Iowa State men’s basketball has returned to the AP Top-25 for the first time since 2019.
The Cyclones checked in at No. 19 in this week’s Associated Press poll released on Monday. That comes after Iowa State rolled through the NIT Tip-Off event last week in Brooklyn with wins over, at the time, No. 25 Xavier and No. 9 Memphis.
Iowa State is the lowest of four Big 12 teams in the poll with Baylor (No. 4), Texas (No. 7) and Kansas (No. 8) all sitting inside the top-10.
The Cyclones’ last appearance in the poll was, ironically, at No. 19 in February 2019, but Iowa State fell out of the rankings for good that year with back-to-back losses to Baylor and TCU.
Iowa State has not found itself in the top-25 in the months of November or December since 2016. That last appearance in early-December 2016 was the last appearance in a school-record streak of 61 consecutive weeks spent in the rankings.
T.J. Otzelberger’s team will be back in action on Wednesday when the Cyclones host Arkansas Pine Bluff at Hilton Colieum. Iowa State will then go on the road to face Creighton, and former Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott, in Omaha on Saturday.
