Iowa State is off to a hot start under T.J. Otzelberger, taking down Oregon State (who made the Elite Eight last season) on Friday in Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones now match their win total from last year.

The defense carried the Cyclones to victory on a night where the offense wasn’t sharp, but Iowa State did just enough to shut down the Beavers on the glass and in the scoring departments to head into the weekend undefeated.

Transfers lead the way (again)

For Otzelberger, Friday’s win showcased why habits and effort matter in a program’s mission. The Cyclones shot just 44 percent from the field and 27 percent from three, but thanks to transfers Gabe Kalscheur and Izaiah Brockington, Iowa State is sitting with confidence after Friday night.

“These two guys as much as any came into this program wanting a special experience and wanting to instill those habits on a daily basis,” Otzelberger said of Kalscheur and Brockington.

Kalscheur led the Cyclones in scoring for the second game in a row on Friday, finishing with 15 points on 6-17 shooting. 

For the Penn State transfer in Brockington, he posted his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.

Brockington said postgame that he thinks the Cyclones can be the team that suffocates any given team on any given night. As long as effort and intensity shows up, he feels confident he and the Cyclones can do some good things. 

And that includes out-rebounding a team in Oregon State with more size on paper.

“If it’s up there, I feel like at its highest point I have an advantage over most people to be able to go get it,” Brockington said on his rebounding. “And I feel like that’s a way I can help us win.”

George Conditt gets the start

After coming off the bench in Iowa State’s opener against Kennesaw State, George Conditt IV started on Friday against the Beavers and brought energy and a want-to that Otzelberger and Iowa State needed.

The Chicago native ended his night with a balanced stat sheet: four points, three rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal in his 19 minutes of action.

Conditt posted nine points on Tuesday against the Owls and his teammates could sense his activity on the floor on Friday. And the Cyclones were happy to see it.

“Their presence was definitely felt today,” Brockington said of Conditt and Robert Jones. “You always knew when they were on the court, always making hustle plays, doing the dirty work and keeping their bigger guys, their stronger rebounders from getting involved.”

Conditt’s three boards helped the Cyclones out-rebound Oregon State 39-34, a team that got out-classed on the glass 15 times a season ago.

“George had a lot of great hustle plays on the defensive end and on the offensive end as well,” Kalscheur said.

High-major wins are back

Iowa State didn’t just start its season 2-0 for the first time since the 2018-19 season, but it got a much-needed high-major victory after a long drought.

Friday night was the Cyclones’ first high-major win since Feb 25, 2020, against TCU. Iowa State had gone 25-straight high-major games without a victory.

Iowa State still has high-major opponents in Xavier, Virginia Tech or Memphis, Creighton and Iowa to round out its non-conference schedule.