Otz Appreciation Thread

[pourcyne]

My stand-by AI was too choked up to do a good likeness of Coach, so I settled for a modified version of the pic from KCCI...along with the verbal tribute the stand-by site. Thanks, Otz. You're a dinger.

He’s built something pretty special in Ames: toughness, defense, belief, and that unmistakable sideline intensity. A tribute well-deserved.​

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P.S. Now trying to figure out who the guy is behind him wearing what looks like a sheepskin on his head...

 

[Cyclonepride]

SIAP

Hearing the players talk about the program and Otz makes me feel lucky we have this guy. Otz demands a lot from his players, but he respects them as a person first. Heise even said he and Otz had weekly lunches together.

Players seem to love Otz even with the 6:00 AM military style workouts. Opposing coaches all rave about Otz. Otz also conducts himself very professionally on the court. I can only think of a few instances where he truly lost his temper on the court.

With Otz leading the program, I have no doubt he will continue to lead the team to great success, both on and off the court. We are truly blessed to have him as our head coach. The season just ended, but I already can’t wait for November

I wouldn't trade him for another coach. He's just absolutely perfect for Iowa State. Staff too, he hasn't done it without top quality help.

 

[t-noah]

SIAP

Hearing the players talk about the program and Otz makes me feel lucky we have this guy. Otz demands a lot from his players, but he respects them as a person first. Heise even said he and Otz had weekly lunches together.

Players seem to love Otz even with the 6:00 AM military style workouts. Opposing coaches all rave about Otz. Otz also conducts himself very professionally on the court. I can only think of a few instances where he truly lost his temper on the court.

With Otz leading the program, I have no doubt he will continue to lead the team to great success, both on and off the court. We are truly blessed to have him as our head coach. The season just ended, but I already can’t wait for November

Totally agree, and thankyou for posting this. We should be proud of this team and our coach(es). They had a great year, gave full effort throughout and made us feel good about being Cyclones and rooting for Iowa State.

We had some bad luck there at the end, losing Joshua, but made it to the Sweet 16 with two dominant wins. TN was the better team Friday night. It happens. Who's to say we for sure would have won that game with a healthy Jefferson? We could play that game forever, and likely willl.

Let's do it again next year!

 

[iseedit]

TJ is so well respected nationally. Players love him and love playing for him. We're very lucky to have him.

My only on court criticism: can he please please please find a way to get his team to be at least middle of the road/average at FT shooting? I swear we're rated somewhere in the high 200s if not 300s every season he's been here.

I could have them leading the Big 12 if he'd let me.... it's half mental, half rhythm.

 

[t-noah]

I believe Mark Pope from UK had a high praise quote of TJ as well. Something about TJ picking 5 guys off the street, practicing them for a week and being able to make them a top 10 defensive group.

Love hearing the comments of other coaches about TJ

That's all it takes, a week of indoctination, defensive prep, and presto, top 10 defense. Anybody can do it.

 

[CloniesForLife]

I bet we had the least amount of NIL of teams in the Sweet 16. Otz has been a magician with the resources he's had. Really hope we can get our NIL to a place that allows him to get a couple more higher end pieces

 

[CySmurf]

Beyond great. It also appears he has developed true friendships with some of the deepest pocketed fans ISU has. Given the right financial support, his ceiling is unlimited.

He wasn't my first choice, but man is he the best choice to lead ISU basketball. Ever.

Who are you and what have you done with Joefrog?

 

[demoncore1031]

It's a bit of consequence of system. Over the years, think of who gets to the line a lot on TJ teams. Tamin does because he drives and takes contact a lot, but isn't a great free throw shooter. Another guy who shot them fairly often was Gilbert -- not great at the stripe. Our 4s and 5s tended to shoot them a lot, none of the centers were great at them and neither were most of the stretch guys.

The style we play, with the players we have recently had, has led to low-percentage guys shooting a huge share of the free throws. We've had guys on the teams who were good at the stripe, but their roles often resulted in them not getting to it very often.

The ask for coaching here is to figure out how to get some percentage points improvements from the guys who are shooting the volume of them. For the most part, they stay at the same make rates during their playing careers at ISU. We haven't developed better free throw shooting on top of who is doing the shooting in games.

Admittedly, I didn't fret too much about it this season because we just don't shoot that many free throws. Our FTR is slightly below average. We rarely depended on them to win games for us.

And our best FT shooter, Milan, barely got to the line. Hope to see him drive more next year.

 

[demoncore1031]

I noticed none of the negative posters haven't commented in this thread. Good!

 

[CyBurqeuño]

I bet we had the least amount of NIL of teams in the Sweet 16. Otz has been a magician with the resources he's had. Really hope we can get our NIL to a place that allows him to get a couple more higher end pieces

Esto de aquí! This right here is the most invaluable (and incredible) aspect of his coaching. He consistently does more with less than any coach in the country. This isn’t to take anything away from the quality of his players. But “coaching-up” is his super-power and the rarest trait out there as a leader.

Por cierto, ¡anima a mis lobos (y al señor Roca) el jueves!

 

[12191987]

Or the Bulls job.

Don’t ******* go there. Damn you!

 

[Erik4Cy]

My stand-by AI was too choked up to do a good likeness of Coach, so I settled for a modified version of the pic from KCCI...along with the verbal tribute the stand-by site. Thanks, Otz. You're a dinger.

He’s built something pretty special in Ames: toughness, defense, belief, and that unmistakable sideline intensity. A tribute well-deserved.​

View attachment 169819

AI has now captured being a Cyclone fan to 100% accuracy

 

[t-noah]

View attachment 169836
AI has now captured being a Cyclone fan to 100% accuracy

I usually trim my mustache symetrically, thank you.

 

[IlliniCy]

The UNC position may open up the Michigan or Arizona jobs…

Or the Bulls job.

Not the Bulls! Anything but the Bulls!

 

[Cy4Lifer]

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AI has now captured being a Cyclone fan to 100% accuracy

Hungover with a bad shaving scar on his cheek?

 

[Nor'MidWester]

People like to give Pollard crap but good job to keeping the relationship up with Otz. Playing the long game worked out. (Had to go through the worst season of ISU basketball ever to get there but still)

 

[GoSTATE71]

I bet we had the least amount of NIL of teams in the Sweet 16. Otz has been a magician with the resources he's had. Really hope we can get our NIL to a place that allows him to get a couple more higher end pieces

The narrative that Iowa state doesn’t pay players well isn’t exactly true. Lipsey, Milan, JJeff were all taken care of quite well this season. If Milan decides to come back he will demand a premium and rightfully so along with Batemon and Toure but again we pay well enough. Is it UNC or KU level? No but those guys did fine

 

[1TwistedCyclone]

Another week of exposure for Cyclone basketball would have been great. But the week of Otz to UNC speculation kept the program at the top of the sports news discussion. I am sure Otz's decision to stay in Ames is also good currency in the recruit/transfer market.

 

[tman24]

I bet we had the least amount of NIL of teams in the Sweet 16. Otz has been a magician with the resources he's had. Really hope we can get our NIL to a place that allows him to get a couple more higher end pieces

we did atleast to one chart i saw. just imagine if we didnt have a bean counter for an AD and could spend.

 

[CloniesForLife]

The narrative that Iowa state doesn’t pay players well isn’t exactly true. Lipsey, Milan, JJeff were all taken care of quite well this season. If Milan decides to come back he will demand a premium and rightfully so along with Batemon and Toure but again we pay well enough. Is it UNC or KU level? No but those guys did fine

Did I say they didn't do fine? I'm comparing our NIL to other programs. I know those 3 still made good money but we absolutely don't have the resources of other programs.