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MONDAY MUSINGS: Another milestone for Otz, WBB’s big win, John Cena & the Sun Belt

ConnorFerg, Mar 04 • 0 Comments

Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger takes to Iowa State Cyclones guard Nate Heise (0) during the second half against Arizona in the Big-12 men’s basketball showdown at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday March 1, 2025 in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It’s Monday Musings on a Tuesday, and we’ve got plenty to talk about.

Otzelberger hits another milestone

Iowa State got back on track with an 84-67 win over No. 22 Arizona on Saturday night.

The win gives T.J. Otzelberger the mark for most-career victories over top 25 teams of any coach in program history.

It’s an impressive feat, no matter where a coach may take the No. 1 spot at their respective schools, but consider how quickly Otzelberger and his team’s ascended over others in less time.

Most AP Top 25 wins (Top 5)
25 – T.J. Otzelberger (4th season)
24 – Johnny Orr (14 seasons)
23 – Fred Hoiberg (5 seasons)
17 – Steve Prohm (6 seasons)
12 – Larry Eustachy (5 seasons)

It’s just another reminder of how far Otzelberger has brought this program in a short amount of time, as is the streak of weeks staying inside the top 10, which continued Monday.

Momcilovic leads Cyclones in win over Arizona

Milan Momcilovic seemed automatic at times finishing at 50 percent from the field and hitting on four, first-half three’s.

Even a bloody nose didn’t stop Momcilovic from a 17-point, 3-assist game. There’s more chapters to write in the story, but he’s headed in the right direction since his second half in Houston.

Heise at his best

Nate Heise is playing his best ball at the perfect time.

Wrestling fans are no strangers to hearing that a team needs to ‘peak at the right time,’ and I feel that we’re seeing it with Heise here.

After reaching 10 points twice in the season prior to this stretch, Heise has recorded 11 points or more in each of the last four games.

On Saturday, he added four rebounds, a dunk and another pair of 3-pointers, along with double-digit games from both Curtis Jones and Brandt Chatfield.

Watch out, this team is 19-1 when healthy.

The women are back and we say farewell to No. 11

The Cyclone women are back. Iowa State got its first AP top 25 and quad-1 win of the season on Sunday, taking down No. 14 Kansas State in Ames.

Audi Crooks led the way with 36 points, and Iowa State effectively took itself off of the bubble in its last guaranteed chance at facing a top tier team of the season.

They’ll need to win one in Kansas City, just to feel increasingly safe and avoid a loss to a team that they should beat, but this program will be dancing again – I’m confident in saying that.

Emily Ryan celebrated her Senior Day, and I wanted to put the incredibly well done tribute video in here for everyone to see and share.

However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the day that Ryan established herself as an Iowa State great, and it didn’t include a single-game performance or anything in-season.

While Ryan was always a vocal leader in practice, she took another step when she posted that she would be staying in Ames, despite departures from a majority of her current teammates.

She had the program’s back, and they’ve had hers. It was incredibly fitting to see her play so well during her final game at Hilton. I hope to see 11 in the rafters whenever enough time has passed.

The Cyclones’ showed out at the Combine

Iowa State had maybe its best NFL Combine weekend collectively as the football staff back in Ames could have dreamed.

We have full results and clips here, but I’ll go through the highlights here.

To start things out, Darien Porter ran the third-fastest 40-yard dash of anyone at the combine, logging a 4.3.

Porter’s numbers included earning the fastest 3-cone drill time in the Combine along with the No. 2 20-yard shuttle time.

According to Kent Lee Platte’s RAS System (Relative Athletic Score), Porter performed as the No. 4 cornerback at the Combine since 1987.

Jaylin Noel may have been the story of the weekend, though.

The Iowa State wideout set the top wide receiver numbers for the bench press, vertical and broad jump, and was in the top 10 in every drill he recorded.

For all that fellow wide receiver Jayden Higgins did for himself at the Reese’s Senior Bowl, Noel may have had a similar impact this week.

Overall each of the four Cyclones that participated in most drills (Malik Verdon only did on-field drills), they each performed historically well.

Along with Porter’s No. 4 mark on that same scale, offensive lineman Jalen Travis came in at No. 14 out of 1,379 offensive tackles going back to 1987. Higgins was 46 out of 3,441 wideouts to the same date. And Jaylin Noel came in 144 in the same category.

Now, it’s just measurements and tests, but those are historically unique. They cleaned up in Indianapolis.

Speaking of Indianapolis, current Pacer Tyrese Haliburton was back in Ames with fellow former Cyclone Georges Niang to celebrate his Olympic gold medal.

The quick hits

He may have missed some big news on Saturday night, but I’m sure he’s caught up by now.

In what was probably the most shocking thing I saw over the past week, John Cena turned heel at Elimination Chamber – for the non-wrestling fans, it just means he’s the antagonist of the storyline that will unfold going towards WrestleMania.

Cena had said on record multiple times that he would never do this, and has forever been one of WWE’s ‘babyfaces’ (protagonist). Now, he finally goes to the dark side during his year-long retirement tour that will wrap up in November or December. The theater that unfolds and the possibilities with it are going to be fascinating.

If you need a better explanation, this tweet sums it up the best.

I’ve waited to include this take much of anywhere in my writing because I’m completely against what is the direct opposite to competitive spirit.

But mid-majors are up against all odds. Every win is expected, and every loss is a ‘season-ender.’ The fact that 27-3 Drake isn’t a lock – or that one of UC San Diego (26-4) & UC Irvine (25-5) will likely miss the tournament – is insane. And it doesn’t feel like expanding it would even help them get there either.

Every mid-major conference should be structuring their tournament like the Sun Belt does. Make sure your top teams have an extreme advantage, and get your ‘best’ representative into March more often than not.

Former Cyclone quarterback Hunter Dekkers was in Jon Gruden’s latest video, and touched on the gambling situation that ended his career in Ames. For those interested in his answers:

Happy March, and if you’re having a tough week, just remember Selection Sunday is less than 12 days away.

Connor Ferguson

editor

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