Jan 26, 2022; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Iowa State Cyclones guard Izaiah Brockington (1) reacts after shooting a three point basket against the Oklahoma State Cowboys during overtime at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports
AMES — Izaiah Brockington does not remember exactly when he knew this Iowa State team had potential, but he does recall the people who told them they didn’t have much of a future.
Those outsiders from the world of basketball attended the Cyclones’ practices in the preseason. According to Brockington, plus teammates Gabe Kalscheur and George Conditt, those outsiders walked away unimpressed with T.J. Otzelberger‘s first team in Ames.
The Cyclones got the last laugh — and, for the first time in three years, Iowa State is dancing again.
The program will make its NCAA Tournament return official on Friday when the 11-seed Cyclones take on No. 6 seed LSU in Milwaukee as part of the Midwest region.
“We had outsiders come in and look at our practices and tell us that we were going to stink,” Brockington said. “Multiple people that were like, ‘You know, you guys play hard. So, you know, good luck.’ We all kind of took that as motivation. We all just believed in each other and believed in what we had and the direction that we were headed. It was really early on we felt like we could do something.”
The Cyclones did do something, resurrecting the program from its winless conference record a season ago by starting the year 12-0, finishing sixth in the Big 12 and ranking among the top-five teams in the country in the coveted quad one win category.
Iowa State did something that nobody in their right mind would have predicted in the preseason, and the culmination of that arrives this week.
“I don’t think anybody would have expected us to be in the tournament this year,” Otzelberger said. “For our guys, when our back was against the wall, and we were pretty candid about we needed to win four more games. It probably was four more games, three more probably wouldn’t have been enough, based on where we were seeded. Really proud of our guys to do that as well.”
“As the season wears on, and you’re playing in the best league in the country, and you get knocked down and you get back up and you get knocked down and you get back up, it’s a different mental effect you have to go through in the Big 12. I’m not saying that leagues aren’t good, but we had to rebound ourselves late. Guys got the four wins when we needed. Now it’s time to have a lot of confidence to go play someone outside the Big 12.”
Brockington, Kalscheur and Conditt are the only members of this Iowa State team with any level of NCAA Tournament experience. While that trio has combined to play only 84 minutes in the Big Dance, they’ll be the ones tasked with preparing their teammates for what’s coming.
“What we did today at practice is we had them explain what an awesome opportunity it is,” Otzelberger said. “It was neat to have Izaiah in front of our group, he’s waited four years to be back (in the tournament), and talk about the 14 minutes he played over two games, and how much he can remember plays from that. Hopefully, our guys all took something from that and how impactful those minutes were.”
“Here’s a guy who’s first-team All-Big 12, and you have seven minutes a game in two games, and he was going through and recounting one play after another.”
Those 14 minutes for Brockington came during his freshman season at St. Bonaventure in 2018. He scored five points, dished two assists and grabbed two rebounds in those 14 minutes, but he still remembers them like they were yesterday.
Conditt played only four minutes in Iowa State’s first-round loss to Ohio State back in 2019, grabbing one rebound and blocking one shot. While he remembers those four minutes, it is the feeling that followed the Cyclones’ season-ending loss that he most vividly remembers.
“I don’t want to feel that,” Conditt said. “I want to make sure that feeling is long down the line. So, just keep winning games.”
The Cyclones will try to just keep winning games while playing in the now-familiar position of being an underdog.
Oddsmakers have pegged Iowa State as five-point underdogs to the Tigers, who will be without head coach Will Wade after he was fired on Saturday due to his well-known NCAA violations tied to the FBI college basketball scandal.
That certainly won’t phase this group, though. They’ve been doubted from the minute they started working together last summer.
“Being here for four years, only going one time, and now this being my second time, going through what I went through last two years, especially last year, it’s an amazing feeling to get this program back to where it needed to be,” Conditt said. “In the beginning, when I had conversations with TJ, man, I said my main objectives were, I’ll be a great teammate and to get this team back with another plaque on the wall, add another tournament plaque on the wall. We accomplished that.”
People can doubt all they want, but there’s only one fact that matters.
Against all odds, the Cyclones are dancing again.
