Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger calls for a time-out during the second over-time against BYU in the Big-12 men’s basketball in the Senior Day at Hilton Coliseum on March 4, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES — T.J. Otzelberger’s aware of the speculation.
Iowa State’s head coach knows some question the toll his trademark taxing practices can have on his players — especially as the stakes grow higher in March.
But the answer to his team’s inconsistent play the past month and a half isn’t to ease up. If anything, the No. 10 Cyclones’ drill sessions are ramping up in intensity as they seek to finish the regular season with a win at 12:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS) at Kansas State.
“Competitive is, do it in practice, non stop, and demand that there’s only one way that we do everything,” Otzelberger said of his team (22-8, 12-7), which seeks to avoid a regular-season sweep by the mercurial Wildcats (15-15, 9-10). “So that practice time truly is gold, especially in March.”
Tuesday’s double overtime loss to No. 25 BYU at home served as exhibit A for ISU’s ongoing issue with inconsistent play. The Cyclones’ defense stifled the Cougars early, leading to a nine-point lead that should have been larger. Then chronic offensive struggles led to lengthy lapses on defense which allowed BYU to build a 21-point second-half lead. ISU finally refocused and used suffocating ball pressure to produce 29 turnovers to get back in the game, but couldn’t seal the deal.
Otzelberger said fatigue is not the problem. An occasional lack of mental toughness — especially when offensive lulls mushroom into defensive deficiencies— is.
“Then you get distracted from how you built to that point, which is guard the basketball, be tough, get in transition, get easy baskets, get offensive rebounds,” said Otzelberger, whose team is 7-6 in its past 13 games. “So I think at times we get distracted from what the main thing is.”
And fixating on sometimes gaudy offensive stat lines ain’t it. The Cyclones rank 27th in adjusted offensive efficiency according to KenPom this season — a vast improvement over their production in Otzelberger’s three seasons — but trying to simply outshoot foes isn’t how his teams reached the Sweet 16 twice in his first three seasons.
Fun — a.k.a. “fierce urgency now” — underpins success in ISU’s mettle-driven program.
“It’s still about winning the possession game, be the mentally tougher more together team, and then, look, this time of the year, part of that is have fun,” Otzelberger said. “But you have fun by doing those things, right?”
Affirmative, his All-Big 12 junior point guard Tamin Lipsey said.
“I feel like we need that competitive practice,” said the Cyclones’ all-time steals leader, who’s been playing with a broken thumb. “We need to get up and down, get used to that playing, because rebounding and transition defense is what we need to focus on.”
That’s true in both good times and challenging ones. Nothing changes in terms of preparation for ISU — and when the going gets tough, the practices get tougher.
“It’s getting down to the end of the season, the win-or-go-home games,” Lipsey said. “I have a lot of faith in our team and the chemistry that we have that when the big time is gonna come, we’re gonna be ready.”
And the next “big time” moment will come in the so-called “Little Apple” of Manhattan, Kansas. The Cyclones lost by 19 points to the Wildcats at home five weeks ago and have been up and down ever since.
“It really comes down to your mental toughness and competitive endurance,” Otzelberger said. “When you do (that) the consistency comes for you.”
