There are no efficiency rankings for transfer portal recruiting (not yet, anyway), but if there were, Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger would lead the nation by a mile. While most of his peers are still scrambling to close their deals and complete their rosters, Otzelberger went a perfect five-for-five in rapid-fire fashion over the very first weekend. With deals likewise sealed with four returnees and four incoming freshmen, Otzelberger is officially out of the market. “We’re done right now,” he told Hoops HQ. “I’m excited about it. I think it’s a really good group.”
Building a roster in today’s era is a marathon, not a sprint, but Otzelberger has shown he can win the long game as well. Since taking over a program that had won just two games the year before, Otzelberger has taken the Cyclones to five NCAA Tournaments and three Sweet Sixteens. He has shown a unique ability to recruit players who can not only perform in his system but also fit into his culture. He approaches everything like clockwork, holding practices at the crack of dawn and regimenting every minute of his players’ schedules. It’s a full work day, but he makes sure it ends in time for him and his assistants to have dinner with their families.
Otzelberger pulled off his whirlwind five-for-fiver despite having an NIL budget that is a far cry from the eight-figure sums that power the programs at Duke, Michigan, Kentucky, Louisville and the like. That forces him to squeeze the most out of every dollar, much like he squeezes his Dad bod into the snug golf shirts he wears on game day. “We’re not necessarily chasing the guys who are the top-50 guys in the portal. We’re more trying to find guys that have developmental value who we think could be a lot better than what others think,” he said. “The guys we signed may be undervalued by others, but we believe that because of their combination of character, work habits and talent that we’re going to be able to really develop them.”
Otzelberger started plotting his strategy as soon as the Cyclones lost to Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen on March 27. That gave him and his staff 11 days until the opening of the portal. They knew that three seniors — 6-foot-8 forward Josh Jefferson, 6-foot-1 point guard Tamin Lipsey and 6-foot-4 guard Nate Heise — were exhausting their eligibility. Otzelberger also spoke several times with 6-foot-8 forward Milan Momcilovic, so he knew that Momcilovic was likely to enter the NBA Draft. Momcilovic announced that intention on Sunday April 12, and though he he also put his name in the transfer portal, he is unlikely to play in college next season.
In the days before the portal opened, Otzelberger was also able to start negotiating contracts with his other two starters, 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Killyan Toure and 6-foot-11 senior forward Blake Buchanan, and his top two eligible reserves, 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Jamarion Batemon and 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Dominkas Pleta. He secured deals with all of them. “The highest paid guys on our team next year are going to be guys that started for us and won us games this year,” he said. “Those are the guys that have earned it in our program.”
Knowing they had a healthy but not excessive NIL budget, Otzelberger and his staff dug into the hundreds of players who had already let their intentions to transfer known and formulated their wish list. “We want very low-ego, self-aware, coachable guys that have a track record of winning and handling adversity,” he said. “Then we look for some connection to the upper midwest or our region, because it seems like those are the guys that have consistently performed well for us.”
They came up with five names: Leon Bond, a 6-foot-5 senior guard from Northern Iowa; Jaquan Johnson, a 5-foot-9 junior point guard from Bradley; Taj Manning, a 6-foot-7 senior forward from Kansas State; Ryan Prather, a 6-foot-5 senior guard from Robert Morris; and Tre Singleton, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Northwestern. When the portal officially opened on April 7, the coaches sprung into action. Otzelberger had recruited Bond and Manning while they were in high school, so he immediately set up campus visits for them. He had Zooms with the other three the first two days. “I told all of them, I know you’re going to Zoom with another school or two other schools. I’m going to call you back later tonight and see where we stand,” he said. “If we’re at the top of that list for you, I’m going to try to put a visit on the board. When you’re in decision-making mode, we’ll give you a valuation based on our formula that we’ve created. We remove emotion. It’s based on production and what you’ve done up to this point. We bring you on a visit, and if all that lines up and you want to be here, let’s do it.”
Time to Panic? Yes!
Time is running out for programs with decimated rosters to build contenders. Can schools like Kentucky and Kansas make dramatic comebacks?
Bond, Manning and Johnson came to Ames on Friday morning April 10. Singleton and Prather arrived on Saturday. Those were the only transfers who took campus visits. All five committed while they were in Ames. Bond’s decision hit social media on Friday afternoon. Manning’s, Johnson’s and Singleton’s came on Saturday. Prather put his out on Sunday. Just like that, it was over.
True, Otzelberger’s limited budget forced him to narrow his focus a little more than he might like, but there is something to be said for having to do more with less — especially since many of his competitors are doing less with more. “When you look at some high-dollar transfers, they don’t always work out,” he said. “You pay one guy a large sum of money, he could get hurt. He could not be a great teammate. He could not be a great practice guy.”
That’s not to say his transfer class is lacking in talent. Johnson, for example, was voted first team All-Missouri Valley Conference last season and was also named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. He and Prather are proven long-range shooters (Johnson converted 38.3 percent from three last season, Prather made 36.8 percent), which should help offset the loss of Momcilovic. Prather also led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.44). Otzelberger saw Singleton up close when Iowa State scrimmaged Northwestern in the preseason. Singleton ended up starting all but three games as a freshman and averaging 7.6 points. Bond played in a pack-line defense at UNI and made the Missouri Valley’s All-Defense team. Otzelberger thinks he will thrive even more in a more aggressive defensive system. “He can get a lot steals, get out in transition, fly around,” he said. “He’s very undervalued based on what we look at.”
Like any coach, Otzelberger wouldn’t mind having more resources. But if he didn’t believe his program could be competitive, he probably wouldn’t still be the coach there. He is frequently a target of the top programs around the country, not least because his $4 million annual salary and $4 million buyout is considerably less than those of many top coaches. Most recently, Otzelberger was on North Carolina’s short list of replacements for Hubert Davis, who was fired on March 24. The day after Davis was let go, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard wrote on Twitter that “TJ is not going anywhere – he will be our basketball coach for a long time!” Otzelberger echoed that sentiment later that day during his press conference. It’s noteworthy that the school never signed Otzelberger to a new contract extension, which is usually the case. If Otzelberger used the opportunity with North Carolina for leverage, it was likely around the subject of player salaries.
“We aim to run a program that’s really consistent and do things in a very systematic way,” he said. “It can be flattering if people outside take notice, but at the end of the day, I’m happy, my family’s happy, we’re excited where we’re at. So those conversations (with other schools) for us don’t go very far.”
Otzelberger’s incoming freshman class is ranked No. 11 nationally in the 247Sports Composite. It includes two players from the upper midwest (Minnesota and Wisconsin) and two internationals (from New Zealand and France) who played high school ball in the States. Combine that with the five transfers and four returnees, and he believes he has the makings of another team that can compete for a Big 12 title and advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and possibly beyond. “We’re trying to build an elite defensive team that can turn people over and create opportunities in transition,” he said. “We’ve got multiple ballhandlers, we’ve got a lot of team speed. I think we’ll really be able to play to our identity and play for each other.”
The other benefit to getting the roster put together so quickly is that Otzelberger and his staff can get an early jump on next season. The clock is always ticking, the planning never ends, and the work never stops, but Otzelberger has shown a penchant for staying a step ahead of the competition. It’s an edge he intends to keep.
Meet your guide
