KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If the NCAA tournament selection committee feels the same way as the ISU men”s basketball team after its 77-57 win over Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament on Thursday, the Cyclones will be dancing for the first time since 2001.

Jared Homan, who finished the game with 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, said he thinks the team has done enough to make the NCAA tournament, but its main focus is on the rest of the Big 12 Tournament.

‘I think [the NCAA tournament is] kind of in the back of our minds right now,’ Homan said. ‘We are trying to focus on the next game. We like to think we are in, so we”re going to try and win this tournament.’

Athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said the team is in a better position because it won.

‘I certainly think we helped ourselves today with a real impressive win,’ Van De Velde said. ‘We”ve won 10 of our last 12, and that speaks volumes, especially in a conference that has the No. 2 RPI, so I think we really made a strong case for ourselves.’

ISU coach Wayne Morgan said he hopes the team has done enough to get into the NCAA tournament.

‘We”re not in the position to make the other decisions to know what is going on in the selection room, so the best way that we can help ourselves is by playing well in this tournament,’ he said.

The game was never in doubt, as Iowa State jumped to a 17-0 lead in the first half. Baylor got its first point of the game with 14:40 minutes left in the half on a Tim Bush free throw. The Bears” first field goal came with 12:20 remaining, a Kevis Shipman 3-pointer.

Baylor got the deficit down to 12 with just more than four minutes remaining, but the Cyclones stormed back and took a 43-23 lead into halftime.

‘I thought the key to our game today [was that] we had great intensity when the game began,’ Morgan said. ‘We had great offensive and defensive intensity.’

Freshman Rahshon Clark led the Cyclones in the first half with 14 points, and Curtis Stinson added 10. Iowa State shot a season-high 66.7 percent in the first half, its previous best being 65.5 percent against Drake.

After the intermission, Iowa State picked right back up where it left off and increased its lead to as much as 29 points in the second half. The closest Baylor would get was 19 points with 16:31 remaining.

Clark led the Cyclones with 20 points, and Homan added 17. All five of Iowa State”s starters scored in double digits, with Damion Staple pulling down 11 rebounds to go with his 10 points.

Up next for Iowa State is the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 2 p.m Friday.

The two teams last met Feb. 12 in Ames, when Iowa State defeated the then-No. 25 Red Raiders, 81-68. Homan led the Cyclones with 23 points, and Tasheed Carr added 17.

‘They have had a couple of days off, so they will be rested,’ Homan said. ‘We just played — I don”t want to say we are tired, but I think we got a little game-time experience, so hopefully we”re sharper.’

Morgan said he thinks the rematch will be a good game.

‘We know [coach Bob Knight] had a lot of time to prepare, so you can only imagine the various things that”s he”s going to use that we have not had a chance to see,’ Morgan said. ‘We have to try to prepare for their personnel.’

Ronald Ross led the Raiders in the first meeting with 27 points, and Jarrius Jackson added 19.

‘To beat a team like Texas Tech, we”re going to have to be able to execute in every aspect of the game,’ Morgan said. ‘And in our particular case, which is important for us, we certainly have to rebound the ball.’

Game notes

• As a team, the Cyclones shot 56.9 percent from the floor, their best percentage of the season. Iowa State hit 29-of-51 of its shots, including 6-of-15 from behind the 3-point line.

• Freshman Rahshon Clark set a new career high with 20 points. He hit 8-of-11 field goals, had six rebounds and a block. His previous career high in points was 19, set on Feb. 1, also against Baylor.

• With nine rebounds against Baylor, Jared Homan moved into fifth place on the all-time Big 12 tournament rebounding charts. Homan has 57 boards in six tournament games, leaving him 20 rebounds shy of Missouri”s Arthur Johnson.

• The fifth seed has never lost a first-round game in the Big 12 tournament. On the flip side, a fifth seed has never won the tournament, with Oklahoma State in 1999 and Missouri in 2003 falling in the final game.

• With the win over Baylor, Wayne Morgan passes former Iowa State coach Tim Floyd on the Big 12 tournament win chart. Morgan now has two wins in the tournament while at Iowa State, while Floyd has just one. Floyd won the final Big Eight championship before the league expanded from eight teams to 12.

• Baylor ended its season on a 14-game losing streak and has not won a conference tournament game since 2001.

• The Cyclones have cruised throughout first-round victories during the last three Big 12 tournaments. Last season, Iowa State used an early 19-3 run in toppling Kansas State by 14, and in 2003, the Cyclones thrashed Texas A&M 97-70.

• Thursday”s Bracketology feature on ESPN.com had Iowa State as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament, facing Creighton in a first-round game in Cleveland.

— Grant Wall