Tamin Lipsey grew up in Ames, Iowa, and both his parents work at Iowa State. It was a no-brainer that he would want to become a Cyclone, especially after leading Ames High School to a state championship and being named Iowa’s Mr. Basketball. That is, until he learned the team practiced at 8 a.m. each morning. “It was definitely a concern, if I’m being honest,” Lipsey told Hoops HQ. “There’s not a lot of people that like to wake up super early in the morning and get to work.”
The early practice is just one of many entries on the daily schedule for an Iowa State basketball player. Just as Cyclones coach T.J. Otzelberger likes to stuff his dad bod into a too-tight polo, so too does he load up his players’ daily calendars. Their day actually starts at 6:30 a.m. when they report to the practice facility. They get taped up in the training room, eat a light breakfast together, do some stretching and shooting on the court, and then commence practice at 8. They leave from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to attend classes and then spend the rest of the day at the facility, shuffling from meetings to the video room to lunch to study hall to the weight room to individual or small group workouts. They conclude with one last meal together and then head home around 5 p.m.
That type of structure might seem excessive, even by the standards of the modern college athlete. But Otzelberger is convinced that the regimented routine is the secret sauce in his recipe for success at Iowa State. “We really believe we win with the schedule. That’s our winning edge,” he said. “When we conclude our day, they should feel great about what they accomplished.”
The ethos fits Otzelberger’s midwestern sensibilities and understated intensity. He came back to Ames to undertake the tall task of revitalizing a program that had bottomed out with a 2-22 record during the Covid-addled 2020-21 season. Since then, Otzelberger’s program is a beacon of excellence and consistency. The Cyclones played in the NCAA Tournament in each of his first four seasons, twice advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Despite losing seven players and two of their top three scorers of last season’s 25-10 squad, they are No. 15 in Bart Torvik’s preseason rankings and will enter the season as one of the preseason favorites to win the Big 12.
“We want to be a program of great character and integrity with guys that take a lot of pride in doing the right thing on and off the court,” Otzelberger, 47, told Hoops HQ. “We want to be a consistent program that stands by those ideals year in and year out.”
Otzelberger was no stranger to the program when he took over as head coach. From 2006-13 he worked as an assistant under Greg McDermott and Fred Hoiberg. That enabled him to gain an understanding of the program and develop a close relationship with athletic director Jamie Pollard. He later gained valuable head coaching experience during three seasons at South Dakota State, where he took the Jackrabbits to two NCAA Tournaments, and two seasons at UNLV.
It was at South Dakota State where Otzelberger first came up with the idea to practice first thing in the morning. He liked the discipline it forged and the flexibility it afforded later in the day, but mostly he just wanted to be home for dinner with his wife and three young children. “Maybe it was selfish, but that was something that was important to me,” he said. “I want to have balance in the midst of the chaos that comes our way.”
To this day, Otzelberger is vigilant about making sure his assistant coaches spend ample time with their families as well. “It allows everyone to get re-centered,” he said. That is a reflection of Otzelberger’s balanced approach to life and work. He applies that same philosophy to roster building. Though most coaches lean heavily towards bringing in older players via the transfer portal, Otzelberger likes to build his teams through a blend of retention, transfers and traditional high school recruiting. He signed four transfers last spring (although Mason Williams, a 6-foot-5 junior transfer from Eastern Washington, had hip surgery this summer and will be out for the season), but he also brought in four freshmen, most notably 6-foot-3 Milwaukee native Jamarion Batemon, who is ranked No. 55 in the 247Sports Composite.
“College basketball has gotten older and we recognize that, but at the same time I believe the player development piece and recruiting guys that we really believe in gives you a chance to build trust,” Otzelberger said. “I think those relationships are very valuable and important when you talk about culture and buy-in and program pride.”
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This season’s team will rely heavily on three returning starters. That starts with Lipsey, a rare throwback who is entering his fourth season at the same school. The 6-foot-1 point guard has started all 103 games he has played at Iowa State and has a chance to become one of the top two winningest players in the history of the program.
Lipsey admits he was tempted to test the transfer market following his junior season, but he was convinced that Iowa State was still the right place for him. “It was definitely super crazy this past year with the amounts of money that were thrown around,” he said. “At the end of the day, I was happy with the place I was at and the relationships I’ve built. And along with that, they’ve done a great job of treating us well with NIL and doing what they can for us.”
Lipsey was considered a three-star prospect and was not ranked in the top 100 of the Recruiting Services Consensus Index. The same can be said for most of the players Otzelberger has brought to Ames. The highest-ranked recruit Otzelberger has signed, 6-foot-8 freshman forward Omaha Biliew, was the school’s second-ever McDonald’s All-American, but he barely played as a freshman two years ago and transferred to Wake Forest. “A lot of our guys aren’t super big names who got talked about all the time,” Lipsey said. “We all have a chip on our shoulder and just want to come in and work hard and earn everything we have.”
The other two returning starters are Josh Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 senior forward who is the leading returning scorer (13.4 points per game), and Milan Momcilovic, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who averaged 11.5 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting 39.6 percent from three-point range. The team is also bringing back 6-foot-4 senior guard Nate Heise, who has a chance to start after ranking seventh in minutes last season. Jefferson missed much of the summer due to a groin injury, but Momcilovic has been healthy and active. “He has had probably as good of a summer as anyone since we’ve been here,” Otzelberger said. “He looks like an entirely different player than he did a year ago.”
Otzelberger’s ability to replenish his roster speaks well of the Name, Image and Likeness resources he was able to marshal during the boom market last spring. That level of spending is probably not sustainable, so like many of his coaching peers, Otzelberger is hopeful that the new revenue sharing paradigm will create a more level playing field. “I don’t think Iowa State’s ever going to be the top NIL program in the country, not does anyone expect it to be” he said. “But I feel good about where we’re positioned moving forward.”
Last season’s squad was by far the best offensive team of Otzelberger’s career. The Cyclones ranked No. 19 in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom, and though Otzelberger notes that they “were not as good defensively,” they were still No. 13 in that category. He is optimistic the Cyclones will maintain their standards at both ends of the court this season and evince the excellence and consistency that have become hallmarks of Otzelberger’s tenure. “We’re excited about the group,” he said. “They’ve been very workmanlike in getting ready to attack this fifth season.”
In other words, things are right on schedule.
