By Andrew Lawrence, SI.com

One Shining Moment

Rashon Clark goes up for a shot over the Minnesota defense in Iowa State's first-round tournament victory. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Watch Iowa State play defense, and you'll understand why it was able to knock off five ranked teams and land a nine seed in the NCAA tournament. A lot of teams trust one or two guys with the role of neutralizing the attack, but at Iowa State, it's a team effort. When sophomore guard Curtis Stinson isn't playing the passing lanes, 6-foot-10 center Jared Homan is diving face-first into the Minnesota bench for a steal. When forward Damion Staple whiffs on a potential block, in swoops the freshman Rahshon Clark for the explosive swat. In a 64-53 dismantling of Minnesota, the Cyclones set the tempo from the start, pressing the ballhandler -- the usually diminutive 5-10 guard Aaron Robinson -- in the backcourt, trapping him once he crossed halfcourt, then collapsing around the entry pass in the post. Scary thing is, "Our defense was not at 100 percent," Stinson said. "I would rate it 80-85 percent. We could do a whole lot better."

ISU's suffocating 2-3 zone left Minnesota reaching for a countermove all afternoon. Go inside and risk a block by Homan. Go outside and take your chances behind the arc, where the Gophers shot a woeful 5-of-23. Go to the line, and the numbers aren't much better: 6-for-10, including misses on the front ends of three consecutive one-and-ones while Iowa State opened a six-point lead with 3:39 left in the first. "Let's be honest," Minnesota coach Dan Monson chirped, "we haven't won a lot of games this year because we were comfortable offensively." Gophers guard, and Charlotte-native, Vincent Grier, who had expected 50-75 of his own fans to turn out in support, couldn't make much of the friendly confines. After averaging 21.7 points in the past 10 games, Stinson managed only eight points on 4-of-11 shooting against the fearsome Minnesota zone. "We haven't played a lot of zone," he said, "and they cut off the back door."

Player Who Impressed Me

Stinson and his team-leading 17.3 ppg might be the attraction, but Clark is clearly the show. Just a freshman, this 6-6 swingman from Queens had mouths at Charlotte Coliseum agape after turning a Will Blalock miss into a one-handed dunk in the second half. In the first half, he took a cross-court pass from Homan right-to-left down the baseline for a reverse layup. Negatives? He leaves his feet a lot -- something I'm sure he is reminded of at every opportunity by Iowa State coaches -- but he got away with it against the Gophers. When he went airborne on Friday, good things happened.

Courtside Confidential

During a ho-hum noon shootaround Thursday, one Iowa State player made the biggest impression: center Aaron "Big A" Agnew. Two dunks by this 6-10, 385-pound freshman rocked one of the arena's hoops so forcefully, the shot clock (held aloft by nothing more than a single chain tethered to a speaker cluster on the ceiling and propped up at the bottom by a pole) shorted out.

Coliseum maintenance workers swiftly to remedied the problem, only to see it recur five minutes into the second half, stopping play with the Cyclones leading 39-30. Agnew couldn't hide his fascination with his handiwork in the huddle, during the official timeout staring up at the defective goal with the unsuspecting look of a boy who had just smashed a baseball through his next-door neighbor's window.

Championship Formula

Friday's win makes 11 in the past 14 for Iowa State, and they show no signs of slowing down. Their entire offense is predicated on the pace of Stinson and Blalock in the backcourt. Where they got themselves into trouble against Minnesota was in the turnover department. Seven of the team's 13 turnovers were committed by Stinson and Blalock. Against 11 assists, those numbers look out of sorts for an Iowa State team that boasted a Big 12-leading plus-4.45 turnover margin this season. Still, if the Gophers could have mustered a shooting effort better than Friday's 33.3 percent (to say nothing of their 1-of-7 effort from 3), the outcome could have been much different.

So how, then, does one go about slowing the Cyclones? Bait them into some fouls. The refs called 17 against them the entire game, with the Gophers hosting a total of 10 times from the line. The Cyclones don't have much of a bench (freshman Tasheed Carr is often the first and only option) so foul trouble -- any foul trouble -- doesn't bode well for this unit's cohesiveness on either end.

But in the meantime, the defense rests. "Coach Morgan told us to enjoy this one for a little bit," Staple said, "but we still have a lot of work left."