PETE: Cyclone Warning: Excitement is approaching, says the Iowa State web site – and it’s right

Iowa State’s fifth-ranked men’s basketball team playing a TV-worthy game next Monday night. Maui Invitational. Against fourth-ranked Auburn and coach Bruce Pearl. ESPNU (at least it’s not the plus).

Finally, the Top Five matchup for which we’ve been waiting.

Iowa State’s nationally-ranked women’s team faces top-ranked South Carolina next week, Nov. 28, in Fort Meyers, Fla., after just having played state rivals UNI and Drake.

It’s finally almost here -- another game we’ve been anticipating.

We love Top 10 Cy-Hawk wrestling, which, btw, is at 6 p.m., Saturday in Iowa City.

And, don’t forget Iowa State football trying to stay a live for the Big 12 championship game, facing Utah at 6:30 p.m., Saturday in Salt Lake City.

Excitement, as the university’s website proclaimed, indeed is here – and for T.J. Otzelberger’s men’s basketball team, it’s time to move on from three patsies during which the Cyclones outscored non-conference opponents by an average of 33 points a game.

Mississippi Valley State: 364th in the most recent Ken Pom rankings.

Kansas City: 217th.

IU Indianapolis: 358th.

Ken Pom has spoken – or in this case, one of college basketball’s most-used analytics guys, shows us that Iowa State men’s basketball scheduled a cushy first three games. We knew that. It’s nothing new. We don’t mind nearly as much as some outsiders, because we know the motive and we know the happily-ever-after annual ending.

While this doesn’t look so sexy on paper now, I trust it will by March 16. That’s when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee gives us the who, what, when, where, why and how they seeded and placed who they picked for their men’s national tournament.

Iowa State schedules to make the tournament, not to be a No. 1 seed, and that’s all right. Leave that for Kansas, UConn, North Carolina and Duke to knock each other off during non-conference, made-for-TV games.

The business part of the schedule for Otzelberger’s team is plenty tough within its own Big 12 Conference – 20 league games this season.

Playing Iowa, too. And Marquette in the Big 12-Big East thingie.

After that magical Selection Sunday, you’ll have forgotten about those first three opponents, as well as:

Jackson State: 322nd.

Omaha: 275th.

Morgan State: 329th.

Remember while criticizing the early-season schedule, you’d rather watch 40-point blowouts against teams you rarely hear of, than one-point losses against teams within your own conference.

Here’s what Jamie Pollard told me one day in my previous professional life, during a one-on-one interview at the team’s Omaha hotel during last season’s NCAA Tournament, in which the Cyclones were a No. 2 seed.

“Everybody was being critical of T.J. (Otzelberger) for scheduling soft,” Pollard told me. “Our schedule was built to get into the (NCAA) tournament with a very young team.”

It works. Otzelberger’s three NCAA Tournaments in three seasons as the Cyclones’ coach includes two Sweet 16s. Get the kinks out against the cupcakes, see what you’re all about in holiday tournaments, then really build your resume while playing what’s generally considered the nation’s toughest men’s basketball schedule.

Think of it this way – 32 is roughly the number of games during a regular season, and for anyone in the Big 12, that includes 21 games (including at least one in the conference tournament) in the nation’s toughest league.  For Iowa State, add three games in the Maui Tournament. There’s also the annual Cy-Hawk, and one against someone from the Big East.

Or how about this: Iowa State had at least nine opponents (and at least 11 games) this season among the current Ken Pom Top 25. That’d be one against Auburn, Marquette, Baylor, Texas Tech, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU, and two against Kansas and Arizona.

And you wonder why the potential pushover non-conference schedule includes some softies?

Thus, the great men’s basketball scheduling dilemma:

Shop yourself for one or two of those high-level made-for-TV games, and potentially lose one or both . . .

Or go with the surer, and what’s been proven to be non-conference scheduling formula?