The Iowa State Cyclones have been playing college basketball since 1908 but have only become a top flight program within the last few decades. For much of the 20th century winning records were few and far between with the exception of a few successful seasons during the WW II years. The Cyclones qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1944 but wouldn’t make the field again until the mid-1980’s. Iowa State won four conference regular season titles between 1935 and 1945, but wouldn’t win another one until 1995.
The direction of the Iowa State basketball program changed with the hiring of Johnny Orr as head coach in 1980. Orr would coach the Cyclones for well over a decade and left the program in 1994 as the school’s all time winningest basketball coach–a distinction which he still holds. Iowa State would reach the NCAA tournament 6 times during the Orr regime and he deserves the lion’s share of the credit for competitively upgrading the entire program. The Cyclones have finished under .500 only six times since Orr left the program and have not failed to win more than 10 games during a campaign.
Fred Hoiberg is the current coach of the Cyclones’ basketball team. He was hired in 2011 after the unsuccessful tenure of Greg McDermott and has never had a losing season at the school. He went 16-16 in his first year at the helm and has won 20 or more games a year ever since. In 2014, he guided the Cyclones to a 28-8 record and Iowa State advanced to the NCAA ‘Sweet 16′ before losing to Connecticut. The Cyclones finished the season as the #11 ranked team in college basketball.
Iowa State fans can find their team playing on television quite a bit. Their recent success combined with their Big 12 conference affiliation makes them a frequent choice of ESPN for live basketball broadcasts. The fact that they’re in the Midwest also has scheduling advantages for ESPN, giving them even more exposure. The Big Ten Network provides syndication services through ESPN and other broadcast affiliates to give the Cyclones even more television coverage. Fans can also watch streaming ISU basketball games online through ESPN3 and the Big 12 Digital Network.
For many Cyclones’ boosters, however, the most convenient way to keep up with their team is to watch Iowa State basketball online free of charge. There are no shortage of live streams available for just about every sport and team imaginable. To locate these streams you just need to find a live sports streaming directory such as Wiziwig, VIPBoxSports, Sportlemon or one of a number of similar services. These websites provide a very detailed list of the sports and individual games available for live streaming. Since some sites focus more on European and International sports it might take a visit to several before you locate the game you want to watch.
Many of the live streams are in Flash video format and watching them is as easy as pushing ‘play’. Other streams require a third party application (eg: StreamTorrent, Ace Stream) but the upside is the ability to deliver the Iowa State Cyclones live stream with higher quality video and audio. The Ace Stream application in particular is capable of delivering video quality equal to a high definition TV broadcast. Once you have the right software you’ll also have the option of selecting from several different stream speeds. This way you can find the stream that provides the best possible quality limited only by your individual computer set up and Internet bandwidth. Most live sports streaming websites also rate the quality of each stream which enables you to find a stream that won’t cut out or buffer excessively.
At this point there are a variety of ways to enjoy the Iowa State basketball live stream. Computer monitors keep getting bigger and bigger–it’s hard to find a new computer with a monitor smaller than 21″ these days–so you can have a good viewing experience without doing anything else. Many streams are available via smartphone or tablet but the best option available involves the use of a Roku Player, Google ChromeCast or similar set top streaming device. These devices allow you to view streams on your television set giving you the best viewing experience possible. It doesn’t get any better than being able to watch Iowa State basketball online free of charge when you want and how you want!