Every day at 7 a.m., the Iowa State men’s basketball team meets for breakfast. Thirty minutes later, they step onto the practice floor and get to work. T.J. Otzelberger, the Cyclones’ first-year coach, has been operating this way ever since he got his first head coaching job at South Dakota State in 2016. There are many advantages to the early starts — the players are fresh, they have the rest of the day to do academics and skill work, Otzelberger gets to have dinner every night with his young family — but the biggest benefit is the mindset they produce. “The way I see the world is, you get up earlier, you do more,” Otzelberger says. “We’re trying to start the day out in front and then keep our lead.”
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Three weeks into the 2021-22 season, Iowa State is winning earlier and more often than anyone could have imagined for a program coming off a 2-22 campaign that ended with the firing of sixth-year coach Steve Prohm. Otzelberger, who had just finished up his second year at UNLV and spent eight seasons as an assistant at Iowa State under three different head coaches, was tapped to replace Prohm and immediately restocked the roster with six transfers and a highly-ranked freshman. Now the new-look Cyclones are off to a surprising 6-0 start that includes two wins over ranked teams last week at the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn. On Wednesday, Iowa State beat No. 25 Xavier, 82-70, and then two nights later the Cyclones obliterated No. 9 Memphis, 78-59. That put this team in a position to return to the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since March 2019.
The main reason for this pleasant surprise is that two of the transfers are considerably better than advertised. The Cyclones’ best player has been Izaiah Brockington, a 6-4 senior guard from Penn State who leads the team in scoring (15.5 points per game) and rebounding (7.2). Brockington shot 27.3 percent from 3 during his two seasons at Penn State. (He played his freshman season at St. Bonaventure.) Brockington isn’t naturally an alpha — “He’s a pleaser,” Otzelberger says — but he has flourished largely because Otzelberger gave him the green light to take mid-range jump shots. That goes against the tenets of modern analytics, which dictate that a team should take only 3-pointers and layups, but it has done wonders for Brockington’s confidence. Against Xavier he scored a game-high 30 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting and is making 38.5 percent from behind the arc on the season.
The other top transfer, 6-4 senior guard Gabe Kalscheur from Minnesota, also came in with a reputation as a bricklayer after making 24.5 percent from 3 as a junior, a drastic decline from the 41.0 percent he converted as a freshman. At Minnesota, Kalscheur was usually relegated to a 3-and-D role beside Marcus Carr, the Golden Gophers’ outstanding point guard. Otzelberger has given him the ball and turned him loose. Kalscheur is averaging 14.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists, and though he is shooting just 25.8 percent from 3, he made 3 of 5 from behind the arc against Memphis and scored a game-high 30 points to go along with eight rebounds, five steals and two assists. He also took the Tigers’ heralded freshman Emoni Bates out of the game. Bates finished with 12 points, but seven of those came in the last four minutes after the outcome was already decided.
“When Gabe got here in June you could see him working through things, but he took off in July and it was obvious that he could be special,” Otzelberger says. “We’re empowering him to be a playmaking guard. He’s good on the move, he’s good coming off screens. He’s a complete player.”
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The Cyclones’ third key contributor has been 6-0 freshman point guard Tyrese Hunter. A consensus top 50 recruit out of Racine, Wis., Hunter re-opened his commitment after Iowa State fired Prohm. Otzelberger re-recruited him with an assist from his friend and mentor, Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who put in a good word with his cousin, Nick, Hunter’s high school coach. It also helped that Daniyal Robinson, the assistant who had recruited Hunter, remained on Otzelberger’s staff. Hunter came to Iowa State largely because he knew he’d have a chance to be the starting point guard, and he has shown an uncommon maturity while averaging 13.2 points, 5.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds. Hunter lost both his parents from illnesses before he was 13, so he’s unlikely to be flummoxed by anything that happens on a basketball court. “He takes coaching as well as anybody I’ve ever coached,” Otzelberger says. “His greatest quality is the ability to fix mistakes and bounce back from adversity or frustration.”
