Dec 6, 2025; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Iowa State Cyclones guard Tamin Lipsey (3) dribbles the ball during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images
AMES — Name a part of the human body’s musculoskeletal system.
Iowa State’s record-setting senior point guard Tamin Lipsey’s probably hurt one of them — and often more than once.
“The type of player I am, I’m gonna try to fight through any bumps and bruises that I have,” the 6-1 Ames native said on media day.
Lipsey always wins those tendon-testing battles. Eventually, anyway. Now he’s back in the No. 4 Cyclones’ starting lineup for the second straight time after missing three games because of a groin injury — and the opponent just happens to be Cy-Hawk rival Iowa (8-1).
The Hawkeyes — perched one spot out of the top 25 — will tip off against the Cyclones (9-0) at 7 p.m. Fans can watch it on ESPN, unless they’re part of the riled-up throng of 14,267 occupying every seat at Hilton Coliseum.
“I’m excited for all the guys (who) haven’t gotten to experience (Hilton) for real yet,” said Lipsey, who scored nine points and dished out a season-high eight assists in ISU’s stunning 81-58 win Sunday at then-No. 1 Purdue. “Obviously, we’ve had some home games, but when you get to one of these, it’s gonna be a lot different. And I feel like I can tell them what it’s gonna be like, but they’ve just got to wait until they step onto the court and get to experience it.”
That’s “Hilton Magic” — and it’s served the Cyclones will in these Cy-Hawk matchups. ISU’s won 10 of the past 11 home meetings with Iowa, but neither team has won more that three games in a row in the series since the Hawkeyes strung together five-straight Cy-Hawk victories in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And first-year Iowa head coach Ben McCollum has instilled a hard-nosed philosophy into his team, which is ranked 33rd nationally in defensive efficiency, per Ken Pom, after languishing at 167th in that area last season.
“They do a great job of helping in the gaps,” said ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team seeks its third straight Cy-Hawk meeting. “We call it raking, where once you commit to the drive, they really come over and try to be impactful to keep it out of the paint. Their ball screen defense, they really try to work — if you’re trying to get downhill — to put two bodies in front of you, (and) if you drag the screen out laterally, they’ll recover. So they do a lot of things to disrupt your rhythm, to disrupt your offense.”
That’s been extremely difficult to do against the Cyclones’ offense, which is ranked sixth nationally in efficiency. ISU’s allowed nine to 10 players to log minutes each game, as its headliners Milan Momcilovic (18.3 points per game), Joshua Jefferson (17.6 points), and Lipsey (16.8 points) mesh with rising stars such as Killyan Toure, Jamarion Batemon, and Blake Buchanan, along with key role players like Nate Heise, Dominick Nelson, and Dominykas Pleta, among others.
“We love playing these games, in this type of environment,” said Toure, a long and athletic 6-3 freshman guard from France who ranks second on the team in dunks with nine. “So that’ll be a fun game. Yeah, just ready to play, man.”
So is Lipsey, who knows time isn’t the only thing that’s healed his multiple wounds as a Cyclone. Wisdom is equally important.
“T.J. and I made an emphasis coming into this year — they just want me to be healthy every time I step on the court,” said Lipsey, who spent most of the summer rehabilitating from a MCL injury. “He didn’t want me to go out and play against Purdue, even though he knew I really wanted to; if I wasn’t healthy, he wasn’t gonna let me.”
Fortunately for the Cyclones, he was (and is). But even when Lipsey’s unable to stand on the court, his leadership stands out.
“When he has something happen, he stays so engaged with the team,” Otzelberger said. “He’s so engaged in every huddle. He does all the extra conditioning, everything you can do in the training room, so (when) he is out for a little bit, he’s able to come right back in seamlessly. It’s not to ease back into it, it’s not a now we’ve got to work back up to it (situation), and I think that’s a credit to the work he does on the things he can control in those moments, and then staying connected to the team.”
