Iowa State University Cyclones guard Caleb Grill (2) takes a three-point shot over Milwaukee Panthers guard Angelo Stuart (5) during the second half at Hilton Coliseum Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Ames, Iowa. Photo by Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune
A seismic wave sounded across the world of Iowa State basketball on Wednesday when it was announced senior guard Caleb Grill has been removed from the program for conduct detrimental to the team.
We will not speculate on Grill’s dismissal here without more details, but there is no doubt this has a significant impact on the Cyclones’ next several weeks from an on-court basketball perspective.
Iowa State has now lost its best sharpshooter as Grill knocked down a team-high 36.8 percent of his shots from deep this season. Although, he connected on only six of his last 27 attempts (22 percent) from deep while battling his lingering back injury suffered against Texas.
Losing Grill will put even more pressure on Gabe Kalscheur and Jaren Holmes to lead the Iowa State offense on a nightly basis as they look to complete their regular season on Saturday against Baylor and heading into next week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
The biggest issue Grill’s dismissal could cause is in Iowa State’s general depth. The Cyclones go from having four proven commodity guards in Grill, Kalscheur, Holmes and Tamin Lipsey to only three plus Aljaz Kunc, who stands as more of a hybrid guard/forward.
Iowa State’s downturn does coincide with Grill’s injury as Iowa State’s won only three of its 12 games since beating Texas in Ames on Jan. 17 when Grill scored 17 points and hit three 3-pointers.
It is safe to assume there is a lot more to this story, especially when you consider Grill’s well-documented relationship with head coach T.J. Otzelberger, who recruited Grill to South Dakota State and then to UNLV before returning to Ames.
We already have seen how Grill’s absence has impacted this team over the past month and a half, but we’re about to find out how his total removal from the situation impacts things even further. It is hard to know how that will truly impact the team until we see them back in action on Saturday.
Grill gave Iowa State fans some incredible highs this season with his thrilling performance against No. 1 at the time North Carolina and his hot-shooting display to open Big 12 play. These last few weeks have been full of lows as he battled injury and received crucial technical fouls against both Oklahoma State and West Virginia in home losses.
As of now, we only know two things: Otzelberger will speak more about this with the media on Thursday and Grill will never play for Iowa State again.
