It's become the norm in Ames under head coach TJ Otzelberger...Iowa State is heading back to the NCAA Tournament.

The Cyclones are returning to March Madness for the fourth time in as many years and will be the three-seed in the South Region. They open play at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 21st in the round of 64 against Lipscomb.

ISU enters this year's NCAA Tournament with a 24-9 overall record and finished fifth in the Big 12 regular season standings with a 13-7 record.

It was 12th in the most recent AP poll and as of Sunday morning sat 10th in KenPom and 11th in the NCAA Net Ranking. The Cyclones were 10-7 in Quad-1 games and 6-2 against Quad-2 opponents.

This is the 24th all-time bid to the Big Dance for Iowa State, which was the five-seed and advanced to the quarterfinals in last week's Big 12 Tournament, beating Cincinnati by 20 points in the second round before bowing out to four-seed BYU on Thursday afternoon.

In addition to being 10th in KenPom, ISU is 20th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 10th in defensive efficiency. It's defense is 14th nationally with a 21.8 turnover percentage.

The guard tandem of Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert leads the Cyclones in scoring, with the former heading into the NCAA Tournament averaging 17.1 points per game and the latter sitting at 13.4.

ISU will likely need to continue leaning heavily on Jones, who dropped 31 points in the Big 12 quarterfinals against the Cougars, as both Gilbert and Tamin Lipsey are questionable with groin injuries heading into the NCAA Tournament. Lipsey is the fifth of five players averaging in double figures with 10.8 points per game.

Forwards Joshua Jefferson (13.0) and Milan Momcilovic (11.4) also average at least 10 points per game for the Cyclones.