Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey a Warrior on the basketball court

AMES — Tamin Lipsey speaks casually, as if discussing the weather, or engaging in small talk.

The subject matter is his own physical pain — this time in the form of a throbbing right thumb — and Iowa State’s first-team All-Big 12 point guard acknowledges its existence, dismisses the discomfort, and moves on.

“I hurt it during (the) West Virginia (loss),” said Lipsey, who naturally will continue playing through the malady in Saturday’s 1 p.m. Big 12 men’s basketball matchup between his No. 3 Cyclones (16-2, 6-1) and Arizona State (11-7, 2-5) in Tempe. “Jammed it pretty bad. It’s been pretty swollen and stuff, so catching the ball has been sort of sensitive, so I’ve just been wrapping it up.”

Out of sight, out of mind.

Lipsey’s pain threshold has attained near-legendary status within ISU’s program because each time he seems to reach its limit, he grits his teeth and grinds through it. He played through a shoulder injury last season, underwent surgery in the spring, and slowly returned to full-contact activities late in the summer.

Now his thumb hurts — a lot — but it’s an afterthought in his mettle-tested mind.

“He’s a once in forever type of guy when you talk about the level of mental toughness that he has and the physical toughness that he has,” said Cyclone head coach T.J. Otzelberger, who in three-plus seasons has crafted a program-best 69.9 percent winning percentage. “I’ve done this almost 20 years at this level and (I’ve seen) some guys who’ve had those skills. Tamin is kind of on his own line in terms of his ability to do that and I think (his) mom and dad deserve a lot of credit for that.”

Lipsey’s dislodged at least one steal in 84 of his 87 career games. He recently climbed past former greats Fred Hoiberg, Justus Thigpen and Jeff Hornacek to stand alone at No. 2 on ISU’s all-time steals cart with 212. That’s just 13 fewer thefts than Monte Morris — Lipsey’s childhood idol — compiled from 2014-17, so expect that grit-based record to fall relatively soon.

“(It’s) kind of a testament to how hard he plays,” burly transfer forward Dishon Jackson said. “He’s just out there flying around, diving on the floor, taking the ball from dudes. It’s just, like, you can only do that for so long, I would think, but he does it every time.”

Lipsey’s stacked up multiple steals in 13 of the Cyclones’ 18 games this season, and his productivity in that area should be key against an athletic Sun Devils team that ranks 277th nationally in offensive turnover percentage, according to KenPom. But Arizona State’s coming off its most impressive win of the Big 12 season — a 65-57 upset of No. 23 West Virginia in Morgantown one game after the Mountaineers toppled the Cyclones.

“They’re a team that plays hard, they compete on the glass, they get up and down in transition,” Otzelberger said. “They really can score in spurts. They’ve got the ability to get it going quick, and they’ve got some gifted personnel that — if you’re not very intentional with your pressure defensively, they can create some matchup issues and get baskets.”

Lipsey, along with each of ISU’s rotational players, bedevil opponents with similar problems. He and fellow guard Keshon Gilbert surge into the lane with abandon and finish at the rim with aplomb. Curtis Jones drains deep 3-pointers and features what Lipsey called “one of the best floaters” he’s ever seen.

Add in Jackson and fellow forward Joshua Jefferson’s presence in the paint, and the considerable contributions of bench players such as Brandton Chatfield, Nate Heise and Demarion Watson, and it’s easy to see why the Cyclones remain difficult to prepare for even as standout shooter Milan Momcilovic misses four to six weeks because of a hand injury.

But Lipsey stands front and center in that equation — a man in the arena who refuses to let pain dictate his performance. The more he hurts, the more he hustles.

“If I can work through it, I’m gonna work through it,” the Ames native said. “Especially when my team needs me with Milan being out. Can’t afford having other people out.”

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