Iowa State senior Nate Heise’s building on last season’s late scoring surge

AMES — Nate Heise felt lost in the hardwood wilderness for the first five and a half weeks of Big 12 play last season.

His confidence waned. His internal tension spiked. But as points — and even shot attempts — came in short supply, Iowa State’s gritty and versatile guard/forward dug into the aspects of his game he could fully control.

“Defense, rebounding, communicating,” said Heise, who eventually became a potent offensive weapon for the Cyclones down the stretch last season. “I think that’s what brought me out of it. And once I did, I think it was just kind of a snowball effect from there.”

And maybe even an avalanche — relatively speaking. The 6-foot-5 senior-to-be failed to score a single point in five of ISU’s first 14 conference games. He scored five or fewer points in all but two of those matchups, but enjoyed a breakout moment in the Cyclones’ Feb. 12 road win at UCF, which helped him emerge from his lengthy shooting and scoring funk.

A week later, Heise stitched together four consecutive games in which he scored in double figures and he remained a consistent offensive threat as the season wound down.

Case in point: The Cyclones’ two NCAA tournament games. Heise didn’t miss a single shot, going 9-for-9 from the field overall and 4-for-4 from 3-point range. Suffice it to say, he entered the offseason confident and reenergized — and nothing’s changed in that regard as the first batch of summer workouts come to an end.

“Just being able to fight through that (last season), and sometimes you’re like, ‘I don’t know how I’ll ever get out of it,’ but I ended up getting out of it,” said Heise, whose late surge made him ISU’s most accurate 3-point shooter last season at 40.9 percent. “I think there’s something to take away from that and I think that’s something I can use going forward.”

So where does Heise fit offensively for the 2025-26 Cyclones? Probably in a similar spot.

Head coach T.J. Otzelberger won’t need him to be a volume shooter, as forwards Milan Momcilovic and Joshua Jefferson will remain go-to guys. Add in a healthy Tamin Lipsey and slick-shooting newcomers such as freshman guard Jamarion Batemon, and Heise becomes ISU’s X-factor on both ends of the floor — whether starting or coming off the bench.

  Buy Photo

“I think for Nate, so much of it starts with his daily approach,” Otzelberger said. “When he comes in with a great spirit and a great mindset and a great mentality to practice, I think he can really elevate our team.

“We saw that at the end of the season last year, with some really great play that he had. So, I think, for him as he moves forward, it’s always, ‘How does he approach the day and the team? What’s his effect on his teammates? And when he does those things, I feel like the basketball part will take care of itself.”

Bottom line: Heise’s as comfortable he’s been since first donning a Cyclone uniform last season, and that’s helping him build deeper bonds with his teammates off the court as well as on it.

“Outside of practice, we’ve been spending a lot of time together — more than I would say on any team I’ve been a part of,” Heise said. “That’s been a great experience.”

ISU’s players peppered each other with paintballs this summer, engaged in loosely structured whiffle ball events, and heckled each other on golf outings.

“Pete Link, our strength guy, he just comes up with a lot of these different games,” Heise said. “And sometimes you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t want to do it,’ but this year it’s always seemed like a competitive, fun thing.”

So Heise’s anything but adrift this summer. He’s locked in and enjoying himself, with last season’s frustrations fully in the past.

“One of the biggest things is when you’re struggling to shoot, just keep going, keep doing other things,” Heise said. “That’s something that took me a little bit longer last year to catch on, but I hope I can do it a little bit quicker this year.”

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com