Cade Kelderman, walk-on from Waukee, helps Cyclones in an NCAA tourney cakewalk

MILWAUKEE — Iowa State’s warmup pullover shirts Friday said “Nothing Easy.”

Don’t you hate it when you can’t believe the written word on a piece of clothing?

The Cyclones dispatched of Lipscomb in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Friday at Fiserv Forum, 82-55. They led by as much as 33 points. It was easy enough.

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This was what No. 3-seeds in this tourney are supposed to do to 14-seeds. This is what the nation’s No. 15 team is supposed to do to the best club from the Atlantic Sun Conference. As you know so well, however, that isn’t always what happens.

You know what almost never happens in this tourney? Someone who had barely played in his two-year college career — a walk-on — was in the 8-player rotation of a No. 3 seed.

Cade Kelderman stepped out of the shadows to play 18 minutes for Iowa State in its 96-92 Big 12 tourney loss to BYU last Wednesday, and didn’t embarrass himself or hurt his team. He played 18 minutes again here Friday, setting career-highs for points (5), assists (3), steals (3) and fouls (4).

The 6-foot-1 guard had two points all season before the BYU game. Now T.J. Otzelberger is counting on him.

“We never treat him like a walk-on,” Otzelberger said.

It didn’t hurt the Cyclones chances of winning again Sunday that Otzelberger didn’t have to wear down his starting point guard, Tamin Lipsey.

Lipsey took a bite out Lipscomb with 24 good minutes Friday, playing for the first time with a groin issue he suffered in his team’s win over Cincinnati last Tuesday in Kansas City.

The reason for the sudden job opening in the rotation was senior guard Keshon Gilbert shutting it down for the season with a lower-body muscle injury. Gilbert averaged 13.4 points and 4.1 assists. His unavailability had basketball pundits reducing the Cyclones’ chances of going deep into this tourney. Maybe it will.

Someone had to take those backcourt minutes, and Kelderman has done so with a smile. After stealing the ball and driving for an athletic second-half basket, then swishing a deep 3-pointer two minutes later, he had a grin on his face as he returned to the Iowa State bench for a substitution.

“We all put so much time in,” Kelderman said. “But if you don't have joy, if you don't have confidence, man, all that's for nothing. So just being out here with March Madness, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I’m just soaking it in, enjoying it.”

Milan Momcilovic had 20 points for the Cyclones and Curtis Jones added 17. Jones said when he and Momcilovic were out of the game at the same time, they talked to each other about Kelderman.

“I said it's impressive what Cade is doing,” said Jones, “just because he’s making shots, making plays, and he wasn't playing that much at first. It’s hard to just get thrown in, especially like a March Madness game. The stage doesn't get any brighter than this.

“To really make an impact like he's making, like, just to even make the open threes, it's harder than people might think when you're in his position.”

Kelderman, a teammate of Iowa transfer portal-entrant Pryce Sandfort at Waukee Northwest High, has two sisters who were a senior and junior on Northwest Missouri State’s women’s basketball team this season.

That school’s NCAA Division II men’s basketball powerhouse offered Kelderman a scholarship when Drake’s Ben McCollum was the coach there, but the player opted to walk on for the team he has rooted for since childhood.

His college basketball education has been a good one, going against Lipsey, Jones and Gilbert in practice.

“It's just been really special,” Kelderman said. “The coaches, my teammates, have just given me a ton of confidence at practice, like ‘You belong out here.’

“I'm just getting more and more comfortable out there playing with the dudes who I'm out there on the court with in practice.”

A walk-on from Waukee who came into Friday’s NCAA tourney game with a scoring average of four-tenths of one point was driving for two points and draining a bomb for three in the space of two minutes. Madness!

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com