IowaState-Iowa Basketball

Anytime Iowa State can defeated Iowa in anything, Cyclone fans should celebrate.

It happened again Friday night when the Iowa State’s men’s basketball team topped Iowa, 75-72, on the Hawks floor.

I had an up close and personal look at this rivalry for a couple years. I remember Iowa State going into Iowa City and beating a ranked Iowa club.

Like most college state rivalries this is a big deal. Maybe it’s bigger here in Iowa because we don’t have major professional sports, so college sports are the main focus.

Iowa State is an agriculture school. Iowa produces doctors and lawyers. There is a definite dislike of each other in athletic competition.

Most Hawk fans don’t understand the big deal about Iowa State winning over Iowa. They think Iowa State focuses too much on the Iowa game, while the Hawks have other big games (in conference) to get excited about.

Whatever.

When I was at Iowa State the Cyclones played in the old Big 8. I sensed that the Big Ten schools thought the Big 8 was lower class with small cities and agriculture schools, whereas the Big Ten schools acted like they were from the urban, upper class places.

Whatever.

But in terms of the game, Friday night, it was excited. The Hawks won the first half and the Cyclones won the second half. Cyclone guard Scott Christopherson was the difference. The three-point specialist scored 24 of his 30 points in the second half. To put it mildly, he was hot.

So Iowa State and Iowa fans can return to their respective corners and look ahead to the next interstate battle in the future.