T.J. Otzelberger’s roots run so deep in Wisconsin that sometimes the Iowa State men’s basketball coach learns about a connection after he has landed a talented prospect from the state.
Take the time that Otzelberger told his dad about an incoming sharpshooter from Pewaukee named Milan Momcilovic, who was a standout player for three seasons with the Cyclones before becoming a highly sought-after transfer who will play at Kentucky in 2026-27.
The elder Otzelberger pondered the name, then remembered that his own father, Leander, rented a room for years above a tavern in Cudahy owned by a Serbian family named Momcilovic. A quick call to Nick Momcilovic, Milan’s dad, confirmed that indeed it was his people who ran the bar and rooming house, and Nick even remembered Leander.
“It was kind of one of those ironic, unique ties for sure,” Otzelberger told the Journal Sentinel.
The 48-year-old Otzelberger, a Milwaukee native who played at St. Thomas More High School and UW-Whitewater, has long been a recruiting force in the state.
The Cyclones have gotten commitments from two of the top 2027 Wisconsin prospects, Slinger’s Jack Kohnen and Freedom’s Donovan Davis. Six players on Iowa State’s 15-man roster next season hail from Wisconsin high schools: Jamarion Batemon (Milwaukee Academy of Science), Yusef Gray Jr. (West Allis Central), Xzavion Mitchell (Oshkosh North), Anthony Rise (Brookfield Central), Jaquan Johnson (Pius XI) and Leon Bond III (Wauwatosa East).
That’s not even mentioning the ones whom Otzelberger helped recruit during two previous stints as an Iowa State assistant, including Diante Garrett, Mike Taylor, Deonte Burton, Scott Christopherson, Matt Thomas and Korie Lucious.
Garrett and Allan Hanson, a former Wauwatosa East standout, are currently on Otzelberger’s coaching staff.
Otzelberger doesn’t have a Momcilovic-level story for each of those Wisconsin products, but he does have a few that show how embedded he is in the state.
“So my first high school game that I ever played at Thomas More, we played against Bradley Tech in my first game and [also in] his first game was Yogi Batemon, Jamarion’s dad,” Otzelberger said. “Played against each other.”
Otzelberger likes recruiting in the state because he thinks the youth coaches are among the best in the country.
“It’s been our priority because we just believe the kids from Wisconsin are very well-prepared to come in and be successful,” Otzelberger said. “Because of the coaches, they have the development and the investment that people have made in them.”
T.J. Otzelberger started his own AAU program in Milwaukee
As a hoops-obsessed kid, Otzelberger benefited himself from some legendary Wisconsin coaches.
He played at Thomas More for Norb Wishowski, who was the first coach to win state titles in both the old Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (at Thomas More in 1988) and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (in 2001 as co-coach with Steve Edge at Burlington Catholic Central). Wishowski eventually helped Otzelberger take over as Catholic Central’s head coach.
“He’s the reason I went to Thomas More High School, a big part of it,” Otzelberger said. “Because of his coaching and I went to his camps.
“He was a very fundamental teacher. He studied Dick Bennett a lot at Wisconsin and just was very detailed and I really respected his knowledge of the game and that meant a lot to me.”
Otzelberger started his own AAU program as a teenager, the Milwaukee Posse, so he would have a team to play on. He got the well-respected Ray Rozek, who used to lead Milwaukee Madison, to coach the squad.
“Coach Rozek was more of a motivator,” Otzelberger said. “As a travel coach, he was somebody that … he can get you fired up and you want to run through a brick wall for him.”
Otzelberger tried to learn something from everyone in his orbit. He organized coaching clinics at Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay and Lewis University in Illinois.
“I knew that I wanted more basketball,” he said. “More all the time.”
Otzelberger eventually built a formidable network. He spent time watching Marquette University’s practices under Tom Crean, where Otzelberger met assistant coaches Tim Buckley and Kyle Green, who both eventually joined Otzelberger’s staff at Iowa State.
Any well-known name in local basketball circles seems to have crossed paths with Otzelberger at some point.
“I think the thing that’s helped me probably the most is the fact that I was a kid that played at all the YMCAS,” he said. “I played at every playground. I started my own AAU team.
“I was a gym rat, right? So a lot of these guys over time, I played with their high school coach. I played with their AAU coach.
“Chris Herro – Tyler Herro’s dad – used to go to the Y on Highway 100 and I would go there. Now he’s running an AAU team (Team Herro, which Kohnen and Davis play for). Duane Wilson – Ike – who had the Playground Warriors [another AAU team], I used to play against him in the Tosa rec league.
“I just think being someone who loves basketball, who was always around basketball, that there’s like six degrees of separation or whatever. I think that that’s helped me more than anything, it’s just being able to know the people and have a connection from the past because of all those experiences. Whether it’s the playing, the coaching, the going to camps, clinics and just finding a way to connect the dots.”
Slinger’s Jack Kohnen just likes T.J. Otzelberger’s coaching style
The Wisconsin-to-Iowa State pipeline is just as obvious to see for Kohnen as it is anyone else.
“Just watching them, you realize I’ve watched a lot of those kids play high school basketball growing up,” Kohnen said. “I know a few of them on a personal level.
“Just with the comfortability that a lot of the dudes have the same background as you is pretty cool.”
Kohnen said he and Otzelberger didn’t talk about the coach’s Wisconsin roots as much as outsiders would think. Kohnen was more attracted to Iowa State’s winning culture, with three Sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA Tournament in Otzelberger’s five seasons.
“They’re definitely building there and they’ve been a top-10 team pretty much for the last three years,” Kohnen said. “So that was kind of the first thing, just going in there and having the expectation to win. It was a big deal for me.”
Kohnen also likes how Otzelberger is process-oriented.
“They do everything very one-day-at-a-time, just very structured,” Kohnen said. “And that’s kind of just how I’ve been doing this basketball thing for a while here.
“My parents kind of just have taught me that for a while, just one day at a time, one workout at a time. That’s kind of just how they operate over there.”
Otzelberger thinks that is the biggest thing that attracts recruits.
“The No. 1 way is to get those players better, right?” Otzelberger said. “Player development, investment in the young men in your program.
“Because ultimately that’s the best recruiting tool is those guys saying, ‘Coach lived in the gym with me. Coach got me better. He had my back in the hard times.’
“I don’t think it’s even as much the outside networking as much as the players that you’ve had an opportunity to impact and work with every day. That they will kind of vouch for the work that you’ve done and how you’ve gone about it.”
But it never hurts to have a local connection to get a foot in the door, and Otzelberger seems like he is welcome in any living room in Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why is Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger so good at recruiting in Wisconsin?
Reporting by Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
