Mar 16, 2024; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones forward Milan Momcilovic (22) attempts a three-point shot while defended by Houston Cougars guard Jamal Shead (1) in the first half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Amy Kontras-USA TODAY Sports
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic sat down, sighed, and attempted to clear his head.
The Cyclones had just lost, 65-58, last Saturday at Kansas State and Momcilovic tried to process what went wrong as the regular season slammed shut with a resounding thud.
“I had zero points,” Momcilovic said. “My first zero-point game I’ve ever had in my career. So I just sat down and I was like, ‘I’ve gotta turn this around. My team needs me. If we’re gonna be great, I’ve gotta be great,’ so I kind of just switched it in my head and it turned out pretty well in this tournament.”
That would be the 2024 Big 12 Tournament, which Momcilovic and his ISU teammates slammed shut with a resounding victory. The 6-8 member of the conference all-freshman team scored a game-high 18 points to help spark the seventh-ranked Cyclones’ utter demolition of top-ranked Houston, 69-41, in Saturday’s title game at what’s officially known as the T-Moblie Center, which once again morphed into “Hilton South” amid a sea of cardinal and gold-clad fans.
“I expected it to be rockin’ tonight,” said transfer guard Keshon Gilbert, who added 16 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. “Shoutout to the fans. That’s all I can really say, is shoutout to the fans.”
Gilbert and the Cyclones (27-7) did all their talking on the court the past three days by blowing out the Wildcats, No. 17 Baylor and the regular season champion Cougars (30-4) by a combined 61 points en route to their first Big 12 Tournament title since 2019.
“Give our guys all the credit,” said ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team will likely be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are unveiled at 5 p.m. Sunday on CBS. “Our last regular season game felt like we weren’t as focused as we needed to be in a lot of aspects. It was great to have the opportunity to get back to the practice court where truthfully we didn’t know who we’d be playing, so that we could just focus on us — especially offensively.”
ISU shot 50 percent from the field against a Houston defense that was ranked No. 1 by KenPom by a fairly wide margin entering the game. Who stood at No. 2? The Cyclones — who moved into the No. 1 spot in that metric after holding the Cougars to 28.1 percent shooting in the most lopsided win over an Associated Press No. 1-ranked team since UCLA, ironically, beat Houston by 32 points in 1968.
“Obviously, the fans helped us out a ton,” said ISU sophomore point guard Tamin Lipsey, who notched nine points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals while joining Gilbert and Momcilovic on the all-tournament team. “Hilton South is definitely real and alive.”
Even venerable Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson acknowledged that in his inimitable way as the Cyclones improved to 6-for-6 in Big 12 title games in program history.
“The other games all felt like fair fights,” said Sampson, whose team went 1-2 against ISU this season. “Today didn’t seem very fair. But, again, that’s all kudos to Iowa State’s fans. They’re always going to have — did I see somewhere where they were 5-0 in championship games? Well, correct that, will you? (It’s now) 6-0. Good chance it’s going to be 7-0 (in the future). They’re pretty good.”
Great, even. Just ask Momcilovic, whose confidence never wavered even as he searched for answers to his late-season shooting slump that’s now a vestige of the past.
“Big-time players make big-time shots,” he said earlier this season.
And Saturday — before the confetti enveloped him within colorful columns — he drilled four 3-pointers in a game for the first time since Thanksgiving. He hit three long-range baskets for the first time in a month and a half in Friday’s semifinal win over Baylor, which means, in essence, that he’s fully back.
“It means a lot to me because obviously it’s on (a big) stage versus the No. 1 team in the country and we beat them by almost 30,” Momcilovic said. “It just felt really good to knock those shots down, just because I’d been struggling for so long. I always knew I had confidence, my teammates had confidence, my coaches — even the fans had confidence in me. I knew it would come along. The last two games it kind of came along and it’s still gonna come along here moving forward.”
