Iowa

What Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said after losing to BYU

Published

1 year ago

March 5, 2025

What Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said after losing to BYU

For just the second time in the past two years, Iowa State has lost at home.

The 10th-ranked Cyclones fell to No. 23 BYU 88-85 in a dramatic, double overtime affair Tuesday night that should go down as one of the most memorable contests in all of college basketball this season.

“BYU deserves a lot of credit in how they came in here and how they played, but at the same time we know we had our chances and we had our opportunities,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger told reporters after the game. “So that should be frustrating, and then what you do is you learn from it and become better for it.”

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The Cyclones’ defensive pressure troubled BYU early, with the Cougars failing to find the scoreboard until nearly seven minutes had been played.

Once they woke up, however, the Cougars were off to the races, ending the first half on a 23-7 run. They then went on a 21-9 tear coming out of halftime to lead by 21 points with 13 minutes left to play in regulation.

“When we dug ourself a hole and were down 21, and it’s unacceptable on our end to allow our offensive disappointment to permeate our defense,” Otzelberger said. “We were careless in transition defense, we were not as locked in and we dug ourself a substantial hole.

“That is where, to me, the game was decided over that 15 or 16 minute stretch, where we put ourself in that tough spot. … We set the tone physically defensively right from the jump, and then they adjusted and drove the ball with more force. To their credit, that got them back into the game and helped them build that (winning) margin, and we weren’t as tough as we needed to be.”

Iowa State stormed back with a vengeance, closing out the second half on a 35-14 heater to tie the score, stun the Cougars and force overtime.

Though he appreciated the effort from his players to rally back, Otzelberger was still disappointed in them having been in such a position in the first place.

“Credit to our guys and their fight for continuing to compete and get back into it, but at the same time, you can’t (slow down) against good teams. You’ve got to have more pride,” he said. “It’s a lesson that we should have learned by now and should never have to learn again.”

Following two five-minute overtime periods, BYU escaped with a three-point victory, having forced a shot clock violation on the Cyclones in the final seconds to seal the hard-fought road upset.

Shockingly, the Cougars won despite committing a jarring 29 turnovers Tuesday night. BYU was able to overcome such ugliness in the rebounding battle, grabbing 52 total boards — with 17 coming on the offensive glass — to Iowa State’s 24.

In overtime alone, the Cougars outrebounded the Cyclones 12 to four.

“We turned them over more because we were playing faster, more quicker lineups and were able to pressure the basketball, and (with that) what you give up is a little bit of size and physicality on the glass,” Otzelberger said. “At the same time, I know that our guys are competitors, and it can’t be that every shot that we miss in the end of regulation and both overtimes that (BYU) gets the rebound. It can’t happen, that’s not OK … we’ve got to do a great job finishing on the glass, and we didn’t.

“There’s a part in defensive rebounding where if you want to win bad enough, you just find a way to get (rebounds), regardless of what’s going on. They had more fight on the glass to get the offensive rebound than we did to get the defensive rebound, unfortunately.”

With the loss, BYU captures the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 tournament along with a double bye. Iowa State, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, will face the winner of a No. 12 and No. 13 seed matchup next Wednesday.

Should the Cyclones win that game, they would earn a rematch with the Cougars in the tournament quarterfinals.

“We’ve talked to our guys a lot about our best being in front of us, and you don’t just speak it into existence. You’ve got to earn it with hard work and with what you do in practice and then demand that consistency of those habits in the game and not be a team that plays great for stretches and plays awful for stretches,” Otzelberger said.

““For a group that has a lot of older, experienced guys, we need to be a lot more mature as a team and play through those things instead of reacting to those things.”

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Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

11 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

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Iowa

Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

Published

23 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Luke Truesdell’s attorney has filed as of Sunday to appeal his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Truesdell was sentenced last week to three consecutive life sentences plus 50 years for the deaths of four people killed in rural Linn County.

A jury convicted Luke Truesdell, 36, in November on the first-degree murder of Brent Brown, 34; his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids; and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton. They also found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids.

His attorneys previously argued multiple reasons for a retrial that could potentially be brought up again.

They said that one juror was overheard talking about news on the case.

They also said the prosecutors inflamed the jury, rather than focusing on the facts.

His lawyers said there is no direct evidence that Truesdell committed the murders.

Truesdell’s defense also pointed to Truesdell’s father, Larry Tuesdell, who was found covered in blood at the scene but never fully investigated. Authorities have not been able to locate Larry.

The state disagreed, citing overwhelming evidence including DNA on the murder weapon, eyewitness testimony and video of Truesdell entering the garage where the four people were found dead.

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Iowa

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

The Iowa high school boys state basketball tournament is just around the corner and the full field has now been set.

By March 13, four teams will be crowned state champions and there are plenty of worthy squads vying for the title. On Tuesday, the final brackets were released and we now have a clear picture of the eight teams in each class hoping to take home the trophy.

Here’s a look at the first-round pairings and the full state tournament schedule for next week’s IHSAA action.