SHOP THE IOWA STATE COLLECTION
Within the heartland of Ames, IA, a basketball symphony is reaching its crescendo. The Iowa State Cyclones, lengthy overshadowed within the nationwide highlight, have emerged as a official powerhouse, their sights set firmly on school basketball’s highest honor, a nationwide championship. Whereas each group within the nation started the season with the dream of strolling up the ladder and chopping down the nets in entrance of a bought out crowd in San Antonio on April 7, Iowa State is on a brief checklist of packages with the means to truly do it. Orchestrated by head coach TJ Otzelberger, this 12 months’s squad embodies a tradition of resilience, camaraderie, toughness, self-discipline, authenticity and above all else, confidence. However to grasp how this 12 months’s Cyclones have gotten to inside an arm’s attain of the head, you need to first perceive the place they’ve been.
Final 12 months’s Cyclones gained the group’s most convention video games since 2001, completed second within the Huge 12 standings and capped all of it off with a blowout win over the then-No.1 ranked Houston Cougars within the Huge 12 Match Championship. Then got here the NCAA Match. They’d make straightforward work of their first two opponents, earlier than dropping a nail-biter to Illinois within the Candy Sixteen. Alas, it was again to the drafting board.
The scars of final season’s abrupt exit from the Match nonetheless linger. For a lot of, such a setback may very well be the harbinger of decline, however not for Iowa State. Beneath Coach Otzelberger’s vigilant eye, the Cyclones turned disappointment right into a silver lining. Each summer time exercise, each movie session, was imbued with a singular objective: the get again. And anyone who is aware of something about school basketball is aware of this one factor: If you wish to make a deep run with an opportunity to win all of it, it begins along with your guards. Fortunately for Iowa State, they’re led by a pair of killers in Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert, who’re proving to be the most effective backcourts within the nation.
Jones, a Minnesota native, is the epitome of what this Iowa State program represents. The 6-4 do-it-all swingman has a knack for placing the ball within the rim along with his feathery contact and performs with a contagious pleasure and spirit that permeates the entire squad. He didn’t have a single provide popping out of highschool and would find yourself beginning his school profession at Indian Hills Neighborhood School in Ottumwa, IA. After one standout season, he’d take his abilities to Buffalo College, the place he’d play for 2 years, en path to turning into an All-MAC participant, earlier than in the end transferring to Iowa State final 12 months.
Jones’s backcourt accomplice, Gilbert, was equally underrated popping out of highschool, ranked as a 3-star recruit. He loved modest success in two years at UNLV and would additionally enter the switch portal after the ’23 season and develop into a Cyclone. The 6 -4 lead guard made his impression felt instantly in his first season in Ames, main the group in scoring on his strategy to incomes a handful of honors: All-Huge 12 Second Crew, Huge 12 Championship All-Match Crew and Huge 12 Championship MVP. Merely put, he’s the engine that makes this group go.
Together with Jones and Gilbert, this 12 months’s group had a few key items come again from final 12 months’s Candy Sixteen group—their All-Huge 12 junior guard Tamin Lipsey, and their sophomore ahead Milan Momcilovic, who earned a spot on the Huge 12 Championship All-Match Crew. This 12 months’s roster additionally noticed one other proficient switch class into the fold: former All-Missouri Valley guard Nate Heise (Northern Iowa), Joshua Jefferson (St. Mary’s), Brandton Chatfield (Seattle) and Dishon Jackson (Charlotte).
We’re midway by means of this season with convention play properly underway, and Iowa State has been flat out glorious. And in case you don’t consider me, simply ask Baylor’s Corridor of Fame coach Scott Drew, who not too long ago known as them “the most effective two groups within the nation” after struggling a blowout loss by the hands of the Cyclones.
The AP polls are barely much less beneficiant; as we go to press right now, the AP Prime 25 polls have Iowa State ranked third. But, by some means, the Cyclones nonetheless appear to be flying underneath the radar.
“That’s been a chip on our shoulder since earlier than we bought right here. I don’t really feel like me or [Jones] ever bought the popularity we deserve,” says Gilbert. “However that’s simply extra motivation. That simply places extra gas within the tank, and provides extra gas to the hearth. So, it’s what it’s.”
“You get the popularity while you win,” says Jones. “No matter comes with profitable, we’ll take it. We’re not likely in it for the popularity, however that’s what comes with it.”
If anybody’s stunned by how dominant they’ve been, you may guess it’s not anybody of their locker room. They anticipated this.
“Coming into this season, we knew how good we may very well be. Me and Keshon had been at all times speaking about what we had been going to do and what we felt like we might do,” says Jones. “The outcomes are coming now, however it began due to how final 12 months ended. We bought to it instantly this 12 months; we already knew what it was.”
And in case you allow them to inform it, they’re solely simply starting to scratch the floor of their potential. Nevermind them convincingly profitable the vast majority of their video games to date by double digits.
“We ain’t even actually enjoying our greatest. I’d say we’re enjoying good, we’re enjoying stable, however we nonetheless have enhancements to make. And that’s thrilling, as a result of we’ve nonetheless been profitable handily. However we’ve got room for enchancment, even in that. And that’s what nice groups do. They discover the place they’ll enhance and never simply be content material with profitable video games. We gained the final two by like 20, however we wanna make that 30,” says Jones.
It’s not farfetched to ascertain Iowa State pulling off a couple of 30-point victories earlier than the season’s out. Properly, a couple of extra 30-point victories I ought to say. That they had a handful of wins by at the very least that a lot from their early non-conference slate, which fits to indicate that these Cyclones aren’t enjoying with their meals. They know what’s at stake, they usually’ve embraced every little thing it takes to succeed in their final purpose of a natty. Not a single second could be taken as a right after they’re making an attempt to do one thing that’s by no means been finished in program historical past. To wit: Gilbert and Jones say they’ll’t even consider a time that Coach Otzelberger has even talked about a Huge 12 Championship, not to mention the nationwide championship; he makes it some extent to take it recreation by recreation, brick by brick.
The star backcourt makes clear that they’re maintaining “the primary factor the primary factor.” They embrace the notion that their private targets can be far more simply attainable in the event that they deal with profitable first.
Each group who’s ever climbed that ladder because the final group standing has at the very least one factor in frequent: they ran towards the work, not away from it. In that regard, the Iowa State program, helmed by Coach Otzelberger, is properly on their manner. And we all know the previous saying: Nothing value having comes straightforward.
“I ain’t gonna lie, Iowa State isn’t for everyone—in case you don’t actually love basketball, you ain’t gonna prefer it. You ain’t gonna match right here, as a result of basketball is all it’s,” says Gilbert. “We work exhausting as hell, so we all know every little thing’s gonna fall into place.”
Portraits by Matthew Coughlin.