How sweet it is! A big warm congrats goes out to the Iowa State men’s basketball team for making the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1986 when Jeff Hornacek, Jeff Grayer and the rest of the ISU squad upset Michigan, Johnny Orr’s old coaching grounds.

These five seniors: Dedric Willoughby, Jacy Holloway, Kelvin Cato, Kenny Pratt and Shawn Bankhead, have been a pleasure to watch for the past two seasons. Nobody thought the ISU Cyclones would be anything at the start of the 1995-96 season, but they’ve worked to prove their critics wrong.

And they have.

Reaching the Sweet 16 for their final season demonstrates how much heart these guys have and what this team is able to do when it plays its best. Watching this team play all season has been sweet. We didn’t need the Sweet 16 to prove this, but hey, we’re absolutely thrilled the team made it.

The game against Cincinnati — Wow! Pratt had a great clutch three-pointer. Edwards executed his best shot when it meant the most, the left-handed jump-hook. Cato, we all know that fifth foul was a bad call. He kept Danny Fortson in line and gave Fortson a tough challenge. Dedric was Dedric, of course. His determination to win raised the playing level of his teammates. Holloway was the master passer. Bankhead was Mr. Defense. And we saw Stevie “The Wonder-Freshman” Johnson come off the bench to play well and hit important shots.

And, oh golly, how awful it was to see Darnell Burton nearly fall on Pratt near the end of the game. It’s a good thing the referee called traveling, wink, wink. (Finally, when don’t have Big 12 refs we get some calls that go ISU’s way.)

Good job, Cyclones. Go kick some UCLA Bruin butt.

And congrats also go out to the women’s basketball team. The team has made great strides to get into the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. We look forward to more good basketball in the future.