MANHATTAN, KS – FEBRUARY 01: Tamin Lipsey #3 of the Iowa State Cyclones shoots against P.J. Haggerty #4 of the Kansas State Wildcats in the first half at Bramlage Coliseum on February 1, 2026 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Thoughts while watching Iowa State’s largest margin of victory (ever and regardless of opponent) in a conference road game. That’d be Sunday’s 95-61 thrashing at Kansas State, in a game that may have been more dominant than the final score indicated, had coach T.J. Otzelberger not mercifully subbed throughout the game.
Five Cyclones with 11 or more points. Three with five or more assists. Seven players with at least one three-point basket. Long Iowa State scoring runs. (Enter your best snarky absurd huddle-spying remark here.)
Sunday was so Iowa State controlling that you look at the schedule and wonder just when the Cyclones will be challenged again.
A 30-point rout of Colorado last Thursday, followed by Sunday’s surprisingly easy win on the Big 12 road.
Can Otzelberger’s team beat Baylor and win on the road against TCU to be 22-2 heading into the Big 12’s toughest back-to-back – Feb. 14 against Kansas, then against Houston two nights later (both at Hilton Coliseum)?
Keep playing as it’s playing, and anything’s possible.
Three Cyclones on the all-Big 12 first team?
If you’re picking a midseason all-Big 12 men’s basketball team, could Iowa State end up with three players on the five-player first team? You certainly could make strong cases for Joshua Jefferson, Milan Momcilovic and Tamin Lipsey, but would it actually happen?
Why not, despite the high-end caliber of players in the league?
Jefferson and Momcilovic should be locks on a five-player first team that will include two other cinches – Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa.
Would Lipsey be a fifth, while unbeaten Arizona and Houston are blanked? The way he’s played this season, and especially on Sunday, certainly provides a mountain of evidence.
Lipsey had four steals, five assists, 11 points and five rebounds as the Cyclones led hot-seat Jerome Tang’s team 50-21 at the break.
That’s right, while playing 17 of the first 20 minutes, Lipsey already had what some point guards would consider a darn good 40-minute game.
The Ames native finished with 16 points, while facilitating (nine assists) an Iowa State offense that has held 30-point leads during its last four games, but there’s more.
He triggered the always-lockdown defense with four steals, and three defensive rebounds (remember, he’s the point guard).
“Lipsey has been an issue for four years,” Tang told reporters after the game. “Come on, my man is really good. He was good from Day One. You’ve seen him grow better into arguably one of the best point guards in this league.”
And if you don’t believe it – rewatch the game.
Iowa State’s end-to-end aggressiveness
That’s as real as this team re-entering the No. 1 NCAA Tournament seeding conversation.
Iowa State turned 14 Kansas State turnovers into 21 points, but that’s not the really impressive stuff. As significant, if not more, was that the Wildcats scored just six points off Cyclones turnovers.
That shows you this team takes care of the ball, sure, but it also proves just how dedicated it is to getting back quickly on defense.
That’s been an Otzelberger mantra since making this program relevant four-plus seasons ago.
A funny Otz-Tang coincidence
Remember a few seasons ago, when Tang ridiculously accused Iowa State of spying on his team’s timeout huddles at Hilton Coliseum?
Well, during a break in Sunday’s first half as the television talkers were talking about the coaches, a picture popped up on the screen of Otzelberger and Tang having what looked like a not-so-friendly postgame conversation.
Yep, it was from that game the Cyclones won 78-67.
Otzelberger, you recall, rightly defended his program, saying this about Tang’s incredible assertion:
“The ludicrous rumors that somehow we were trying to gain an advantage looking into our opponent’s huddles is an affront to our players, our fans and to me.
It’s not who I am. It’s not what our program is about, and I’m angry that someone would even make that suggestion.”
Tang also has said this:
“The number one flopper (in the Big 12) plays for Iowa State, and he’s really good – Tamin Lipsey. Right?”
Yeah, coach, he’s really good. Especially against your team on Sunday.
(Columnist Randy Peterson, a past Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at [email protected]or at any Okoboji-area beverage or food establishment between the hours of open and close.)