No doubt Hunter and his teammates will have to call on that mindset in the months ahead. For all the promise on display last week, Otzelberger is acutely aware that this is the same group that shot 1 of 20 from 3-point range against Alabama State in its third game. “It’s nice that our guys have experienced some success,” he says. “But we’re 19 percent into a 31-game regular season, and we’ve got a long way to go.” Still, no one could have anticipated that the Cyclones would be this good this early. They’ve got themselves a nice lead, and it will be fun watching them try to keep it.
New team, same old story for Baylor
Is Baylor as good as it was last season? It would be hard to say yes considering the Bears lost just two games in 2020-21 and won the NCAA championship, but make no mistake: This squad is plenty capable of winning another title. That much was clear last week as the Bears rolled through Arizona State, VCU and Michigan State to win the Battle 4 Atlantis. “This team doesn’t have near the experience that last year’s team had,” Baylor coach Scott Drew told me by phone on Sunday. “We’ve got four new guys. We liked what we had, but you never know for sure until the lights come on and they have to prove it. To win three games in three days, you’ve got to have some toughness about you.”
The most important new player, 6-1 senior point guard James Akinjo, is still adjusting to playing more of a facilitating role than he did last season at Arizona, when he was a volume shooter who averaged a team-best 15.6 points per game but shot just 37.9 percent. So far Akinjo is averaging 10.1 points on 37.3 percent shooting for Baylor, and he needed 14 shots to score 15 points in the win over the Spartans in the final. Akinjo shot 32.3 percent in the Bahamas and had nearly as many turnovers (12) as assists (14), but he still walked away with the MVP trophy.
Drew told me he still wants Akinjo to be a potent scorer, but that as he grows more comfortable with his new teammates, he will hopefully become more efficient. “The idea is for him to score more points on less shots,” Drew said. “It’s just a matter of chemistry. It takes time to know where guys want to catch the ball, who to throw it to in certain situations.”
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The other good news for Baylor is that Drew played eight guys double-digit minutes in each of the three games in the Bahamas, and all of them had an impact. The team’s sixth man, 6-1 sophomore guard LJ Cryer, is leading the Bears in scoring at 14.7 points per game. Four players are averaging double-figure scoring, and even ninth man Dale Bonner, a 6-2 sophomore guard, has shown he can help in spot duty. “If you’re relying on two or three guys, it’s a problem because they’re not going to be good on every night,” Drew said. We’ll find out just how good this Baylor team is a week from Sunday when it hosts Villanova, but as long as the Bears remain healthy, they will be very much back in the hunt.
Other Hoop Thoughts
• It flew well under the radar, but I could make a case that Xavier’s 59-58 win over Virginia Tech on Friday in Brooklyn was the best win of Thanksgiving week. The Musketeers were ravaged by a non-COVID-19 virus that kept three starters out of action. A key reserve, 6-4 senior guard Adam Kunkel, missed the team’s previous game against Iowa State, and Xavier’s best player, 6-5 senior guard Paul Scruggs, was a shell of himself. (He had eight points combined on 3-of-20 shooting in the two games.) On top of all that, the team was still playing without 6-9 junior forward Zach Freemantle, who was a preseason All-Big East selection after leading the team in points and rebounds last season. Freemantle had foot surgery six weeks ago and has been medically cleared to return.
Yet, the Musketeers squeaked by an NCAA Tournament-caliber Virginia Tech squad behind a career-high 30 points (7 of 11 from 3) from 6-4 senior guard Nate Johnson. That’s a pretty remarkable display of mental fortitude. When this team gets all its players healthy, it will be awfully hard to beat.
• We’re used to seeing Wisconsin set the standard for age and experience, but this young, newfangled batch of Badgers grew up before our eyes last week. Wisconsin lost six seniors from last season, it is starting a freshman point guard for the first time in 19 years, and the average age of its starting lineup went from 22.6 to 19.8. Yet, the Badgers beat Texas A&M, Houston and Saint Mary’s to win the Maui Invitational in Las Vegas.
Wisconsin’s only loss so far this season came at home to Providence on Nov. 15 when its best player, 6-5 sophomore guard Johnny Davis, was out with a lower leg injury. Davis showed his value last week by averaging 23.7 points and 6.7 rebounds and being named tourney MVP. These young guys are only going to get better and more cohesive as the season goes on. Could it be that Wisconsin, and not Michigan or Illinois, will be Purdue’s biggest challenger in the Big Ten?
