MILWAUKEE — Entering his final season of college eligibility, senior guard Nate Heise committed to Iowa State with hopes of being able to shine at the next level following his four-year stint with Northern Iowa.

While being primarily known for his abilities on defense, Heise sought to also contribute to the Cyclones with his shooting abilities, as he had just come off his best offensive year with the Panthers by leading the team with an average of 13.5 points per game on a 46.3% shooting clip from the field and 35.6% from 3-point range.

Heise’s performance in Cedar Falls, Iowa, caught the attention of Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger, which eventually led to him recruiting Heise in the transfer portal.

“There’s so many things he brings to the table to make our team successful,” Otzelberger said. “Defensively he’s ultra-competitive, can guard any spot on the floor. He gets loose balls. He chases down rebounds. He makes shots. He makes plays. He’s a great cutter.”

But things didn’t go to plan to start the year for the Lake City, Minnesota, native, as Heise scored a combined 29 points in the first eight games of the season.

Granted, Heise was coming off the bench in those games and had fluctuated minutes that ranged anywhere from 11-21, but he still couldn’t find a way to be one of the main scorers for Iowa State.

During this time, Heise had opportunities to cash in on some of those big opportunities but either chose to pass it off to a teammate or just couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the basket.

It wasn’t until the Cy-Hawk game against Iowa that Heise found some semblance of confidence in his shooting abilities, as he scored 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field with one 3-pointer and one free throw.

Heise would then follow that up with another 10-point performance in the Cyclones’ next game at home against Omaha, but after the game against the Mavericks, Heise struggled to find the double-digit mark for nearly three months.

Besides the two games against UCF, where Heise knocked on the door of having double-digit points with nine points in Ames and eight points in Orlando, Heise went back to his ways at the beginning of the season in which he would either pass the ball to another teammate or just could not find a way to get the ball in the hoop when he did attempt a shot.

In some games during this stretch, Heise didn’t even attempt a shot, and even if he did, it would be one or two maximum, as he struggled to find confidence in his shooting ways.

However, after a confidence-boosting conversation with Otzelberger around the time of Iowa State’s trip to Orlando, things began to change for Heise and it started in the game the Cyclones had against UCF.

In 21 minutes, Heise scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 coming from deep, to help contribute to a 77-65 win over the Knights.

While the next game didn’t relay that same confidence, as Heise failed to put up a single point on one 3-point shot in Iowa State’s 81-70 win over Cincinnati at home, it would be the games following that Heise’s offensive abilities really began to show.

Through the next four games, Heise exploded and averaged at least 11 points on nearly 29 minutes per game, including a season-high 13 points on 35 minutes in the Cyclones’ loss to Oklahoma State.

“I didn’t know that that one conversation had such an impact on his shooting,” Otzelberger said. “I guess I’m the moron. I probably should have had that one at the start of the year.”

“You gotta be persistent,” Heise said. “You can’t be too high or too low and you gotta be able to persevere when things are tough and know how to handle it when things are going well.”

With the increased offensive production, Heise has begun to show his increased confidence with his enthusiasm and trash-talking which gets his team fired up to continue that success.

“There’s a lot of expletives that I can’t really say, but Heise can get really juiced a lot,” senior forward Brandton Chatfield said. “It’s a lot of fun to play against [in practice].”

One specific moment where it showed was the season finale in Manhattan against Kansas State, where Heise hit a 3-pointer and was called for a technical foul for something he said while doing his normal three-finger celebration after hitting the shot from deep.

“You can see it,” Otzelberger said. “He believes it. He feels it. His excitement and energy are good. Now I’ve just gotta continue to urge him to not cross that line and turn a three-point shot into a technical foul going the other way.”

Now, after one game in the NCAA Tournament, Heise was integral in Iowa State’s 82-55 win over Lipscomb in the round of 64, as he went a perfect 4-of-4 from the field and hit the only 3-pointer he attempted for a total of nine points.

With the Cyclones looking to stay alive in March, they’ll need Heise to continue his newfound confidence as they strive to potentially become national champions.

“I think sometimes with guys when things aren’t necessarily going their way, they can be putting too much focus or emphasis on just one aspect of the game,” Otzelberger said. “And so I think for Nate, just really connecting with let’s focus on all these winning things and then the shots will take care of themselves if you do the work and you trust the work. And that’s what he’s done.”

“I would say it’s up there,” Heise said when asked about his confidence. “I’ve been able to do a little bit more at lower levels, but being able to do this at this level is something that I think has really helped my confidence and I plan on doing that going forward.”