Jake said he and his Iowa State basketball teammates weren’t surprised that they have a 6-0 record.

But I’m surprised.

Indeed, without a doubt, the Cyclones are the most surprising major-college team in the state and one of the most surprising in the Big 12 Conference.

And, after looking at what the preseason basketball magazines predicted for Iowa State, I might really be surprised as the season progresses.

Let’s see, Athlon’s had the Cyclones picked 11^th—ahead of only Nebraska—in the Big 12.

Sporting News and Street & Smith had them 10^th—ahead of Nebraska and Baylor. Blue Ribbon had them ninth, Lindy’s and Basketball News eighth.

"I don’t think anybody should be surprised," Sullivan, Iowa State’s senior guard, said as Iowa State prepared to play Xavier of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tuesday night at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. "We’re not surprised.

"We expect to win and we expect to be 7-0 come Tuesday. That’s what we expect. It’s going to be a great game, but we expect high things from ourselves.

After Saturday’s 83-77 victory over Drake, Iowa State has a 6-0 record for the first time since the 2000-2001 season under Larry Eustachy—who was fired last spring after being on the job five years.

With all the internal strife, it was even difficult to find anyone who wanted to coach the team.

Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde didn’t even show interest in elevating assistant coach Wayne Morgan at first.

Meanwhile, it seemed guys were turning down the job every other day. It was getting embarrassing. Morgan was probably the fourth or fifth choice when nobody else wanted the job and Van De Velde finally hired him.

And it was tough to find anyone who thought Morgan was capable of bringing any glory back to the program. Certainly no one thought he was the second coming of Tim Floyd.

Maybe not even Glen Anderson.

But, suddenly, here’s Morgan taking an unbeaten record into Tuesday’s game. No, his Cyclones haven’t exactly run roughshod over any powerhouse teams and they haven’t gone against Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas or Missouri in their own league yet, but they’ve got some talented freshmen such as Will Blalock and Curtis Stinson and some very good veterans in Jackson Vroman, Jared Homan and Sullivan.

I’d say they have a strong chance to finish higher than Athlon’s, Sporting News and Street & Smith predict.

"He’s a very positive guy," Homan said. "And he’s always ready to make you a better player. He talks to you on a personal level. If you have any problems, you can go to him. And he knows his basketball, which is great."

Of the Cyclones, Homan said, "With the mixture of veterans and young guys, who knew how long it would take to come together? But I think we’ve jelled very fast. Everyone gets along very well and we all enjoy playing with each other, which is huge."

Blalock, a 5-11 freshman from Boston, scored 23 points against Drake. Stinson, a 6-2 freshman from The Bronx, N.Y., had eight points, nine assists and six rebounds.

Blalock, who scored 10 of his 23 points in the final 4 minutes, was named the Big 12 rookie of the week today.

"Our freshmen, as you could see, don’t play like freshmen at all," said Homan.

It was Iowa State’s first victory at the Knapp Center since Dec. 6, 1995.

And, no, he didn’t say a conference from Mars.

"The M-V-C," Morgan said very slowly.

By that, he meant the Missouri Valley Conference.

"None of the three were from the Big 12," Morgan added.

The three clowns who worked the game—Garry Pollard, Brent Dugas and Jon Stigliano—were so confused on a number of calls that it appeared they just came out of a YMCA noon league in Cedar Rapids and stopped off at the Knapp Center while on their way to a junior high tournament in Sioux City.

Homan played only 5 minutes and Vroman 4 minutes in the first half because they were charged with early fouls. For the game, Homan played 20 minutes, Vroman 19.

"I’ll put it this way," Morgan said. "Because of circumstances beyond my control, we had to play most of the game without our big men."

I’m not in the habit of criticizing officials, but those guys were awful.