OMAHA, Neb. — Iowa State “chief energy officer” Conrad Hawley locked eyes with Keshon Gilbert and nodded emphatically. Gilbert — the Cyclones’ standout junior guard — nodded back and said, “I know, I know.”
Gilbert had just completed a 3-point play Saturday against Washington State and it fueled a second-half run that helped propel ISU to a 67-56 second-round NCAA tournament victory over the Cougars at CHI Health Center Arena.
But what did Hawley — a reserve who rarely plays while still playing a vital role on the team — say to him?
“I just said that he’s that guy,” Hawley said. “He’s one of the best players in the country and it’s my job to have his back.”
Yeah, Gilbert knows.
“It was just a great feeling, honestly,” said Gilbert, who was one of four players to score in double figures for the Cyclones, who advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years. “Conrad’s always there for me whenever my head’s down, or I’m not feeling confident. He’s always there to remind me you’re doing this and you’re good at it, so do what you do. Just a great feeling in the moment.”
Gilbert didn’t score a point after that play with 16:03 remaining, but fellow guards Tamin Lipsey and Curtis Jones calmly drained 3-pointers moments later to give ISU (29-7) a two-possession lead that it would eventually extend into double digits five minutes later on forward Tre King’s steal and short turnaround jumper in transition.
Lipsey led the Cyclones with 15 points and Jones added 14 off the bench. Gilbert and freshman forward Milan Momcilovic added 10 points apiece — and all of the latter’s points came after halftime.
“I’ve definitely grown throughout the year,” said Momcilovic, who went 4-for-5 from the field in the second half after missing all five of his shots before the break. “I feel like I maybe would have shut down a little bit and not been as aggressive back then, but definitely I grew and I learned. I’ve just got to stay aggressive and keep shooting because my teammates at halftime were like, ‘You’ve gotta keep shooting.’”
So he did. But so did Lipsey, who sank two challenging stepback 3-pointers in the second half, but never flashed the “three sign” with his hand, or strutted down the floor. Instead, the sophomore standout appreciatively turned to face the throng of ISU fans who packed the arena, remembering that not long ago he would have been one of them.
“I was stoked inside and obviously just turned to the crowd and sort of looked at them while I was getting back,” said the Ames native, who now owns a 27-to-4 assists-to-turnover margin in this postseason that will now wind through Boston. “The excitement they had on their faces just pushed me to keep going, really.”
The Cyclones struggled early, sinking just one of their first 14 field goal attempts — a Jones 3-pointer — and trailed by as many as eight points in the first half. ISU finally discovered some offense when Gilbert and Lipsey drove and finished strong at the rim, scoring a combined 14 consecutive points to help their team even the score at 27-27 at halftime.
“Those are two of the best guards in the nation right now,” said senior big man Robert Jones, who helped cap the triumph with a fastbreak dunk with 26 seconds left. “They control the tempo well on the offensive end. They get after it on the defensive end. They’re really the head of the snake right now and we’re feeding off their energy.”
The Cyclones are tapping into their big crowds, too, starting at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center, which has long been dubbed “Hilton South,” and continuing through CHI Health Center Arena, a.k.a “Hilton West.”
“It’s a testament to our fan base and the way they show up from us,” ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We go from at home — without losing, we go to Hilton South, Hilton West, and hopefully we’ve got Hilton East, still coming up soon.”
The Cyclones will play third-seeded Illinois on Thursday at the TD Garden. They haven’t reached the Elite Eight since 2000 and their last and only Final Four trip came in 1944. But history — or a relative lack of it — doesn’t faze ISU. Just ask Gilbert, who transferred in from UNLV and is determined to extend his team’s tournament run beyond Boston.
“I want to go further,” he said in the locker room. “That’s really it.”
