Izaiah Brockington provides the ball down the court docket in Iowa State’s 60-50 get about Oregon State at Hilton Coliseum. (Jacqueline Cordova/Cyclone Fanatic)
AMES — Iowa State men’s basketball has cleared the initial hurdle.
The Cyclones are enjoyment once again. That point grew to become blatantly apparent in the course of Iowa State’s 60-50 acquire in excess of Oregon Condition on Friday, which moved the system to 2- beneath new head coach T.J. Otzelberger.
There was no keeping away from the measurement of rebuild Otzelberger was enterprise when he was hired as the program’s head coach previous spring. There are several hurdles to get in excess of as the method strives to return to the previous glory discovered past ten years, but they cleared a major one particular in the win around the Beavers.
Iowa Point out men’s basketball proved anything in opposition to Oregon State and they did it by playing smothering defense, diving on the flooring just after unfastened balls and enjoying with a reckless abandon we have not witnessed from the household crew at Hilton Coliseum in a lot of, several a long time.
Individuals factors all incorporate up to suggest a single issue — Iowa State men’s basketball is fun once more.
“We preach day-to-day behaviors in our method and how you do nearly anything is how you do anything,” Otzelberger said. “We talked about coming in below and building this with depth defensively, pressuring the basketball, definitely guarding the dribble, traveling all over having fees, diving for unfastened balls. That is to me what Cyclone basketball is and will be transferring forward.”
There was no larger objective for Otzelberger in this first year than getting a way to reengage a fanbase that experienced grow to be to some degree apathetic about its basketball method in the latter a long time of Steve Prohm’s tenure.
A poor product or service on the hardwood and an outstanding merchandise on the gridiron experienced pushed Cyclone men’s basketball into an irregular backseat situation. Enthusiast engagement was as low as it has been in far more than a ten years and, frankly, individuals just truly did not know if they really should care about basketball at Iowa State.
That was before Otzelberger reshaped the roster with transfers, locked down a four-star place guard from Wisconsin that committed to the previous staff and established to function…
