Cyclones set high bar for future ISU teams, but T.J. Otzelberger and Tyrese Hunter have just begun

CHICAGO — The sting of the sudden end of a basketball season hurts no matter how and when it happens, and maybe late Friday night wasn’t the time for the Iowa State men’s team to pat itself on the back for a year to cherish.

But nothing that happened in the Cyclones’ 70-56 NCAA tournament Sweet 16 loss to Miami Friday night at United Center diminished the fact they had two shining moments in this tourney, and a lot of them since the season began last Nov. 9.

Rare is the team that maximizes its potential and then some, but Iowa State did. It went from being picked to finish last in the Big 12 to lasting all the way until the second week of the Big Dance.

This run almost surely was always going to end before the Final Four, and it was probably going to end with a thud given this team’s limitations. It did just that.

It was a soft thud, however, one you can quickly bounce back from and have reason to believe the good times have just begun for T.J. Otzelberger’s program.

“Iowa State is one heck of a basketball team,” Miami Coach Jim Larranaga said after the game. “They play so hard and so well.”

They didn’t play so well Friday, but as usual, they did play hard. The Cyclones couldn’t make jump shots and turned the ball over 18 times. Miami didn’t cave against ISU’s defense the way LSU and Wisconsin did the weekend before in Milwaukee. And that was that.

The aforementioned limitations were on display. Iowa State lacks shooting, lacks offense. You can win two NCAA games without scoring 60 points as the Cyclones did, but that’s a hard way to go any deeper in the tourney.

The Cyclones were uncomfortable against an equally good defense in Miami’s, and they’ve been uncomfortable on offense plenty of times this season. This wasn’t the typical major-college team that wins 22 times. It didn’t have a championship offense. How could it not have given the total rebuild it did in a hurry?

Otzelberger will get scorers. His first season established that he could get a group of strangers to come together and play formidable enough ball to knock off eight different teams that played in the NCAA tourney.

Now, Otzelberger has a returning point guard in Tyrese Hunter who will be as good as almost anyone in the nation at that position next season. Hunter is a jewel, quite likely a future NBA player.

“Tyrese is a gifted player,” Otzelberger said. “He certainly matured as the season moved on, did a great job commanding our team, proved that there’s no task too big for him even though he’s a freshman. Plays with a poise and composure beyond his years.”

Steve Prohm recruited Hunter out of Wisconsin. Otzelberger kept Hunter committed after he replaced Prohm a year ago, and what a thing that was.

Now, Otzelberger pursue other talents. Taking a team that went 2-22 the year before and making them winners overnight will have players’ eyes wide open when the coach works the transfer portal this spring and the recruiting trail this summer.

“We’re excited about, as things move forward, what we can do with this program,” Otzelberger said after Friday’s loss. “But tonight, all my attention is going to be paid to these guys and being thankful and grateful to them for how they carried themselves.”

Sweet 16s aren’t an any-old-year thing at the vast majority of programs. Iowa State went to one under Fred Hoiberg in 2014, another under Prohm in 2016. Going to one in 2022 seemed like sheer fantasy as recently as Selection Sunday.

Then, these Cyclones got on the court in Milwaukee and played to their strengths.

Izaiah Brockington had a wonderful season for the Cyclones after coming to Ames from Penn State. His ISU career will have been brief, but his impact has been great.

“I just hope they can look back in a couple years when this program still is doing well,” Brockington said, “and just see us as guys that got the ball rolling, that kind of started it.”

Actually, they set a high bar. But Otzelberger identified and helped land some great players when he was an ISU assistant coach of Greg McDermott, Hoiberg and Prohm.

This, one has reason to believe, is just the start of good times for the program.

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