely pit the Cyclones against No. 3 Nebraska, which Iowa State has lost to twice this season.

But if Alison Lacey recovers from her current bout with a bronchial illness and the Cyclones can get continued production from All-Big 12 performers Denea Stuckey, Kelsey Bolte and Anna Prins — as well as Chelsea Poppens, who was mysteriously absent from postseason Big 12 honors [but that’s another editorial] — it could be a happy journey to Hilton South for the ISU faithful.

We’ll go ahead and pencil them in on our bracket for a Big 12 Conference Championship. Hope you’ll do the same.

Finally, all of this comes on the heels of the wrestling team’s second-place performance in the Big 12 Championships that were held last weekend.

Yes, it snapped a streak of four-straight Big 12 Championships for the grapplers, but now is not the time for them to be winning. That all starts next week, with the NCAA Tournament.

They will get it done.

For now, we’ll set our sights on Kansas City. Our pencils are out, we’re warming up for our NCAA Tournament pool by filling out our Big 12 tournament brackets — or we would be, you know, if gambling were legal — and we’re ready for some excitement.

May the madness begin.