Inside the silence of a nearly sold-out Hilton Coliseum, the Iowa State men’s basketball team and its legion of fans learned once again how fragile dreams can be. On the first day of December, many, no doubt, wondered if their season full of aspiration came to a grinding halt against a team from the Summit League.
Then, a few minutes later, Georges Niang returned from the locker room, checked into the game and ended the worst ISU injury scare since he broke his foot in the 2014 NCAA tournament.
The crisis was averted and an 84-64 win over North Dakota State was eventually achieved on Tuesday night for the fifth-ranked Cyclones.