There is no possible way I can do justice to the events that took place inside the Sprint Center tonight, but here goes.
Iowa State started 0-13 from the field, looked listless on offense, and could not buy a break on defense. Yet somehow they managed to stay within five points heading in to halftime and allow Cyclone Nation to keep the faith that the buckets would start falling.
And falling they did.
The Cyclones shredded the Baylor zone inside and out and shot 63% from the field in the second half. Amazingly Iowa State took their first 12 shots in the second half inside the paint before opening up the game behind the arc.
Naz Long finally brought Iowa State even for the first time since the start of the game with a trey to tie it at 50. On the next trip down Melvin Ejim gave the Cyclones their first lead of the game with a trey of his own. The teams traded punches until Brady Heslip hit another contested three pointer to give the Bears a two point lead, 58-56.
At this point 3sus once again took the wheel and drilled his second trey of the half to give the Cyclones a lead they would not relinquish with 3:46 remaining. Another three from Ejim on the next possession stretched the lead to four and Iowa State showed Baylor exactly what Hilton South meant to the 15,000+ fans wearing cardinal and gold. At that point it became a matter of defense and free throws, something the Cyclones did exceptionally well in all three games this week.
With the win the Cyclones clinch their first Big 12 championship since 2000, the second best single season record in school history, and all but guarantee themselves at least a 3-seed next weekend. At this point I'll take the chance to editorialize and say that once the smoke has cleared I think an argument for a 2-seed should be made for Fred Hoiberg and his team. Only three teams nationally have beaten every team on their schedule at least once and two of them (Wichita State and Arizona) are widely regarded as 1-seeds. The other team is Iowa State.
Enough of that though. Let's just remember this weekend for what it is: The resurrection of Hilton South at the hands of 3sus and his disciples and Hoiberg owning all the nets.
And somewhere Johnny Orr is fist pumping.