No. 16 Iowa State hosts Stonehill for its final game before the team heads to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival a week later. The game against the Skyhawks tips off at 7 p.m. Monday.
The Cyclones have gotten off to a fast start through three games. In the Cyclones’ three wins, they have won by an average margin of victory right above 31 and winning by at least 16 in each game. The message moving forward has been to attack like there are no wins in the record.
“T.J. [Otzelberger] keeps talking about a 0-0 mentality, attacking every day like we got something to gain, because we do,” junior forward Blake Buchanan said. “We’ve got to keep getting better. There’s a lot to take away from our win, but I just got to come and attack every day like it’s our last.”
Stonehill finished the 2024-25 season with a 15-17 record, but has had a rough start to the 2025-26 season. Through five games, the Skyhawks are 1-4 and have lost four straight. Their only win was in the season opener against Thomas College.
The Cyclones’ best win thus far was their most recent win over Mississippi State. Iowa State beat the Bulldogs 96-80 behind 25 points from senior point guard Tamin Lipsey. The Cyclone offense seems to be more well-rounded compared to years past. The Cyclones went 5-22 from three against Mississippi State and were still just four points shy of 100.
“For all teams, you want to find ways to win when you’re not shooting the ball particularly well or didn’t have a great shooting night,” Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “To me, that starts with turning people over and scoring in transition first and foremost.”
Otzelberger’s squad is forcing more than double the number of turnovers than they are giving up. The Cyclones are averaging 10 turnovers a game, and their opponents have turned it over 63 times or 21 times a game.
Stonehill has turned it over just above 15 times a game through its first five games, and the Cyclones will look to exploit that area on Monday.
The leading scorer for Stonehill is sophomore guard Hermann Koffi, who is averaging 18.4 points per game while shooting 44.4% from three. Similar to Cyclone junior forward Milan Momcilovic, Koffi has a season high of seven threes in one game.
Iowa State has a few guys it would trust in guarding Koffi on Monday, including Lipsey and some of the freshman guards that might have some more juice in their legs. Freshman guards Killyan Toure and Jamarion Batemon have both played big roles already to start the season.
It helps that Batemon and Toure have both come in as freshmen with something to prove, allowing for some friendly competition in practice to help both of them hone in on their skills and areas they need to improve.
“Iron sharpens iron, so being able to go against that [Toure] every day and just bump heads every day,” Batemon said. “Now, when you flip it and turn it on the other team, it’s really something that nobody wants to go against.”
So far, Otzelberger has substituted players in and out with no particular rhyme or reason, but it has been effective. Rather than sticking to a set plan, he has gone with the flow and allowed the guys who are playing well to keep playing and letting the guys who maybe aren’t having the best night sit for a bit longer.
“Right now it’s been a really big positive for us, we’ve loved how we’re doing it,” Otzelberger said. “I think it has elevated everybody’s play in a positive way, so we’ll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes.”
The 10-man rotation has been effective for the Cyclones and Otzelberger seems to be sticking with it heading into Stonehill, but a few tough matchups in the near future may test that substitution method.
A week after the battle with Stonehill, the Cyclones will travel to Las Vegas and take on No. 13 St John’s on Nov. 24 and No. 23 Creighton on Nov. 25. The Cyclones tip off against Stonehill at 7 p.m. Monday.
