The Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team represents Iowa State University (ISU) and competes in the Big 12 Conference of NCAA Division I. The team is coached by Bill Fennelly, who is in his 28th year at Iowa State. The Cyclones play their home games at Hilton Coliseum on Iowa State's campus.

The 2013 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was played from March 23 through April 9, 2013. Tennessee continued its streak of making every NCAA women's basketball tournament at 32 consecutive appearances. Kansas made the regional semifinals for the second year in a row as a double-digit seed, UConn made it into the Final Four for the sixth consecutive year, the longest such streak, and Louisville became the first team seeded lower than fourth in a region to advance to the championship game. For the first time in tournament history, the same four teams were #1 seeds as in the previous year.