No. 9 Iowa State men eager to end two-game skid Tuesday against UCF

AMES — Iowa State men’s basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger hasn’t changed his bedrock message for his team.

He’s simply amplified it.

That’s because the No. 9 Cyclones (16-2, 3-2 Big 12) have been out of character while dropping two straight road games on the heels of the best start in program history.

So what’s that time-tested message? Toughness travels. Toughness wins. And it’s mandatory, not optional.

“You’ve gotta have a gut check,” said Otzelberger, whose team faces vastly improved UCF (14-3, 3-2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday (CBS Sports Network) at Hilton Coliseum. “You’ve gotta come out and play with an edge. You’ve gotta play almost like you’re ticked off and you’re got something to prove again. When we were playing with something to prove, we played really well, so I think that’s possession by possession. That’s practice by practice. That’s game by game.”

The Golden Knights have been playing with that edge all season. Head coach Johnny Dawkins plucked five new starters from the transfer portal and has guided his team to its best start since 2019.

“Their point guard play with (Themus) Fulks — he’s been phenomenal,” Otzelberger said. “He’s making everybody better and with (Riley) Kugel, they’ve got a real go-to scorer, a guy that has tremendous confidence scoring the basketball. And on the front line, they’ve got so much length and athleticism and they’re all older guys.”

Hence the reemphasis on toughness, aggressiveness and an uncompromising zeal for creating turnovers to spark success in transition. ISU simply cannot win consistently without being the tougher team on a nightly basis, and that’s shown in the recent losses at No. 19 Kansas and Cincinnati. The Cyclones were outscored, 37-to-14, in points off turnovers in those games — a troubling turnaround for a team that ranks fifth nationally in defensive turnover percentage, according to KenPom.

“(The Big 12’s) the best conference in America and every game you’ve gotta bring its or else something like that can happen, especially on the road,” ISU senior guard and defensive captain Nate Heise said. “The hardest thing is consistency, and bringing that, but we can control our effort. That should be 100 percent every game.”

It’s also hard to embrace what’s hard, but that’s a hallmark of Otzelberger’s program. It’s why he instills and/or re-instills exacting habits in each of his players when they arrive each summer, and expects them to stick as the season plows through the dead of winter toward the madness of March. It’s mandatory, not optional, and serves as the Cyclones’ core identity.

“We try to create a mindset to build a culture about embracing doing hard things,” Otzelberger said. “Having a get-to mentality instead of a have-to (mentality) when it comes down to doing hard things. In the games, there can be more distractions based on outcomes, statistics, you know, outside things that you’re looking at instead of a continued focus to do hard things — really demand that you continuer to do the hard things. So it can be a distraction, and I can’t say for certain if that’s happened a little bit or not.”

What Otzelberger can say with certainty is failures to execute the fundamentals will lead to losses in Big 12 play, especially on the road. So he went back to basics this week and ISU has responded well. Toughness not only travels and wins, it also sets a tone that’s difficult to counter.

“You’ve gotta fight to do all those things to play well, and that doesn’t guarantee victory, or enact a victory,” Otzelberger said. “It means you give yourself a chance. And that’s what we’ve gotta do every night, give ourselves a chance.”

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com