AMES — Iowa State basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger is no expert salesman, but his Cyclones have bought into his offer and invested in his process-driven philosophies and growth-focused daily habits.
What exactly is his offer, though? It’s simple — if players make their deal work, there will be more minutes and playing opportunities headed their way.
The “deal” looks different for each player that takes the court, but they are all rooted in the same principles: bring energy, lean into individual strengths and positively impact the game in a way that helps the winning effort.
With a deep 10-man rotation and only 40 minutes in a college basketball game, everyone’s determined to make their end of the bargain work.
“It’s more of a situation where we’re looking at it and saying, you have an opportunity to go in there and impact winning and if you do that at a high level, we’ll continue to give you more opportunities in the night of the game,” Otzelberger said. “It’s a great thing for our guys to know that they have those opportunities and it’s their responsibility to make your deal work, to make it go your way.”
There are certain non-negotiables, like playing with maximum effort on both ends of the floor. There are also primary objectives for each player and any other positives are additional bonuses.
For Dominick Nelson, it’s using his slashing ability to get to the paint and the foul line. Defensively, he has to be disruptive off the bench, get steals and rebounds.
“Coach always says ‘instant impact,’ and I feel like I have to do that, especially coming off the bench. There could be times where our team needs it,” Nelson said. “Me being able to provide that energy is going to be a huge thing for this team, I feel like, and it feels good for me to know what I need to do right away.”
A player like Nate Heise, who is referred to as a “sixth starter,” his deal involves being a communicative and versatile defender, strong rebounding guard and a 3-point threat.
Jamarion Batemon has similar objectives when he enters the game as a potential sparkplug.
Big men have to be able to defend pick-and-rolls, own the glass and be interior anchors on both ends of the court.
Starters aren’t exempt and have their own deals to uphold as well.
“It’s helpful how he simplifies kind of what we’re supposed to do and makes it so we’re not thinking about a million things,” Heise said. “Like for me, it’s just playing aggressive, hunting shots and communicating on defense.”
For Otzelberger, the art of making the deal work in your favor stemmed from his playing days as a point guard at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. Back then, he maximized his opportunities by being a defensive pest for opponents, facilitating offense to get his teammates scoring looks and knocking down open shots when presented to him.
The deal helps empower players. It feels good when individual contributions directly or indirectly help earn victories.
It’s also reassuring for them to know that by leaning on their unique gifts, talents and attributes, they could potentially influence the amount of playing time they get.
On the flip side, failure to produce or a lack of urgency on the court can result in a player’s minutes going elsewhere.
It’s nothing personal, just a part of the deal.
“It’s really about us believing in each guy, their unique abilities, strengths and skill set, and then imposing your will in a way for your skills to impact the team’s winning,” Otzelberger said. “That’s really so important, but I do believe that it gives guys confidence that they don’t have to change who they are, they just have to make what they do well impact winning.”
Iowa State, collectively, will look to make its deal work as one of 18 teams competing in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas from Nov. 24-27.
As a participating team in the loaded event, the Cyclones are guaranteed $1 million in NIL money for showing up. They could potentially win an additional $1 million if they win the tournament.
They’ll receive their biggest regular-season test to date when they open up the Players Era Festival on Monday, Nov. 24 (3:30 p.m. CT, truTV) against St. John’s.
Iowa State is also slated to face Creighton on Tuesday, Nov. 25 (1:30 p.m. CT, truTV).
Depending on the results of the first two days, the Cyclones are hoping to get into the Wednesday, Nov. 26, championship game (8:30 p.m. CT, TNT) or get a piece of the NIL prize pool in the third-place game (7 p.m. CT, TNT).
“Certainly, they can be very selective on who they allow in and the programs that they allow in, so to be included among the other programs that are very highly regarded, a lot of respect for the guys that have come before us,” Otzelberger said. “The players, the coaches, everybody that’s helped elevate our program to get us to the point where we’re a team that’s in-demand for an event like this.”
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State basketball coach TJ Otzelberger’s ‘deal’ with the Cyclones
Reporting by Eugene Rapay, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
