March Madness is a month away and the ISU Cyclone women’s basketball team has a shot to make some real noise in St. Louis.And like every team, there is good and bad to look at this time of the year. Fortunately for the Cyclones, the good far outweighs the bad.The biggest problem the Cyclones face right now is that after Angie Welle, there isn’t much at center. Welle is a 6-4 center that is one of the best, if not the best, post players in the country. She is averaging 18.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game through Jan. 27. Those sound like All-American numbers.She is fast, has a good shot, plays solid defense, rebounds and pretty much dominates at her position. Nothing can stop her. Nothing, that is, except fouls. And when Welle goes to the bench, things usually don’t go well for Iowa State.Senior center Gintare Cipinyte has yet to show the talent that saw her get recruited by 77 Division I schools. “G” is putting up only around two points and 1.7 boards as of Jan. 27. An encouraging sign for Iowa State was how Cipinyte played in the Cyclones’ 92-70 win Sunday. She scored four points and was very aggressive at crucial times with Welle on the bench.”That’s encouraging,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “That is the best G played all year.”Fennelly put it best, though, by saying “you’re not gonna be as good” when you take a player like Welle out “no matter who you put in there.”Granted, the Cyclones have put together an impressive 18-2 record, but in their last loss it was foul trouble to Welle and senior Megan Taylor that was a major factor in the Cyclones’ 79-74 loss.Speaking of Taylor, she has got to be one of the best all-around players in the conference. She can score (13.8), rebound (5.9) and pass (55 assists). Plus, she leads by example. Her hustle sets the tone as the Cyclones play aggressive defense and she dives on the floor for any loose ball she is near.”She set the standard for what kind of effort it takes to play here,” Fennelly explained.Taylor is so important to Iowa State that, in the midst of a 3-17 shooting performance against Missouri, when it came time to shoot crucial free throws, Fennelly put Taylor at the stripe. She made them and Iowa State went on to win by one.”It is impossible to measure Megan’s value to this team,” Fennelly said.Another thing Iowa State may want to look for is another scoring threat. Really only four players are scoring for Iowa State: Welle, Taylor, junior Tracy Gahan and sophomore Lindsey Wilson.The bench needs to step up and produce quality minutes when they are on the floor. On the other hand, when you are 18-2 and only four people are scoring, who cares? Again it looks like foul trouble is the only thing that can stop Iowa State here.But if the Cyclones must go to the bench, players like Kelly Cizek and Erica Junod have the potential to step up and score big points. Sophomore Holly Bordewyk has the ability to play big minutes and is athletic enough, she just needs more time on the court.”The key will be when one of those four [Welle, Taylor, Wilson or Gahan] is having an off night,” Fennelly said, “and we [get] good production from someone else.”One of the big worries coming into the season was whether or not the young guards Wilson and Junod could fill in for former Cyclone star Stacy Frese. Well, fill in they have. And it may sound impossible, but it appears that Wilson is going to be a better player when she is done at Iowa State. She can drive better, she is more physical, and she has really developed her shot.Comparing the two is hard because their styles are so different, but Wilson is definitely a big key to this team’s success. And Junod has one of the best shots in women’s college basketball; she just hasn’t found the confidence to make it in games yet. When she does, watch out.By the time Wilson is a senior and Junod is a junior, they will be the best backcourt in the country, no doubt.And it would be hard to hand out credit without mentioning Gahan. She has picked up the rebounding slack left when Desiree Francis left. She is grabbing 7.6 boards per game and still finds time to score 13.3 points. Senior guard Erica Haugen has been a solid defender and a team leader all year and gets her teammates the ball. She has 59 assists, second on the team. Haugen can shoot too, when she has to. She is making 45 percent of her three-point attempts, which means defenders have to be aware of where she is on the court.Ultimately it comes down to this — basketball is a team sport, and the Cyclones will need the whole team to step up if the Arch Madness dreams of St. Louis are to come true. It just helps that they have some of the best individual players in the country setting the pace.Jeremy Gustafson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ogden. He is co-sports editor of the Daily.