The No. 12 Iowa State basketball team begins the Big 12 Conference tournament with a showdown against Cincinnati on Wednesday. Iowa State is the No. 5 seed in the Big 12 and Cincinnati defeated Colorado on Tuesday to advance to the next round. Iowa State has been up-and-down to end the year, losing three of the last five games, although two of those came against Houston and BYU.

One concerning situation to monitor for Iowa State was the status of senior guard and former UNLV transfer Keshon Gilbert. Gilbert missed the Houston and Oklahoma State games and returned for two games before missing the regular-season finale against Kansas State.

Ahead of the Big 12 tournament, Gilbert was officially listed as day-to-day with a muscle strain. But just hours before tipoff, Jon Rothstein revealed that Gilbert would be playing.

“Iowa State's Keshon Gilbert (muscle strain) will be available for today's Big 12 Tournament game against Cincinnati, per a school spokesman. DNP in last game.”

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It was trending that way, with TJ Otzelberger saying Gilbert had practiced leading up to the Big 12 tournament. The Cyclones went 1-2 in the games Gilbert didn't play, so it was a tough hole to fill for the team.

Gilbert, who is in his second year with Iowa State, is averaging 13.8 points with 4.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds this season. The last game he played was on March 4 against BYU, and Gilbert scored 13 points with eight steals, three rebounds and a pair of blocks in the double-overtime loss.

On Tuesday, ESPN's Joe Lunardi updated his bracketology projections. In it, he had the Iowa State basketball team as a No. 3 seed in the East Region facing No. 14 seed Northern Colorado in the first round. Also, in that projected region is BYU, which is a No. 5 seed.

An Iowa State win on Wednesday will put them up against No. 5 seed BYU on Thursday, a team the Cyclones just lost to on March 4.