Mar 21, 2025; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Iowa State Cyclones guard Curtis Jones (5) celebrates after a play during the second half of a first round NCAA men’s tournament game against the Lipscomb Bisons at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
MILWAUKEE — The scar tissue has healed, forming a hard-earned callous on the once sizable chip that protrudes from Curtis Jones’ shoulder.
The Iowa State senior guard’s journey from wholly overlooked Cretin-Durham High School (Minn.) standout to go-to and always green-lit shooting star in cardinal and gold is so well-documented, it feels like yesterday’s news; a vestige of a bygone era divorced from his current opportunity-filled NCAA Tournament reality.
“It’s definitely a thing of the past, but it’s always to be remembered, you know what I’m saying?” said Jones, who seeks to lead ISU (25-9) to a second-round tournament win over 6-seed Ole Miss (23-11) at 6:45 p.m. Sunday (TruTV) at the Fiserv Forum. “I ain’t never gonna forget it. I’m just happy, man. I feel blessed, grateful to just be here and get this experience — because if you look at where I was then, this just doesn’t happen.”
A stint at Indian Hills Community College opened up a Division I shot at Buffalo. Two seasons as a Bull attracted Cyclone head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s interest, and now the 6-4, 195-pound Jones’ scoring efforts often mirror ISU’s overall results.
The Cyclones have won 40 games when he scores in double figures in the past two seasons and dropped just 11 when he gets 10 or more.
As his stroke goes — from deep beyond the 3-point line to floaters in a tightly-packed lane — so go the Cyclones to a large degree.
“I saw Curt play in high school (while) recruiting teammates of his,” ISU assistant coach Kyle Green said. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a guy improve that much physically, emotionally, (with) confidence. It’s amazing. Even the time he’s been here, the first 10-15 games he was good. Then he kept taking steps. Then he had a huge NCAA Tournament last year. The confidence grew from there and in the moments, he’s always able to step up and kind of lift his game.”
Jones and the Cyclones may require a bit more runway to achieve similar lift against the Rebels, who built a 22-point lead on blue-blood No. 11 seed North Carolina in the first round before rebuffing a late rally to secure a 71-64 win.
“Toughness and togetherness are two things that really stand out to me about their team,” Otzelberger said.
Ole Miss also boasts the length and athleticism that can give the Cyclones fits. Leading scorer Sean Pedulla can slice through defenses for layups while shooting 39 percent from 3-point range. Gifted 6-9 forward Malik Dia can knock down long-range shots to augment his ability to control the paint on both ends of the floor.
“He looks pretty tough,” Cyclone junior forward Joshua Jefferson said. “Definitely a strong, physical player. Watching some film this morning, looks like he wants to get to his spots and use his body to his advantage, so we’re just going to try to match our physicality with his as much as we can.”
Dia expects a similar but even more wide-ranging challenge from Jefferson.
“(He) can score the ball, pass, assist, rebound,” Dia said. “Really good player.”
Both teams are replete with them — and Jones feels poised to help make the difference. He scored 26 points in ISU’s loss to Illinois in the Sweet 16 last season and averages 2.8 made 3-pointers and 1.7 steals in four career NCAA Tournament games.
“When I first saw him he was like 6-feet, 150 pounds in high school,” Green said of Jones. “He buys into the weight room and has gotten stronger, and with that comes confidence. Added stuff to his game — he’s got that mid-range, all of that’s part of his strength development as much as anything else. That leads to the confidence, and all of a sudden we’ve got this guy who’s out here scoring 20 in NCAA Tournament games.”
And doing anything else that could propel the Cyclones to the Sweet 16 for the third time in four seasons — which would be a program first in his final shot.
“I’m just gonna try to give it everything,” Jones said. “Literally everything I’ve got.”
