As I stood in the heart of the Kansas student section Monday night and watched Luke Axtell’s three-pointer miss everything, one question entered my mind.Are we to the point where we can say: Marcus who?The Cyclones are now looking down on the rest of the Big 12 Conference after knocking off the fifth-ranked Jayhawks 79-77. The Cyclones showed nerves of steel and shot so well from three-point range that Kantrail Horton probably could’ve made 25-footers blindfolded.You’re probably wondering what the hell I was doing in the Jayhawk student section. Well, after getting screwed over by the media relations staff at Kansas and finding out that my press seat was up in the nosebleed section of Phog Allen instead of on press row, I was looking for a better seat and a photographer for the Kansas newspaper gave me his open spot in the rowdy student section.The seat was a big improvement, and it was well worth it to constantly hear the collective groans by the students as Iowa State hit three-point bomb after three-point bomb.Enough of that, let’s get back to the conference-leading Cyclones. With the graduation of Marcus Fizer, Stevie Johnson and Michael Nurse from last year’s Elite Eight team, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Yeah, right.Seniors Paul Shirley, Martin Rancik and Horton have all stepped up their games, and point guard Jamaal Tinsley showed Monday night why he is an All-American candidate.Tinsley scored 18 points and made Jayhawk defenders look silly on two occasions. Late in the first half, Tinsley stood at the top of the key, dribbling the ball between his legs about 10 times lulling Jayhawk Kenny Gregory into a daze before knifing past him down the lane for a basket.Tinsley was up to his old tricks again in the second half, this time popping a three-pointer in Jeff Boschee’s face to put the Cyclones up by 11.After the game, Horton was asked by a reporter how sweet the win was without Fizer, who now plays for the Bulls.”A lot of people didn’t expect us to be much without Fizer, but we had a great recruiting class that came in and bought into our system,” Horton replied.Ah, the recruits. Freshmen Jake Sullivan, Shane Power and junior college transfer Tyray Pearson have all stepped in and played a big role in the Cyclones’ success.Sullivan is one of the best shooters in the nation when he’s feeling it, and Power and Pearson provide quality minutes off the bench. Power can do a little bit of everything while Pearson plays with a lot of aggressiveness.Sullivan scored 10 points in his first visit to the Phog and showed his range by hitting two three-pointers in the first half. If Sullivan was supposed to be nervous about playing in front of 16,300 frenzied fans, somebody forgot to tell him.”Actually, I wasn’t nervous at all tonight for whatever reason,” Sullivan said. “This is kind of a dream to come in here and play, and I’m very happy with my performance tonight.”Pearson entered Monday’s game in the first half and went right at the Jayhawks’ inside tandem of Eric Chenowith and Nick Collison for two buckets. The message was sent the next time Pearson got the ball in the paint. Chenowith backed off and flat out refused to bang down low with the Cyclone junior.The Cyclones own a half-game lead over the Jayhawks with six games remaining, including a rematch with the Jayhawks in Hilton on Feb. 17. With four of six games in Hilton, the chances of the Cyclones successfully defending their Big 12 title are looking brighter.The next assignment for the Cyclones is a Sunday visit from the Missouri Tigers, who defeated the Cyclones in four overtimes earlier this season. The Cyclones get six days off before the Mizzou game after playing three games in six days.”We want to win this conference so we have to stay focused,” Sullivan said. “We’ll take probably a day and half or so off and get caught back up in school because we’ve been on the road a lot lately. Then we’ll get back to work as usual and we’ll be ready to go on Sunday.”The Cyclones shot 51 percent from the field, including 66.7 percent from three-point range, in the first half to build a 11-point halftime advantage. If the Cyclones are hitting their stride and continue to play as brilliantly as they did in the first half Monday night, they won’t lose again until possibly the NCAA tournament.And all this without Marcus Fizer.Jeff Stell is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Fort Dodge. He is co-sports editor of the Daily.