AMES – Iowa State women’s basketball player Aili Tanke was walking up the ramp at Hilton Coliseum following Sunday’s practice when she bumped into Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly.

Fennelly, who was getting ready to hop in his car, asked Tanke if she was ready for her first collegiate game on Monday.

“I was like, ‘Yeah’ and he was like, ‘Well, good, because you’re starting,’” Tanke said. “My mouth just dropped. I didn’t even think I said anything.”

Tanke was one of the stars of Iowa State’s first show Monday. The former Johnston standout scored 12 points and grabbed three rebounds as the ninth-ranked Cyclones beat Chicago State 96-56 in their season-opening victory at Hilton Coliseum.

“I thought she was fantastic,” Fennelly said.

Tanke, a 5-foot-11 freshman guard, has been that way ever since she stepped foot on campus. She was impressive in workouts leading up to the season. Tanke then turned in a strong showing by tallying 11 points off the bench in Iowa State’s exhibition win over Central.

Fennelly has praised Tanke’s basketball IQ and ability to be in the right spot at the right time. He also loves the consistency she brings to practice. All that factored into her locking up the last remaining starting spot alongside Audi Crooks, Emily Ryan, Arianna Jackson and Addy Brown.

“She just knows what she can do and I think she’s really comfortable playing with the other four that have a little experience,” Fennelly said.

Tanke got the starting nod over some more experienced players. She said she was shocked when Fennelly broke the news to her on Sunday.

“It kind of felt like a dream,” Tanke said. “I honestly didn’t believe it. Like, I was scared to tell people because I was like, what if I just imagined it?”

It was real, though. And Tanke made the most of the opportunity. She connected on two 3-pointers in Iowa State’s 29-0 run to open the game. When it was all said and done, she shot 4-of-5 from the field including 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

“You’ve got to give her credit,” Fennelly said. “When you’re a freshman and you start in this environment, you never know how it’s going to go, and she played really, really well and really smart. And I thought for her first college game, was one that was really good.”

Addy Brown starts strong in season opener

With most of the attention on Crooks this season, Brown has managed to fly under the radar. The sophomore was one of Iowa State’s top contributors last season but was left off the preseason All-Big 12 team and didn’t garner much of the spotlight during the offseason.

“If we didn’t have Audi Crooks, Addy Brown would get all that attention,” Fennelly said. “She is as skilled and as talented as any player at her position in the country.”

Brown showed off that versatile skillset Monday when she filled the stat sheet with a game-high 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists. More performances like that should generate more attention for Brown, who has used any offseason snubbing to her advantage.

“I kind of like it that way,” Brown said. “I think it motivates me.”

Crooks finished with 16 points and four rebounds.

Fennelly still figuring out minutes and rotations

Fennelly was able to unload his entire bench during the win over Chicago State. That was the plan. Fennelly had planned to not play anyone more than 24 minutes and get at least 13-14 minutes for everyone. It’s his way of giving everyone on the roster opportunities to make compelling cases for playing time.

But with so many players making the most of those chances early on, Fennelly said he isn’t quite ready to start cutting down on playing time. He said playing time will sort itself out as the season goes along and the games get tougher.

“We have a very skilled team,” Fennelly said. “It’s one of the more skilled teams that we’ve had here when you look at one through 12.”

Taulelei nears debut

Iowa State center/forward Lilly Taulelei may be close to making her Cyclones debut. Taulelei, a transfer from UMass, has been dealing with a sprained ankle. She didn’t suit up for Iowa State’s exhibition game or the season opener.

But Taulelei did go through a 45-minute individual workout prior to Monday’s game. Fennelly said she could suit up for Thursday’s game against Indiana State.

“She’s close,” Fennelly said. “That’ll be nice to have another body in the post.”

Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole.

The early action Monday has been in currencies as the dollar took a knock from a new poll in Iowa showing Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris leading Republican Donald Trump. That was enough to see the dollar down 0.9% on the yen and 0.6% on the euro, while the trade-sensitive Aussie bounced 0.8%.

Analysts tend to assume Trump’s policies on immigration, tariffs and tax cuts would put a lot more upward pressure on the U.S. dollar and yields, than a Harris victory.

Of particular note was the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll which surprised everyone by showing Harris up 3 points on Trump in the state, a major shift from a few weeks ago. This poll has a very good track record and is considered a bellwether for votes across the swing states.

“Since last week, Harris is seeing a boost in the polls, highlighted by the Selzer Poll of Iowa where some are using as a proxy for performance among the Blue Wall battleground states (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin),” JPMorgan said in a note.

Betting site PredictIT showed Harris at 53 cents to Trump on 51 cents – what investors are willing to wager for a chance to win $1 – compared to 42 cents to 61 cents just a week ago.

The average of opinion polls is still too close to call and it’s quite possible the result of the vote may not be known on Wednesday. In 2020, for instance, Pennsylvania was not called until the Saturday after the election. There could also be court challenges to results which might drag on for weeks.

Markets assume the Federal Reserve will go ahead and cut rates on Thursday no matter the outcome, with futures implying a 98% chance of 25 basis points. They are also pricing an 80% probability of another quarter point in December, though that could easily change depending on who becomes president-elect.

The Bank of England is also expected to cut by a quarter point on Thursday, while the Riksbank is seen easing by 50 basis points. Norges Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) are seen on hold this week.

The other market mover on Monday was oil, which bounced 1.4% or so after OPEC+ said on Sunday it would delay a planned December output hike by one month. This was the second time it has extended a 2.2 million bpd cut and only goes to show how worried they are about global demand.

Asia in particular has been weak with crude imports in the first 10 months of the year down 200,000 bpd from the same period in 2023, according to LSEG data.

Key developments that could influence markets on Monday:

Story Continues

The Iowa pollster who surprised pundits and politicians alike over the weekend with a poll showing Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in the state said the poll was indicative of a modern reality: abortion has rallied Democrats.

J. Ann Selzer, whose pre-election polls have long predicted the eventual result in Iowa, said on MSNBC‘s The Weekend that she didn’t have “as much data as we might like about why this is happening,” referring to the Des Moines Register poll that showed Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points. However, she said, the data was consistent with the reporting the paper’s political reporters pursued throughout the election.

“Our consensus from the reporters who work this beat is that the abortion ban went into effect this past summer,” Selzer said, according to the Daily Mail. “I think it has gotten people interested in voting.”

Selzer, who has been described as the “best pollster in politics,” acknowledged that voters could swing toward Trump on Election Day, but she had personally seen less Trump signs than in 2020.

The poll was widely derided by Republicans, chief among them Trump. “All polls, except for one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it totally wrong the last time, have me up, BY A LOT,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I LOVE THE FARMERS, AND THEY LOVE ME.”

An Emerson College poll did show Trump up by 10 points in Iowa, and a New York Times/Siena poll showed the two deadlocked across various swing states, signifying a historically close election—with a potential for a number of surprises.