PETE: Is Iowa State’s Curtis Jones working on a post-season Sixth Man Award, first-team all-Big 12, and All-American trifecta?

I cringed, each time I heard a college basketball TV talker say Iowa State’s Curtis Jones is a shoe-in to win the Big 12’s postseason Sixth Man Award. I became annoyed, because the so-called experts weren’t giving us the whole story.

What they were leaving out, was that the Cyclones’ Jones is good enough to go way higher than becoming the conference’s Super Sub. They may not even have been thinking that Jones, once over-looked and admittedly once out-worked before transferring to Iowa State, just might be the Big 12 Player of the Year – as well as an All-American.

Regardless of whether he’s starting or coming off the bench.

That’s not pom-pom waving. That’s reality about a player who was unstoppable during the tempo-setting first half of the second-ranked Cyclones’ 74-57 victory against ninth-ranked Kansas at Hilton Coliseum.

During the all-important tone-setting first-half start, the Buffalo transfer scored 20 of his 25 points. He made his first six shots, and 8 of his first 11 (including 4 of 5 from three-point range). He had half his team’s 40 first-half points, and if that’s not making the biggest statement we’ve seen in a long time – then, then please enlighten me.

That first 20 minutes, was when the Cyclones won Wednesday’s battle of Top 10s. That’s when we had emphasized to us something we’ve known since even before this season started.

That kind of lineup maneuvering 24 hours before the season’s biggest game (to date), and succeeding with it, again showed the nation that the 2024-25 Iowa State men’s basketball team has everything it takes to make a deep NCAA Tournament.

Best guards in the country – with Jones, Keshon Gilbert and Tamin Lipsey?

Check.

Wonderful-shooting big guy (when he’s healthy) in Milan Momcilovic?

No question.

Best and deepest post play in the Iowa State’s storied basketball history – with Joshua Jefferson, Dishon Jackson, Brandton Chatfield, and with the emergence of Demarion Watson?

Boom.

Best coach right now in the Big 12?

Hell ya.

All of that is why Kansas Hall of Fame and two-time national title-winning coach Bill Self didn’t just look befuddled throughout the Cyclones’ victory, he was befuddled, and so were his players.

I mean, 7-foot-2 Hunter Dickinson, who some people claim to be the Big 12’s best player, could have gotten whiplash, with all his head-spinning efforts to see from where the double-teaming was coming from.

And when the 6-4 Jones came out of nowhere to block his shot?

Dang, man.

Plays like that will carry T.J. Otzelberger’s team a long way this season.

His guys shoot well. They play a Top Five nationally brand of defense. They’re as physical as you’ll see any team, and they’re not above scrapping for every freakin’ loose ball situation that comes up.

“That’s what makes them who they are,” Self said after the game. “I’ll bet you they get 75% of the 50-50 balls. If there’s a ball there, they seem to get it.”

I beg your pardon, Coach, but I can’t recall a loose ball your team got – at least one that resulted in something significant.

“I thought in the first half there were probably five or six balls on an offensive rebound or something that they got, that could have been our ball,” Self continued. “We tried, but there’s a difference between trying hard and actually competing.”

Compliments aren’t uncommon from Self – but believe me, he wasn’t the only one saying good things during this game, in which the Cyclones actually didn’t play 40 minutes of greatness.

Jay Bilas called Jones an All-American during the ESPN broadcast. On the podium, Self said the same. “They had a player play like a first-team All-American and he’s terrific,” Self said.

So, what about Jones and the Sixth Man of the Year narrative that’s been out there?

We know he’ll start at least until Momcilovic recovers from the hand he injured in practice last Tuesday. After that?

All we know is the Iowa State now goes to West Virginia, where the Cyclones have lost eight times in a row.

**

TIMEOUT MEANDERINGS

Under 16 minutes: I know the women don’t use the 16-12-8-4 timeout stuff, but . . . Big deal that Iowa State’s steak of 945 games with a 3-point basket ended? The Cyclones won, beating Texas Tech at home. The idea is to win the game – anyway you can. Get back to me if Bill Fennelly’s team (or T.J.’s, for that matter) doesn’t make a 2-pointer in a game. That’s when we’ve got a problem.

Under 12 minutes: Kudos to former Big 12 basketball coach Rick Barnes. The Tennessee coach pulled back the curtain on this pay-for-play world we try to endure, when he benched star ChazLanier for refusing a shot on a play designed for him. "I took him out the first play of the second half because he didn't shoot the ball," Barnes said told reporters after last Saturday’s game against Texas, his former employer. "That play is designed for that shot. I told him, 'If you're not going to do what you're getting paid to do, then you're going to sit over here,' because he is getting paid to do that."

Under 8 minutes: Has Iowa State just wrapped up the Big 12’s regular-season basketball title? Of course not (Houston is playing lights-out now, too), although how Wednesday’s victory against Kansas happened was impressive. Saturday at 12-4 West Virginia won’t be a pushover, even though Darian DeVries’ Mountaineers have lost two of three games after Wednesday’s 16-point defeat at Houston. Iowa State at conference unbeaten Arizona (11-5 overall) on Jan. 27 isn’t exactly a gimme, either, however, play against them like Iowa State Wednesday night against Kansas, and now we’re talking title.

Under 4 minutes: Did you catch this postgame comment from Bill Self? "Their evaluation in recruiting has been tremendous. Maybe Jamie's got them so much NIL money, that they could just go out and get anybody. But the bottom line is the pieces fit, and the other thing is, they're very well drilled, and they are very good in situational basketball.” It wasn’t long ago, that his program was being linked to illegal payments – before NIL even became a legal thing.