• As for Illinois, there aren’t many high-major teams that are dealing with as many disruptions as the Illini — and it shows. Illinois needed a career-high 38 points from 7-0 junior center Kofi Cockburn to put away pesky Texas-Rio Grande Valley at home, 94-85, on Friday. Trent Frazier, who missed the season opener with a shoulder injury, sat out because of a knee injury he sustained during a win over Kansas State on Nov. 23. So, too, did sophomore point guard Andre Curbelo, who is still feeling the effects of a concussion he suffered during an exhibition game. Super senior guard Jacob Grandison was also unavailable because of the flu, and heralded transfer Austin Hutcherson is still ineffective after missing the first three games because of a tailbone injury. The upshot of all this is that Illinois has yet to play a game with all its scholarship players, and the ones who are available are far from their best. Good thing it’s only late November.
• Michigan, meanwhile, looked wobbly while fending off Tarleton State at home on Wednesday, 65-54. The Wolverines all but frittered away a 16–point second-half lead and committed a whopping 21 turnovers in the loss. Two things are evident thus far with this team. First, 6-1 senior point guard DeVante’ Jones is still finding his way while dealing with the upgrade from Coastal Carolina. Second, if 6-8 senior forward Brandon Johns can’t be more of a legit stretch four (12.5 percent from 3), then he will continue to do more harm than good on the offensive end. Defenses don’t have to play Johns on the pick-and-pop, which leaves them free to crowd Hunter Dickinson in the post. The Wolverines better solve these two problems quickly, because they’re playing at North Carolina on Wednesday night.
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• On a happier note, you’ve gotta feel good for Northern Iowa junior guard A.J. Green, who had 35 points on 9-of-15 3-point shooting in the Panthers’ 90-80 win at then-No. 16 St. Bonaventure on Saturday. Green was voted the Missouri Valley Conference’s player of the year as a sophomore, but he only played three games last season before undergoing season-ending surgery on his left hip. Less than two months later, he had another surgery on his right hip The Panthers returned all five starters from last season, and though they started off with home losses to Nicholls State and Vermont, the win over the Bonnies, combined with Green’s apparent resurgence, indicates they could be a legit threat to win the Valley.
• I know Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren have been 1 and 1A in the top freshmen (and No.1 draft pick) conversations, but more people need to be flapping their gums about Auburn’s Jabari Smith. I’m not saying he’s as good as Kevin Durant (no one is, obviously), but Smith sure looks like KD at times. He weighs all of 220 pounds on his 6-10 frame, and he is averaging a team-best 16.3 points and 7.0 rebounds for the Tigers while also dishing 2.0 assists per game. Smith has shot 13 of 30 from 3 (43.4 percent) and is an astounding 21 of 25 from the foul line, including a 12-of-12 performance in the double-overtime loss to UConn at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Smith isn’t playing for a top-two team, so he’s not generating the same buzz as Banchero and Holmgren, but it’s only a matter of time.
• It is shocking to me that Washington and Pittsburgh are struggling the way they are under Mike Hopkins and Jeff Capel, respectively. Those guys played for and coached under Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski for many years, respectively, but through last weekend their teams’ records were a combined 6-10. That includes home losses to Northern Illinois, Wyoming and Winthrop for Washington, and to The Citadel, Vanderbilt and UMBC for Pitt. It’s not yet December, but it sure got late early for those teams.
• Speaking of shock, even Dana Altman is at a loss to explain Oregon’s poor play of late. You’d think the Ducks, who were ranked No. 13 in the AP’s preseason poll because of the supposed quality of their transfers, would have bounced back after getting drilled by BYU by 32 points in Portland on Nov. 15, but Oregon went to Las Vegas for the Maui Invitational and lost by 12 points to Saint Mary’s and 29 points to Houston. Unlike the case with Illinois and some other top teams, the Ducks can’t blame their struggles on injuries, illnesses or other personnel issues. They’ve just been really bad — especially on defense, where they allowed the Gaels and Cougars to make a combined 51.9 percent from the floor. At 3-3, they are off to the program’s worst start in 13 years. “How we’ve regressed so far in two weeks just shocks me,” Altman said.
