Peterson: Iowa State men's basketball is having a blast during this early-season Big 12 success
AMES – T.J. Otzelberger’s guys showed the Big 12 Conference something else Tuesday, besides continuing to show basketball is fun again.
You can now add avoiding the proverbial “trap” − to winning on the road, to making three-point baskets at a respective percentage, and to starting 4-0 in the nation’s top conference for the first time since the Elite Eight season of 1999-2000.
Pretty cool stuff for an Iowa State program that could be headed to big things again, and yeah, you know what I mean.
“Winning straight off the bat in the Big 12,” said Gabe Kalscheur, whose 25 points led the nation’s 14th-ranked team past Texas Tech 84-50 Tuesday night at Hilton Coliseum. “It’s the hardest conference in the country.”
Yes it is. Every major analytic shows it. The eye test shows it, too. Was Iowa State that good Tuesday night before a crowd of 13,464, or was Texas Tech that bad?
Let’s go with the Cyclones were good, which they were.
More:Instant analysis: Iowa State matches 1999-2000 Big 12 start by routing Texas Tech
Early-season success like this is wonderful, yet there's still a lot to prove? Like . . .
Well, let’s start with winning at Kansas, which can happen during Saturday’s 3 p.m. game in Lawrence. Doing that for the first time since 92-89 in overtime on Feb. 4, 2017, means 5-0 in the Big 12. Going 5-0 would be an Iowa State first since the 1943-44 Final Four team started 8-0 in the Big Six.
And you thought losing the top two players from last season’s Sweet 16 team was a big deal.
What the Cyclones showed me again during Tuesday’s 34-point stomping against Texas Tech was losing that pair wasn’t as much a thing as we thought it might be. These guys are good, too. Maybe better than Otzelberger’s first Cyclones team as a head coach. Maybe, and yes, T.J., gets annoyed at comparisons.
Rightly, so, too, because some significant players this season weren’t even around Ames a year ago. That shows me something, too, the way Otzelberger and his staff not only recruit good players, but also land players that get along with each other. No egos fits this team to a T.
“Our staff works hard to try to identify the right guys with the right character to put on that Cyclones jersey, and those guys that want to come to work every single day,” Otzelberger said after Tuesday’s game. “They’re a group that fits together well. Their strengths complement each other.”
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Those who figured Otzelberger was only a recruiter, which he did masterfully during Cyclone stints as an assistant – well, he’s a pretty darn good head coach, too.
Four-and-oh – two at home and two on the road. The last two – both away from home – were on late three-point baskets. Tuesday’s was a welcomed blowout, which also showed me something.
The more comfortable the lead got, and it was 57-35 just 7 minutes after the break, the better they played. The better they played, the more fun they had. The more fun they had, the more cranked up the Hilton Coliseum crowd became.
This specific play, true freshman to team veteran player, point guard Tamin Lipsey’s behind the back bounce pass to Kalscheur, resulted in an open three-pointer from the top of the free throw circle. Swish.
That was one of those confident plays. It was a fun play.
“We’re all so connected on the court, that it’s like I didn’t have to really see them, to know where they’re going to be,” Lipsey said. “I always know I’m going to have guys pulling behind when I’m driving in.
“I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I knew he was going to make a play when he got the ball.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this team have as much fun as it was having Tuesday night. The crowd loved it. The reserves loved it.
“Last year I had fun, too,” Kalscheur said. “There’s times when you have to enjoy it. The time you spend with the guys – it’s my last year of basketball here. You have to enjoy the time that I have left here.”
More:Peterson: Balance is a key to early-season success for Iowa State men's basketball
An oh wow moment?
Otzelberger isn’t into that phrase.
“I’m not as much of an oh wow, as an everyday roll up your sleeves guy,” the hard-working coach from the state of Wisconsin said. “If anything, our guys are continuing to earn through their work, the confidence they’re building as a group.”
I’ll hit up Otzelberger after the season. I’ll ask him then if there was something that elicited “oh wow.” For now, he’s too focused on tomorrow and the day after that. He’s focused on Kansas.
“It’s still early January,” T.J. said. “We’ve got a lot in front of us.”
Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, and on Twitter @RandyPete
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State is having more fun playing basketball than it's had in a while
