Iowa State women hoping Emily Ryan is back on the court Wednesday

AMES — Iowa State might get all-time assists leader Emily Ryan back for Wednesday’s game against BYU.

But the Cyclones’ standout point guard’s status remains up in the air as she recovers from a recent illness.

ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly said Ryan — who sat out Saturday’s loss at No. 16 West Virginia — planned to practice Tuesday in hopes of playing against the Cougars (10-7, 1-5).

Tipoff’s set for 6:30 p.m. And whether the fifth-year senior’s available or not, the Cyclones (13-7, 4-3 Big 12) face a critical stretch of games that could nudge them off the NCAA tournament bubble — either positively or negatively.

“If she feels OK, she’ll give it a shot tomorrow,” Fennelly said. “The good news is, she’s gonna give it a shot (in practice) and she feels a lot better, so we’re definitely trending in the right direction.”

ISU will play three of its next four games at home. A matchup with UCF (7-10, 0-7) on Saturday follows the BYU game, and then the Cyclones travel to No. 10 Kansas State (19-1, 7-0) next Thursday before returning to Hilton to face ninth-ranked TCU (19-1, 7-0) three days later.

So ISU’s squarely positioned to greatly enhance or diminish its current tournament resume — and ESPN women’s basketball analyst currently has the Cyclones as one of the last four teams in.

“Just having the opportunity to play anyone at home, having them come here and play against a tough crowd, a tough environment, so we’re excited,” said ISU’s Addy Brown, who’s averaging 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the past two games. “Two games we feel like we should get the win, and we can beat anybody here, it doesn’t natter who you are. We’re gonna protect our home court, so we’re excited for the opportunity.”

Facing the Mountaineers’ without Ryan forced the Cyclones to test the mettle of some of their less experienced players. Fennelly said true freshmen guards Reagan Wilson and Aili Tanke played with toughness and resiliency, and backup center Alissa Williams shined on both ends of the floor when star post Audi Crooks needed a breather.

“That was encouraging that we had some players who were not ‘ones’ that we’ve especially counted on for a lot of minutes and production to all plays really well,” said Fennelly, who’s guided ISU to the NCAA tournament 22 times in his 29-plus seasons. “The term I use with our players a lot is, ‘Are you interested or are you invested?’ Are you gonna compete? And when it doesn’t go well for you, are you gonna pout, make excuses, whatever? Or are you just gonna say, ‘I’m competing. I’m doing the best I can. I’m trying to do what I (can) to help the team?’ It sounds really simple but are you justly gonna compete when it’s not going well? Sometimes that just doesn’t happen, and it especially doesn’t happen for a young player.”

But it has occurred among Fennelly’s least experienced players, which bodes well for the future — whether that’s Wednesday or Saturday, or much further down the road when Ryan’s exhausted her eligibility.

“She’s not gonna be here next year, so we’ve got to get used to playing without her, which sucks, but it’s kind of how it goes,” Brown said. “We’ll learn from that and we’ll be excited to get her back whenever that is and we’ll go from there.”

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