Iowa State Takes Mantle as Big 12’s National Title Contender

The No. 2 team in men’s college basketball beat a top-10 team (a blueblood, at that) Wednesday night. They did it without a single minute played by a former top-100 high school player.

Watching the Iowa State Cyclones’ 74–57 win over the Kansas Jayhawks on Wednesday night, you’d never have guessed the roundabout paths taken to Ames, Iowa, by their top talents. Their leading scorer (Curtis Jones, who Kansas coach Bill Self said looked like a first-team All-American) didn’t have a single Division I or II offer out of high school and wasn’t even ranked a top-150 transfer the year he enrolled at Iowa State. Their frontcourt, which dominated Kansas star Hunter Dickinson, contains players whose careers have taken them to Washington State, Charlotte, Seattle and Saint Mary’s before matriculating in Ames. Their clutch shotmaker? An Ames High School legend largely overlooked by any of the major recruiting services. 

“I think their evaluation [in] recruiting has been tremendous,” Self said postgame. “The pieces fit.” 

A team like this one, a true national title contender, has been slowly building at Iowa State since T.J. Otzelberger inherited a miserable 2–22 team in the spring of 2021. Going dancing (and making a Sweet 16 run at that) on the back of pure defensive grit in Year 1 laid the foundation. Tamin Lipsey, the Ames High product, entered in Year 2 and emerged as a star in Year 3. He got backcourt reinforcements before last season in Jones and Keshon Gilbert, who flanked him on a 29-win Big 12 tournament championship team a year ago. Now, the Cyclones have the frontcourt to match, supercharging an offense that often looked stuck in second gear over Otzelberger’s first three years.

Wednesday wasn’t Iowa State’s most efficient offensive day, beset by seven free throw misses and a shocking nine missed layups. But the difference in weapons from last year’s club? Night and day. That starts with Jones and Gilbert, who’ve made the jump as second-year transfers from effective backcourt mates to Lipsey into legitimate stars. Jones entered the night third in the Big 12 in scoring and should climb further up the list after 25 more points Wednesday, including an electrifying 20 in the first half. Gilbert has upped his scoring, assists and field goal percentage from a year ago, lightening the ballhandling load on Lipsey. They’ve also allowed the Cyclones to get out and run more, which has generated more easy buckets for an offense that needed them a year ago. 

“We have multiple guys that can push the break and get out and run,” Otzelberger said. “It’s really hard defensively because you’ve got to get back and get set because our guards are coming and looking to score.”

But the more pronounced difference from last year’s still-excellent club is the effectiveness with which its bigs can generate offense. That comes from three portal additions from the spring, Joshua Jefferson (Saint Mary’s Gaels), Dishon Jackson (Charlotte 49ers) and Brandton Chatfield (Seattle Redhawks). Jefferson is the lynchpin and perhaps the sport’s most overlooked addition. Even on a night where he left multiple buckets on the board with missed shots at the rim, he still stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. When he catches at the elbows, he’s a threat to drive, knock down the jumper or distribute, and the pressure that puts on defenses is immense. Then there’s Jackson, a more effective post scorer than anyone the Cyclones had in 2023–24, who matched a season-high with 17 points and outplayed a potential All-American in Dickinson. These two pickups, in particular, ranked as the No. 131 and No. 202 portal players in the spring, have completely changed Iowa State’s identity and elevated the Cyclones clearly into the sport’s top tier in the process. 

“If the other team tries to take somebody away, somebody else is going to make the play … We’ve got so many playmakers,” Jones said. “You’ve really got to pick your poison.” 

Combine this added offensive firepower with the same principles that have lifted Iowa State through its past offensive struggles, and you’ve got perhaps college basketball’s most complete team. The defensive execution Wednesday? Superb, limiting Kansas to under 0.8 points per possession and just 11 shots at the rim all night. The hustle plays? Still an Otzelberger special. 

“I bet you they get 75% of the 50-50 balls,” Self quipped. “We tried hard, but there’s a difference between trying hard and competing [against them].” 

Iowa State led for over 35 minutes, rarely even seeming threatened by the traditionally daunting Jayhawks. The Cyclones’ five Big 12 wins have come by an average of 14 points, the lone nail-biter an overtime rally past the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock over the weekend. In all, ISU has won 12 straight, its only setback this season an 83–81 thriller in Maui against the No. 1 Auburn Tigers. Iowa State led by as many as 18 before a furious Auburn rally. The Tigers and the Duke Blue Devils get much of the typical praise as No. 1A and 1B in the national picture, but performances like Wednesday’s show Iowa State clearly belongs in that same conversation. 

Kansas has been the Big 12’s standard-bearer since the league’s existence. Iowa State has now beaten the Jayhawks in Ames in three straight years, each time less surprising than the last. Iowa State may not measure up recruiting rankings-wise with the nation’s elite, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better program right now in college basketball.