With his senior hampered recently by a left foot sprain, Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said at his Friday press conference that Wieben is “better” but won’t practice with the team in Berkeley and is currently walking in a boot. If she doesn’t play Saturday against MSU, the Cyclones will have a serious height disadvantage.

“We are hoping she will play,” Fennelly said. “It certainly changes our team dramatically if she can’t. If she can’t, Jocelyn Anderson will start the game. We just don’t have the depth. It is more important for the other kids (if she doesn’t play), they will play more minutes.”

Anderson, a 6-foot-5 senior, also plays center and forward for the Cyclones, but is averaging 2.5 points and 1.7 rebounds compared to Wieben’s 10.6 and 5.1. Wieben had 18 key points in the team’s second-round win against Ball State to advance to the Sweet 16.

The No. 4-seed Cyclones (26-8) will meet up with the No. 9-seed Spartans (22-10) at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley at 9 p.m.

Iowa State defeated East Tennessee State 85-53 in the first round and Ball State 71-57 last weekend. The Spartans are coming off a monumental upset against No. 1-seed Duke, 63-49.

Common theme
Heading into Saturday’s game, there are a number of things the Cyclones and Spartans have in common on paper — opponents. In a rare occurrence for teams in different conferences and time zones, both teams played Niagara, Detroit-Mercy, Minnesota and Iowa in regular season play.

The Spartans went 3-2 against those four teams — with both losses coming at the hands of Minnesota — while Iowa State went 3-1 against the four opponents. Its lone loss against those teams was against Iowa in Iowa City.

Safe road?
As the Cyclones didn’t have to play a team lower than a 12-seed to reach the Sweet 16, it was one of the easier roads — seed-wise — for them in their fourth trip to the second weekend of the tournament in school history.

“Honestly, we didn’t think ahead,” senior guard Heather Ezell said. “Our first matchup was playing East Tennessee State and going to Western Kentucky and taking care of business there. Just like you’ve seen in the bracket, there’s been upsets all over the place. We definitely weren’t thinking ahead.”

As women’s basketball offers much less parity than the men’s game, it’s rare to see upsets such as those in this year’s tournament. But Fennelly and his team have learned to take it one step at a time if they want to make the next etching in Cyclones women’s basketball
history.

“I want (the team) to enjoy all of this,” Fennelly said. “It is a phenomenal way we are being treated. The fight song is being played when we walk into the hotel. When you are lifting weights and practicing and you are telling the players the reward is this, they
believe it. We are going to enjoy this.”