T.J. Otzelberger wants to reestablish Midwest recruiting philosophy at Iowa State

AMES - New Iowa State men's basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger got his start in coaching as a recruiter.

He's held other roles since, like being Fred Hoiberg's lead assistant who developed the scouting reports and the game plans and like being a head coach at UNLV and South Dakota State.

But the first thing people think of when they hear Otzelberger's name is recruiting.

When he was still at UNLV, he signed the No. 16 class in the country, according to 247Sports.

For reference, Iowa State's recruiting class is ranked No. 74.

'When I came to Ames in 2005 with Greg McDermott, he told me, ‘You have a tremendous motor and an ability to build relationships that are meaningful over the long term and connect with people,'” Otzelberger said. 'He thought that would serve the program well in connecting with the fan base as well as in recruiting.”

It did. Otzelberger recruited NBA player after NBA player to Ames.

Craig Brackins, Diante Garrett, Georges Niang, Naz Mitrou-Long, Matt Thomas, Monte Morris, Abdel Nader and Deonte Burton all were in the NBA or still are in the NBA. And all were recruited by Otzelberger.

Otzelberger already has shown he'll take in transfers, but his strength is recruiting high school players. Iowa State picked up Washington State graduate transfer Aljaž Kunc on Wednesday, but Otzelberger will build the core of the team around high school players, mostly from the Midwest.

In Steve Prohm's 2020 and 2019 recruiting classes, the Cyclones signed five players from the south.

Otzelberger wants to reestablish a Midwest recruiting philosophy at Iowa State. Prohm's best recruiting class was the 2018 group that featured Talen Horton-Tucker, Tyrese Haliburton, George Conditt and Zion Griffin. All were from the Midwest.

'We're going to establish the Cyclone brand throughout the Midwest,” Otzelberger said. 'This is going to be the Midwest's option in the Big 12. We're going to recruit aggressively throughout the upper Midwest, but most importantly in the state of Iowa.

'People talk about recruiting all of the time but if you love Iowa State, all you're doing is telling your story. To me, that doesn't feel like recruiting - that's easy. My background in recruiting has been extensive in the upper Midwest - Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and beyond that.”

Iowa State's lone signee in the 2021 class is four-star point guard Tyrese Hunter from Wisconsin, which should be in Otzelberger's wheelhouse.

Hunter is ranked as the fifth best point guard recruit in the nation according to 247Sports and Otzelberger said during his introductory news conference last Friday he'd get in contact with Hunter that day.

'It's funny that when I think of Tyrese, he plays at a school (Racine St. Catherine's) that's in the same conference as the school I played for (Milwaukee St. Thomas More) - I grew up 20 minutes from him,” Otzelberger said, seemingly testing his recruiting pitch to the media that he'd later give to Hunter. 'And not to pat myself on the back, because I didn't have a whole lot of great games as an athlete, but I did happen to have 26 points in his home gym one time. I remember playing in that gym and his high school coach, Nick Bennett, is someone I've known for a long time. His cousin is Tony Bennett at Virginia, who has been a mentor to me.

'I certainly have a lot of connections and ties to them and that program. I'm excited to get to connect to him.”

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