Tamin Lipsey is already noticing a difference.
After only a few days of Iowa State’s summer workout program, the infusion of talent via the transfer portal and a highly-touted recruiting class has made its mark in practices.
“They’re all dogs,” Lipsey said of the newcomers on Wednesday. “Everyone’s coming in to compete. No one’s taking it easy. We’re going at each other every day. It’s been really intense, really physical. A lot of fun. We got a lot of guys that can score the ball. So that makes it more fun.”
Lipsey and head coach T.J. Otzelberger have especially noticed the additional playmaking brought by the newcomers. The Cyclones will play this season with at least three guys who consider themselves to be lead guard type of players.
Hopefully, that will take pressure off of Lipsey’s shoulders to make plays for everyone for 40 minutes. It will also give him the opportunity to play off the ball more than he did during his stellar freshman campaign.
“Well, what’s important is when you have multiple guys that can make plays that can dribble, pass and shoot, open up the floor, attack the close out, it doesn’t put as much pressure on one guy,” Otzelberger said. “Tamin will also be at his best playing with more guys, somebody else that can push the ball, somebody else that can lead the break, someone else that can be the one that made the play, because it’s a lot to make so many plays over the course of a 40 minute game. It’s been great to have multiple options, multiple guys out there. We’ve got at least three that identify as a point guard or lead guard and have played that a lot which is great. We’ve got multiple guys with shot making ability and then so all of it will help us offensively for sure.”
Lipsey, who averaged 7.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game as a rookie, will be able to lean on guys like Wofford transfer Jackson Paveltezke, UNLV transfer Keshon Gilbert, Buffalo transfer Curtis Jones and freshman Jelani Hamilton, all players who fit the mold of a lead guard.
The best part is they each bring something different to the table with unique skillsets.
“We’re all different in our different types of ways,” Lipsey said. “I’d say the similar thing we have is we all can control the ball, we can all dribble the ball, which like I said earlier helps a lot with just opening up the court. They can shoot the ball really well. Jackson, Milan, he’s shooting the ball at a high clip right now so that’s exciting to see and then Curtis can shoot the ball and just the playmaking from from Keshon and all the other guards coming in is awesome.”
