Thoughts of postseason play crawled into coach Bill Fennelly’s mind after Iowa State’s on-the-road victories over Colorado and Texas in mid-January. Preseason predictions put Iowa State finishing in the No. 7 spot in the conference, but Fennelly’s Cyclones chose to write a different story.

Ranked 14th nationally, Iowa State enters the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City on Friday as the No. 2 seed after having finished 23-6 overall and 11-5 in Big 12 play. After a bye in the first round, the Cyclones will face Oklahoma State at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Auditorium on Friday.

The first-round bye gives Iowa State a chance for their top point guard, Alison Lacey, to rest up as she recovers from pneumonia.

“It’s fun to go down there not feeling a ton of pressure to have to do anything special, but just go down there and play the way you want to play and feel that, at the end of the day, if you played the way you should’ve — represented your school the way you should’ve — we’ll live with that result and hopefully be there a couple days and play and represent our school,” Fennelly said.

A team coach Fennelly says he has coached harder than any other showed signs of greatness in both the Colorado and Texas road games during the regular season. “I do think that the Colorado and the Texas games, at least, gave us an idea that we could be in the middle and fight to get into that 500 range and post season play, and my staff jokes about it all the time [about] how consumed I am by the NCAA tournament,” Fennelly said.

Losing five key seniors from last year’s lineup, the expectations of Iowa State were not the same for this year’s team as they were in the 2008-’09 season that ended with a trip to the Elite Eight. The Cyclones could have been satisfied with the season highlights they made during the season — beating Colorado and Texas on the road and upsetting Baylor on the Cyclones’ Pink Zone event.

Instead, knowing the NCAA tournament’s first and second rounds would be held on the Cyclones’ turf motivated players and coaching staff to work harder; as Fennelly walked through Hilton Coliseum each day, he was reminded by the NCAA banners that surround the outer concourse of Hilton.

“They’ve learned a lot of basketball in a short amount of time, and the way they’ve handled it has been amazing to me,” Fennelly said following the Baylor game. “It’s been hard on them, but, hopefully, in the end, when this is all said and done, they’ll look back and say ‘yeah, it was hard, but man it was worth it.’”

While Fennelly may not have wanted the players to realize he was thinking and reminded of the NCAA tournament each day, the thought was drifting through their minds too. The dates on the banners approach, and it’s hard not to know what March means in Fennelly’s basketball world.

“I think, like coach Fennelly always says, good teams play in March; good teams want to play in March,” said junior guard Kelsey Bolte. “It’s [about] how hard you want it and what you’re willing to do to keep winning.”

Being a leader on the floor as a junior, Bolte realizes the finality of March and what comes with playing in the Big 12 tournament, leading up to the NCAA tournament. For the newcomers on the team, nerves may be a factor in Kansas City as the Cyclones enter with a No. 2 seed and high expectations.

“The jitters that our freshmen will have — they’re going to have every tournament game,” Fennelly said. “I think, when you go through that for the first time, it’s exciting — the thrill of that tournament, the thrill of playing in a post-season event is fun, and the other caveat in the back of your mind is when you lose, you’re done.”

Iowa State traveled to Kansas City on Wednesday to watch the men’s team play and, after the loss by the ISU men, may have realized the finality this tournament could present.

Iowa State will need to adjust faster than ever, finding out Thursday night who their opponent would be for Friday, having less than 24 hours to prepare for the game with Oklahoma State.

“We’re used to short-term scouting reports and trying to get ready for a team, so, either way, whether it’s ahead of time or at the last minute, we’ll still get it done and be able to prepare the way we need to,” said senior guard Denae Stuckey.

Although this may be the fastest turnaround of the season for Iowa State, in terms of preparation, the Cyclone players are used to adapting to new game plans. Iowa State had just two days to prepare for No. 15 Baylor, and, at halftime of the Pink Zone game against the Bears, Fennelly had nothing to complain about.

“I have coached this team harder than any team that I’ve ever coached, and probably unfairly at times,” Fennelly said following the Baylor game. “They’ve gotten two-plus years of basketball in probably about four months, because they don’t understand — every day I wake up and I see those banners about the NCAA tournament in this building.”

Pushing his team harder than years past has paid off so far for Iowa State, and Kansas City could be the next season highlight for the Cyclones.

“When you get into March, your mindset has to evolve into — the term we use with our team a lot is ‘refuse to lose’ — you want to play the next day,” Fennelly said. “I think the difference is that sense of finality; everyone always loves to talk about must-win games, and those of you that have been around me a long time — the only must-win game I’ve ever heard of is the game you absolutely must win to keep your season going.”