Cy-Hawk men’s basketball: No shoes left behind this time, just Cyclones’ footprints

AMES — Living well really is the best revenge.

George Herbert, a 17th-century poet, wrote that. George Conditt IV, a senior center on the No. 17 Iowa State men’s basketball team, was living well after the Cyclones’ 73-53 dismantling of Iowa Thursday night.

Conditt whirled and swirled around every corner of the Hilton Coliseum court, acknowledging the 14,267 fans who were living pretty darn well themselves. Members of the student section began lining up outside Hilton at 10 a.m. for the 8 p.m. game. The best guess is every one of them says today that it was worth it.

They came to let Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon have it. Often and unfortunately, their barbs often were the opposite of G-rated. The students were funnier when they didn’t work blue.

Chanting “One more year!” at the sixth-year senior playing his sixth game against the Cyclones as he shot two free throws with his team down 68-49? That was better.

Bohannon asked for it with his parting shot here in 2019 when he left his shoes on a free-throw line after the Hawkeyes routed ISU, 84-68. Last year in Iowa City before no fans, Iowa got its largest win in the history of the series, 105-77.

Thursday, Iowa State returned the favor with its biggest winning margin in the 75 meetings of the two. The Cyclones’ attention-getting device was a bit more traditional. Namely, the way they competed.

They were so good, so full of hustle and defense and driving and seizing opportunities they created. Conditt was on the ISU team that went 2-24 last season, a horror show. Head coach Steve Prohm was replaced by former Iowa State assistant T.J. Otzelberger, who surrounded Conditt with a new group of teammates.

Conditt found himself with transfers from Penn State and Minnesota, Washington State and Kansas, UNLV and Denver.

They weren’t around for Bohannon’s antics of two years ago or ISU’s pure misery of last winter. They came here to play for Otzenberger and be part of something different. Something pretty darn good so far, as it has turned out.

These guys are 9-0, have beaten Xavier, Memphis, Creighton and now Iowa, and are the reason the arena is loud again for the first time in a few years. Hilton Magic is only that when the team is good.

“Iowa State has one of the best fan bases in the country,” Bohannon said. “They’re rowdy and up into you.

“Iowa State has a phenomenal team this year. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I have the utmost respect for their head coach."

Bohannon was the only Hawkeye who didn’t wither in the face of the hostility from ISU’s defense and crowd. He was only 4-of-12 from the field, but that shooting was better than his team’s 27 percent, and his 17 points made him the only Hawkeye in double-figures.

“It was fun as hell,” Bohannon said, something his teammates may not have seconded. “I signed up to come back here. I had a lot of people talking crap to me ever since I decided to come back.

“I knew it was going to be a hostile environment. I don’t shy away from competitiveness.”

Neither does Izaiah Brockington. The 6-foot-4 senior via St. Bonaventure and Penn State, gave a bravura performance. He made his first nine shots, scored 29 points, and helped the Cyclones’ 50-32 rebounding advantage with 10 of them.

The player who entered this game as the nation’s leading scorer was Iowa 6-8 forward Keegan Murray, at 23.9 points per game. The smaller Brockington made life hard on sophomore sensation Murray, who made just 4 of 17 shots and scored a season-low nine points.

“I watched a ton of film on him,” Brockington said. “I just went out there and tried to be physical, tried to get him away from the spots that he likes to catch the ball, that he likes to work.

“I really came in knowing that he’s their key guy. So my job as far as I was concerned was to stop him.”

Whose job was it to stop Brockington?

By the way, the Prohm era here ended poorly, but Iowa Staters can thank him for getting freshman guard Tyrese Hunter committed to play here. Then they can thank Otzelberger for keeping Hunter after Prohm’s exit.

Hunter is 6 feet of efficiency. He had 11 points, eight rebounds, six assists. Iowa State may have had as big a margin in style points as actual points. One of the highest of the highlights was Hunter’s lob to Conditt for a jam with 4:47 left, the second of three straight baskets ISU scored on dunks and two of its 32 points in the paint.

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For Iowa, it was a third-straight loss, but far more demoralizing than those at Purdue and at home against Illinois. The Hawkeyes fell way behind in the second halves of those two, but battled back. They were down by 12 at halftime here and continued to get outplayed.

It’s December, which isn’t January or February or especially March. But you can’t get out-rebounded by 12, 29 and 18 in consecutive games and feel good, and you can’t feel too wonderful about getting smoked by an Iowa State team-full of players who didn’t know each other nine months ago.

Transfers have a negative connotation in college sports, though Division I has over 1,000 a year now. Otzelberger’s are working together, defending, doing winning team things. They’re together.

Murray said the Hawkeyes are, too.

“We’re a team that has a lot of chemistry,” he said. “I’d say our chemistry is probably the best I’ve ever been on with a team. We’re going to stick together and just move forward as one.”

You lose by 20 to your state rival, you just get on the bus and go home. With your shoes on your feet. Two years ago, Bohannon stuck it to Cyclone Nation pretty good and hasn’t missed too many chances on social media to twist the sword for ISU folks who come at him for some Twitter jousting.

But after this game?

“No feelings at all,” Bohannon said.

That wasn’t entirely true, as the following Twitter give-and-take late Thursday night proves.

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