Tamin Lipsey hopes to stay efficient as No. 3 Iowa State prepares for Oklahoma State on Saturday

AMES — It’s become almost cliche to note that Iowa State standout point guard Tamin Lipsey grew up idolizing former Cyclone star Monte Morris.

But it’s worth reiterating.

Why?

Lipsey — a tough-as-nails, born-and-raised in Ames standard-bearer for head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s third-ranked men’s basketball program — is on pace to shatter Morris’ nine-year-old NCAA high-major assists-to-turnover ratio record.

Lipsey currently leads the nation in that statistic, with an astonishing rate of 7.44-to-1. Morris set the high-major single-season mark at 5.2-to-1 — so as Lipsey seeks to help the Cyclones (15-0, 2-0) beat Oklahoma State (13-2, 1-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Hilton Coliseum, he’s in uncharted territory.

“I mean, he’s a really, really good player,” said Otzelberger, whose team has compiled its best start in program history. “I made the statement the other night that he’s the best point guard in the country and I say that partly because he does so many things to impact winning."

Lipsey broke Morris’ program record for steals in a career late last season, so numbers back up his elite status on that end of the floor, as well. He also has three times as many steals (27) as turnovers this season (nine), so he’s fully emerged as a star on both ends of the floor.

“I hate having any turnovers, so I wish that number would be zero,” said Lipsey, who’s currently averaging career his in points (14.8), assists (5.6) and field goal percentage (50.0). “But at the end of the day it’s basketball. There (are) gonna be games where I have a turnover, or I have two, and there might be games where I have more.”

Not this season. Lipsey’s lost zero turnovers in five of his 12 games, and he’s had as many as two turnovers just twice. The Cowboys will test that trademark efficiency on Saturday, though, as they play at a top-five pace nationally according to KenPom.

“They’re a team that takes tremendous pride in attacking and reattacking,” Otzelberger said.

That’s also Lipsey’s M.O. — especially as he has more freedom to operate with defensive-minded freshman Killyan Toure alongside.

“Where you’re a guy that you’re talking about these extremes of his assist-to-turnover ratio, his ability to score the ball when his team needs 20 in the second half (as it did in Wednesday’s win at Baylor), a guy (who’s) been consistent all defense, and, again, something we really hope for him and strive for as a team, is that he can be defensive player of the year — that would be a great honor for him in his last year,” Otzelberger said.

In other words, Lipsey’s become the total package type of player, just as Morris did in his four-year career at ISU. So much so that he’s eclipsing records once held by his idol — and threatening to break even more of them as his senior season ramps up, then winds down.

“He could score buckets when he needed to, but he was also so great at passing the ball and just running the offense, and obviously his assist-to-turnover ratio,” Lipsey said of Morris, who holds the NCAA career record in that latter stat at 4.65-to-1. “So with what he was able to do with that, I felt like going into my senior year that was one of the big things I could work on, was taking care of the ball. It’s something that could help me in the future, as well.”

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