No. 15 Iowa State missed out on a big name, image and likeness (NIL) payday for its athletes. Coach T.J. Otzelberger had other goals in mind: improving his team and upholding his program’s character.
Despite going 2-0 over the first two days of the Players Era men’s tournament, the Cyclones cracked neither the championship game nor the third-place game. Iowa State will face Syracuse — which lost its first two games of the week — in the first consolation game on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
After Iowa State (6-0) defeated No. 14 St. John’s 83-82 on Monday, it had a clear objective in front of it Tuesday: win against Creighton, and try to win big.
Because the field of the second-year event ballooned from eight teams to 18, Players Era organizers skipped a traditional bracket and used point differential as the first of several potential tiebreakers to determine final matchups. That created an incentive to run up the score in case it would come into play.
However, Otzelberger opted to ease up against Creighton and settled for a 78-60 win, putting the Cyclones at plus-19 in the point differential category.
By day’s end, Michigan, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Kansas were all 2-0 and had larger point differentials than Iowa State. Those four teams will populate the championship and third-place games where team NIL payouts range from $1 million to $200,000. The Cyclones won’t be playing for additional money, though all participants are guaranteed a set amount.
Iowa State finished just two points behind Kansas in total margin of victory after the Jayhawks beat Syracuse 71-60 on Tuesday.
Otzelberger understood the scenario but told CBS Sports he respected his opponent too much to get greedy.
“To me, the relationship and the character of our program is more important than that,” Otzelberger said. “… We want to do the right thing.
“You’re here to win games, you’re here to get better as a team and a program. The main thing is to come out and give it your best to win the game. And I understand there’s other factors and variables that go into this event, but we’re just gonna focus on being at our best to come out win the game.”
Freshman Killyan Toure led Iowa State with 20 points against the Bluejays, and Joshua Jefferson compiled 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Veteran guard Tamin Lipsey sat out with a sore groin. Nate Heise made his first start of the season in his place, played 39 minutes and finished with eight points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Otzelberger told CBS that Lipsey is questionable for Wednesday.
The quick turnaround surely won’t help. Iowa State and Syracuse did not learn their Wednesday opponent or game time until after 10 p.m. in Las Vegas, less than 12 hours before scheduled tip-off.
The Orange (4-2) are the only team to start the week 0-2 but not get relegated to Thursday’s consolation games (Oregon-Creighton, Rutgers-UNLV). Syracuse has endured a bittersweet week, fighting to the finish against Big 12 powers Houston and Kansas but taking itself out of games with poor free-throw shooting.
Syracuse made just 12 of 29 foul shots in a 78-74 overtime loss to No. 3 Houston, dampening the 11-0 run it went on to end the second half and force the extra session. The Orange then made 13 of 23 attempts against Kansas, with William Kyle III going a meager 1-for-6.
Tyler Betsey had 12 points and sank four 3-pointers for the Orange on Tuesday, and four of his teammates contributed at least nine points. Betsey got Syracuse within 52-50 with 6:01 to play before Kansas pulled away. The Orange shot 20 of 63 from the field (31.7%) and were outrebounded 49-29, leaving coach Adrian Autry displeased.
“These guys are continuing to give me everything they have. And I got to continue to coach them a little bit better, coach them a little bit harder and challenge them a little bit harder,” Autry said, per the Daily Orange. “And I know they’ll respond because that’s what we’re capable of.”
