It’s no secret — I like to eat.

Come by my room at night and chances are you will find me with either an open pizza box or a Jimmy John’s wrapper on my lap.

The meal I have been eating for the last three weeks, however, has been the tastiest of my life.

Three weeks ago I left the ISU men’s basketball team for dead, writing off its postseason chances and saying the Cyclones didn’t have the heart to win.

I implored them to prove me wrong, to make me eat my words. Boy, did they ever.

“We look at the newspaper every day just like anyone else,” sophomore guard Will Blalock said Thursday. “When we see [negative things], it just puts fuel to the fire.”

I have always put pride in my ability to logically reason, to not get too high or low with each victory or loss. Although I stand by everything I said in my previous column (“Don’t hold back on Spring Break plans,” Jan. 26), in retrospect I wish I hadn’t led the charge off the ISU bandwagon.

Five games is an indication, not a telltale sign. Things can turn on a dime, as the Cyclones have shown.

“It’s basketball,” said ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said after his team’s win over Texas Tech. “There are teams that are playing great now that weren’t playing good two weeks ago.

“That’s basketball. It has ebbs and flows and tides.”

The team that has taken the court in the last three weeks is not anything like the team that fell to Colorado at Hilton Coliseum, or looked uninspired during its loss at Kansas State.

The overall intensity of this Cyclone team has grown during its win streak. Iowa State is averaging more than 12 steals, and is forcing 18 turnovers a game, setting up its dynamic transition game.

Its three-quarter court press and scrappy 2-3 defense are causing problems for opposing teams, disrupting passes and not allowing shooters to take open shots.

“Everyone counted us out, but as a team we knew we were at least top five in the conference,” Blalock said. “We weren’t playing like it at first and now that we are, people are starting to see it our way.”

Aside from the improved defensive pressure, the Cyclones have found new ways to score on offense. After relying only on their ability to penetrate and create shots, a outside threat has emerged from the most unlikely source.

Entering the Cyclones’ game against Texas — the game that snapped Iowa State’s 28-game conference road losing skid — freshman Tasheed Carr had hit just seven 3-pointers on the season. The rookie from Philadelphia nailed five threes against the Longhorns and scored 13 points in overtime, almost single-handedly giving his team the victory.

With Carr showing his team there wasn’t a lid on the basket from outside, the Cyclones have found their range, hitting 47 percent of their 3-pointers in their last five games.

So there you have it, the biggest flip-flop since John Kerry was asked about, well, anything.

The Cyclones’ NCAA Tournament hopes are hanging by a thread, but at least they are alive.