March Madness is upon us, and Iowa State looks like it will be going dancing after winning at Colorado on Saturday, but, as Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friend.”

Although pretty much everyone is saying Iowa State is in, nothing would look worse on a tournament resume than losing to Baylor, and crazier things have happened. This ISU team has done one thing since its 0-5 conference start, and that’s take it one game at a time. If the Cyclones do that Thursday, Baylor won’t be a problem.

After getting past Baylor in the tournament, things look positive for the Cyclones.

If they get to the second round on Friday, they’ll face Bobby Knight and Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are seeded higher, but Iowa State has already beaten them once and will have a lot of confidence after overcoming a large deficit to win in their meeting at Hilton. Granted, Kansas City isn’t Hilton, but you better believe the Cyclone faithful will make their presence felt all week.

If Iowa State would win on Friday, it would more than likely face the No. 1 seed, Oklahoma, on Saturday. This is yet another big break for the Cyclones. I would much rather face an Oklahoma team which Iowa State has already beaten than play No. 2-seed Kansas, which is still looking for a top seed in the NCAA tournament. Not to mention, Kansas hasn’t forgotten about Iowa State’s big win in Lawrence a few weeks ago, and you can believe that the Jayhawks want revenge. Last, but not least, KU will more than likely have home-court advantage in Kansas City, no matter who they play.

Now, on to the championship game on Sunday. Let’s get nutty here and say Iowa State would beat Oklahoma on Saturday. That, more than likely, would leave Kansas or Oklahoma State to play in the finals. I know I just preached on how much we don’t want to play Kansas, but I would rather face the Jayhawks than the Cowboys’ Joey Graham and John Lucas. At least Iowa State knows it can beat Kansas.

There are going to be a lot of keys for Iowa State to go far in the tournament, but production from the bench is going to be No. 1. Playing four games in four days is tough on any team, especially a team that has seven scholarship players available. If Iowa State can get a big lead on Thursday and give the starters some rest, that would be huge. Guys like John Neal and Dave Braet will have to be productive, Damion Staple and Rahshon Clark can’t get into foul trouble, the Cyclones need to knock down some threes and, most importantly, they need to play smart.

Looking ahead to the NCAA tournament, Cyclone fans should just be happy, but they should also spend hours praying that they don’t get stuck playing in the hell hole we know as Boise.

Hopefully, you all didn’t listen to the pessimists a few months ago and are planning to make the trip to Kansas City. This Cyclone team is extremely streaky, and I think they have a shot at a Big 12 title.