AMES – It’s worth, just before the outset of a hugely anticipated Iowa State basketball season, to trace the expectations back to the source.
The Cyclones went 29-8 overall and 13-5 in the Big 12, once again the country’s best conference, last season. A strong accomplishment, yes, but it’s not really the reason the Cyclones are likely to open the 2024-25 campaign ranked in the top-10.
No, these rankings and the hype attached to them are much more a product of recency bias. Or, probably better put, big stage bias.
When the lights were on, when the stakes were the highest and the entire country was paying attention – which, in this case, is the survive-and-advance gauntlet of March – how did you perform?
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Coach T.J. Otzelberger’s fourth Iowa State team will begin this season among the favorites to make a Final Four run and win a national championship because his third team won the Big 12 Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16.
“For the last three years when we came in, there (wasn’t) any expectation,” Otzelberger said Wednesday at the program’s annual media day, “and I recognize that now as the guys that have been here before have done the hard work and performed, that now there is an outside expectation.”
So we know this year’s expectations are driven by last year’s postseason accomplishments, but let’s track that success back even further. Why, exactly, did the Cyclones play their best ball those last weeks of the year?
The answer is largely because its backcourt was, dare I say, en fuego.
Tamin Lipsey, Keshon Gilbert and Curtis Jones, simply, were awesome. And they’re all back.
“That was a great dynamic for us,” Otzelberger said. “Certainly going to happen again this year, they’ll be out there again together and have opportunities together.”
That trio was the fuel for Iowa State’s romp through Kansas City and then sprint to Boston as they finished a play or two away from making the program’s first Elite Eight since 2000.
Lipsey averaged 11.7 points, 5.2 assists, 2 steals and 4.5 rebounds in 33 minutes per game while averaging under 1 turnover, shooting 49% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc in those six games. Gilbert tallied 14.5 points, 4.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.2 steals while shooting 51.7% overall and 50% from deep. Jones posted 12.3 points connected on 40% of his long-range shots and kept the Cyclones afloat in the Swet 16 against Illinois with 26 points.
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Again, on fire.
Beyond the numbers, though, that trio worked exceedingly well together. Their play was complementary. Enmeshed. Symbiotic. As well as three collegiate guards can play off one another, Lipsey, Gilbert and Jones were doing it those last weeks.
“I felt like when we got on the court together,” Gilbert said, “everything went right.”
Which is all well and good, and it certainly was a helluva lotta fun to watch, but that was last year. This is this year. And the chemistry those three had isn’t bottled up somewhere. They have the formula, sure, but it’s probably going to take some time to recreate that level of cohesion again.
It probably takes the grind of a season, most importantly the crucible of the Big 12 – two brawls a week for two months – to achieve that type of synergy.
“Obviously it’s going to carry over,” Lipsey said. “Playing a whole year together, we know things about each other. So obviously it’s going to help.
“But it’s getting back into playing. Once we get back into playing, it’ll be remembering the feeling.”
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That trio’s strength is that they play so well together, that their skills work in concert with one another. But it’s also helpful that they can spell one another. Lipsey’s bulldozing style needs some breaks. Gilbert’s attack-the-rim mentality needs a breather. Jones’ 3-point prowess needs a counter.
And all three can cover in those moments, however it’s needed.
“It helps we’re selfless guys,” Jones said. “We want the next man to do just as well as us. That really helps.
“And it’s genuine. Sometimes a coach might want to force something or as a player you might try to force it, but it’s just natural.”
The Cyclones were great in the last weeks of last season because Lipsey, Gilbert and Jones were incredible.
While they’ll need Milan Momcilovic to take the next step and it will require a frontcourt to be rebuilt for them to be truly great again in 2024-25, that guard trio is a non-negotiable.
If Iowa State is going to continue its ascent up the college basketball hierarchy this season, if the Cyclones are going to trod further into March, it’s going to require those three to find that harmony that produced symphonic basketball last spring.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