• This is a big week for Louisville as coach Chris Mack rejoins the team following a six-game suspension. The school penalized Mack for his failure to follow university guidelines after former assistant Dino Gaudio threatened to report minor rules violations to the NCAA. The Cardinals went 5-1 under interim coach Mike Pegues, with a loss at home to Furman and a win over Maryland on a neutral court. Mack won’t have time to ease his way into the season as the Cardinals play at Michigan State on Wednesday as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
• The two biggest shots made last week were the buzzer-beating runner by Dayton sophomore forward Mustapha Amzil that sank Kansas (it was Amzil’s only bucket of the game), and the 30-foot 3-pointer from Florida senior guard Tyree Appleby that beat Ohio State. Appleby’s basket was even more delicious considering Gators coach Mike White declined to call timeout even though he had three of them left. Waaaayyy too many coaches call time out in that situation, but White trusted his player and got the result he deserved. Take a look:
🚨 AT THE BUZZER!!!!!!!! 🚨 @Lil_App04 WINS IT FOR @Gatorsmbk‼️ pic.twitter.com/tMR5qUE9fd
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) November 25, 2021
Five games I’m psyched to see this week
• Duke at Ohio State, Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN. The Blue Devils are riding high from their big win over Gonzaga, so they’ll have to guard against an emotional letdown. The Buckeyes, who have lost two of their last three games, have a frontcourt that is big, deep and talented enough to battle with the vaunted Duke big men in the paint. But Ohio State’s balky backcourt of 6-1 senior Jamari Wheeler, 6-2 sophomore Meechie Johnson Jr. and 6-5 freshman Malaki Branham better take care of the basketball, because the Blue Devils are lethal in transition.
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• Florida State at Purdue, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN. The Seminoles needed a late tip-in to beat Boston University in overtime at home on Wednesday. They didn’t play over the weekend, so Leonard Hamilton will have six days to get his team ready for the Boilermakers. FSU strikes me as a team that will play both down and up to the level of its competition. Beating Purdue in Mackey is a very tall order, but Florida State is once again the tallest team in the country, according to KenPom.com. Who else but Hamilton would bring three seven-footers off the bench?
• Michigan at North Carolina, Wednesday, 9:15 p.m., ESPN. Seeing these teams paired together conjures memories of Chris Webber’s ill-fated time-out call, but these two proud programs have been anything but lustrous so far this season. The Wolverines tumbled down the polls following losses to Seton Hall and Arizona, and the Tar Heels fell completely out of the rankings after Tennessee smacked them 89-72. The mano-a-mano battle to watch will be in the post between Michigan’s sophomore center Hunter Dickinson and North Carolina’s 6-10 junior forward Armando Bacot. The Tar Heels could also use a big game from their feast-or-famine forward Dawson Garcia, a 6-11 sophomore transfer from Marquette who scored 26 points in a loss to Purdue and 12 points total in the two games since.
• Alabama vs. Gonzaga, Saturday, 8 p.m., ESPN2. This game is in Seattle so it’s technically a neutral-site game, but it’s a lot closer to Spokane than Tuscaloosa. Both these teams love to push the pace and let it fly. First one to 100 wins! The Zags will need to be smarter with the ball than they were in their game against Duke, when they coughed the ball up 17 times and allowed the Blue Devils to score 23 points off those turnovers to Gonzaga’s two.
• Marquette at Wisconsin, Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Fox. Marquette may have a new coach in Shaka Smart, but he grew up in Oregon, Wis., which is a dozen miles south of Madison, so he knows all about the intensity of this rivalry. The Golden Eagles have beaten Illinois at home and West Virginia on a neutral court, but they also lost to St. Bonaventure on a neutral court even though the Bonnies shot 2 of 17 from 3. Marquette’s offense will have to be at peak efficiency to knock off a Wisconsin team that is brimming with confidence after winning the Maui Invitational in Las Vegas last week.
(Top photo of Iowa State’s Gabe Kalscheur: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)