Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson embarked on his 50th year of writing sports for the Des Moines Register in December 2021.Oregon State was one of the most unlikely Sweet 16 teams in last year's NCAA Tournament as a 12-seed that eventually made it to the Elite 8. "Sweet 16, baby," Conditt said outside the happy locker room. So, whether it was some of the team-building things we did or that conditioning - we just wanted a high level of intensity, so they were preparing to win in June, and not waiting for September to see what that looked like or to feel that.” “Oftentimes, you wait until the fall to start that, and we started it right away. As we started our summer workouts, we wanted it to feel like we were getting ready to play right away. “I also as a coach wanted to learn about the players, who could fight through adversity, who were the guys that were leaders, who already had the built-in work capacity in those situations. We wanted to take advantage of those opportunities, and then obviously with our strength and conditioning coach, we wanted to make it an aggressive plan right away in the summer. “Within the rules, you get two hours a week that you can do workouts with the team. “We had a tremendous sense of urgency when they all got here in June,” Otzelberger said. “He gave it to us straightforward, like this is the plan that goes throughout the whole season - what you want to do, and the work you want to put in. “It was just a straight plan,” Hunter said. There’s culture-building that included daily breakfasts, yoga and summer soccer-field workouts. Keeping Hunter on-board after the coaching switch, but there’s more. Getting players he wanted out of the transfer portal. This is book-like stuff, with chapter after chapter of how Otzelberger re-built the program. I can’t imagine something like this ever happening before - and maybe never again. We kept talking about it in our huddles over and over - let's trust our habits and trust each other, and (Sunday night) our guys certainly did that.” “They started it in June, and carried it on in September. “Our guys have done a great job embracing the work habits that we've set in front of them. “So proud of the young men in our program and everybody that came out to support us,” a soaked Otzelberger said after his team’s 22nd victory Sunday. No one knew any of that stuff, and I’m guessing that included Otzelberger. No one knew Otzelberger and his staff would successfully get them to buy into the suffocating defense that’s become the Cyclones’ identity. To be fair, no one knew how quickly more than a handful of new players would start feeling comfortable with one another. More: Peterson: Iowa State basketball's stunning turnaround lives on with trip to Sweet 16 “I wonder what those people who bet against us are thinking now?”
“This is huge, man,” George Conditt IV said. They became more enthusiastic when dandy point guard Tyrese Hunter joined his family in the middle of the Cyclones’ section.Īnd when Caleb Grill walked out to see his family - I thought his mom, Lena, was going to squash him with the biggest hug of his life. The Iowa State fans among a crowd of 17,500 at Fiserv Forum went wild when the final horn sounded. “I mean, just to think of where we started in June - like a group that was so new to each other, and just was going out there with the object of turning things around, getting as many wins as we could. “I mean, it's unbelievable,” Izaiah Brockington said.
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