The 7-seed, Washington State Cougars, will face the 2-seed, Iowa State Cyclones, in the 2^nd round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in the East Region on Saturday evening in Omaha, Nebraska at the CHI Health Center Omaha with tip-off scheduled for 6:10 PM ET and will air on TNT.

The Pac-12 as a whole had an impressive showing on Thursday in the 1^st round of the NCAA Tournament improving to 4-0 in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and Washington State was one of those teams after defeating the Drake Bulldogs by a score of 66-61 on Thursday night. 

Despite letting Drake go on a 12-0 run in the 1^st half, the Cougars would answer with a 9-0 run to retake a 24-21 lead and led the game 33-29 at halftime, Drake would start the 2^nd half strong as they started on a 7-0 run after halftime which put them ahead of Washington State 36-33 and led the majority of the 2^nd half, however, after the Bulldogs would take a 54-46 lead in the 2^nd half the Cougars would cut the deficit to 1 point following a 7-0 run and would end the game having outscored Drake 8-2 in the final two minutes of the game to advance to the 2^nd round of the NCAA Tournament. 

The win was the first for the Washington State Cougars since the 2008 NCAA Tournament in which they would advance to the Sweet 16 before losing to the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Washington State Cougars will look to advance to their first Sweet 16 since the 2007-08 season when they face the Iowa State Cyclones in the 2^nd round of the tournament. 

The Iowa State Cyclones may be playing the best out of any team right now as they have dominated their opponents during their current four-game winning streak and have won by an average margin of 19.5 points per game over their last four games including a 17-point win in the 1^st round of the NCAA Tournament when they face the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Thursday. 

The game on Thursday was never in question as the Cyclones started the game on a 7-0 run and never trailed against the Jackrabbits in the game. The Iowa State Cyclones last made the Sweet 16 in the 2022 NCAA Tournament but have not advanced past the Sweet 16 since the 2000 NCAA Tournament. Iowa State has averaged 75.75 points per game during their current winning streak and has limited their opponents to 65 points or less in nine straight games. 

The Iowa State Cyclones will look to continue that trend when they face their 2^nd round opponent, the Washington State Cougars, in the 2^nd round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Saturday evening.

BetOnline has the Iowa State Cyclones listed as 7.5-point favorites against the Washington State Cougars in the 2^nd round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Saturday evening. Washington State struggled to some degree in the 1^st round of the NCAA Tournament but pulled out the win against the Drake Bulldogs after going on an 8-2 run in the last two minutes of the game to win in the 1^st round by a score of 66-61 while Iowa State has dominated in their last four games winning by an average margin of 19.5 points per game.

It would be hard to argue that a team in the NCAA Tournament is playing better than the Iowa State Cyclones are right now as they enter on a four-game winning streak and after winning the Big 12 Conference Tournament they defeated the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the 1^st round by 17 points while Washington State squeaked by with a 5-point win against the Drake Bulldogs. Buy the .5 point and lay the points with the Iowa State Cyclones when they face the Washington State Cougars on Saturday evening.