Randy Peterson
|
February 27, 2025
It’s time for a shakeup with Iowa State men’s basketball. Yeah, with just three regular season games remaining before knowing the three other teams (along with Houston) with coveted Big 12 tournament double-byes – it’s time to try something different.
Instead of lackadaisical ball-handling while losing two games in a row, how about returning to 40 minutes of greatness during Saturday’s 8 p.m., game against Arizona at Hilton Coliseum?
And instead of injuries and sickness that certainly have taken a toll on a team that can still return to the NCAA Tournament Final Four conversation – play the rest of the season with a roster full of healthy players.
Shake it up like that, and see how that affects Saturday’s revenge game against the Wildcats, how it plays out at home against BYU on March 4, and then at Kansas State on March 8. It beats what’s happened during three of the past four halves.
Matching the season-high of 18 turnovers -- on 25% of a team’s possessions -- won’t cut it, even against a bad team, and if you don’t believe it, replay Tuesday’s 74-68 loss at Oklahoma State.
I mean, 11 turnovers while trailing by 14 points at halftime – and 24 Cowboys points off turnovers during the entire game? No wonder the Cyclones lost a game they should have won.
Sure, Tamin Lipsey is trying to be a difference-maker despite a bum right thumb. Ditto Keshon Gilbert missing his second game in a row with a muscle strain, the hand surgery that sidelined Milan Momcilovic seven games, and Curtis Jones returning from a virus.
Those are factors, but not reasons for the turnover average increasing from 10.6 when this team was very good, to 14.2 the past six games.
We’ve seen this team be very good. We’ve seen it be not so good. What we see Saturday against an opponent that needed a beyond halfcourt basket during an overtime Cyclones loss in Tucson Jan. 27.
“Unacceptable on our end to not come out and be the tougher, more physical, more aggressive team,” coach T.J. Otzelberger told John Walters on the radio. “We expect more, we demand more, and we will bring more.
“That won’t happen again. We’re going to come out and have great practices . . . and come out and be great Saturday.”
**
Late-week timeout meanderings while waiting for Iowa State to start playing again, like it played when winning 15 of its first 16 games.
UNDER 16: To be surprised by the recent men’s basketball happenings, is to forget history.
Under Otzelberger, Iowa State has actually lost as many February games as it’s won. Over the last three-plus seasons, the Cyclones are 16-16 in February, including 4-4 this season.
In March under T.J., they’ve recovered to the tune of 11-8, they
have a Big 12 tournament title, three NCAA Tournaments, and two Sweet 16s.
Again, March starts on Saturday.
** UNDER 12: Iowa State could use more than points from Momcilovic.
The Cyclones’ 6-foot-8 perimeter mismatch is a 40% three-point shooter. He draws opponent bigs from the basket. When he’s open around the top of the key and especially in the corner – pull.
Tuesday, for instance, he appeared open on at least two late-game possessions, where instead of shooting, he passed.
“From my vantage point, the more he can hunt, the better we’ll be,” Otzelberger said after an earlier-season game.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Iowa State was outscored 36-28 in the paint – an area where the Cyclones once flourished.
** UNDER 8: This is a big weekend for greatness inside Hilton Coliseum.
Saturday, Iowa State will honor former lottery pick Tyrese Haliburton. Sunday, it’s Emily Ryan’s turn.
Haliburton, who played for the Cyclones two seasons before heading to the NFL in 2020, won a Gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He’s now a member of the Indiana Pacers.
And if you even passively followed my writing during an earlier life, you know how I feel about the women’s program’s mainstay -- the glue that holds Bill Fennelly’s program together on and off the court.
That’d be Emily Ryan, finally a senior who will be playing her final home game Sunday against 14-ranked Kansas State at 3 p.m. It will be her 149th career game, second only to Cyclone Ashley Joens' 158 games.
Furthermore, Ryan’s four assists in Tuesday’s win at UCF moved her to 958 for her spectacular career, No. 1 by active players nationally.
Off the floor, when players from Iowa State’s 2023 conference tournament title team were defecting, Ryan, despite eligibility remaining, stood loyal.
“I couldn’t imagine not being a Cyclone,” Ryan told me a while back after a practice. "Having an opportunity to play with this team is something I've been looking forward to for a while."
The following season, she was the leader of possibly the youngest of all the teams Fennelly has coached.
“She’s kind of become the point-guard coach,” Fennelly once said. “You can tell when she’s playing, there’s a calming effect that she provides. She understands what we want to do, and what we need to do. She puts other people in a better position.”
She’ll be a coach someday. Hopefully someday also, she’ll watch as her jersey is hoisted in Hilton Coliseum’s rafters.
** UNDER 4: And as for the men’s quest for a conference tournament double-bye . . . .
There’s four teams fighting for the final three spots behind Houston, which has already clinched the regular-season title – Arizona (13-4), Texas Tech (12-5), Iowa State (11-6) and BYU (11-6), and possibly even Kansas (10-7).
The Cyclones still must play Arizona and BYU – both at home. A nice and immediate season-finishing winning streak certainly would help.
(Award-winning columnist Randy Peterson can be, and has been, reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)