The Golden Eagles head to Hilton Coliseum for the first time since 2004.
Name: Iowa State University of Science and Technology
It’s Iowa Tech?? Kind of, I guess, yeah.
Location: Ames, Iowa
I don’t know Iowa geography. I-80 and I-35 bisect the state, one running north/south, the other running east/west. Des Moines lies at the intersection point, which is a little south of the actual middle of the state. Ames is 40 miles north of there, closer to the actual center point of the state. That makes sense because……..
Founded: 1856 as the starting point of the legislation, with the official creation point marked as March 22, 1858. The site wasn’t selected until 1859, but they didn’t actually admit a student until 1868. I suspect the Civil War may have distracted people in the meantime. In any case, the original name of the school was Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm. That’s the center point of the state thing I was getting to, because if you’re going to have a model farm in the state, you should probably make it centrally located for everyone to visit it.
The name changed to Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts in 1898 as a result of the development of the academic studies on campus, and it was shifted to its current name in the summer of 1959. However, the shortened name of Iowa State University is commonly used, even on official university documentation like diplomas and so forth.
Let’s learn about Jack Trice: ISU’s football stadium is named after Jack Trice. Here’s why.
If you’d like to learn more about Jack Trice, please head over to our friends at Wide Right Natty Lite and visit their Jack Trice Resource Database. One of the things they recommend is this Spencer Hall opener from the 2016 college football season, which is about a lot of things, but it’s about Jack Trice, too. If you can get your hands on a copy of The Sinful Seven, Richard Johnson has a wonderful chapter in there about Jack Trice as well.
Enrollment: 30,432 students for Fall 2024, including 25,628 undergraduates.
Nickname: Cyclones
Why “Cyclones”? Because they beat Northwestern in football in 1895.
Okay, not for that reason specifically. It was a combination of a series of tornadoes in Iowa in 1895 and the 36-0 victory against Northwestern. That led the Chicago Tribune to write that “Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday.” The nickname stuck.
But isn’t that a red bird mascot at the top of the page? Yep. ISU came into that game against Northwestern nicknamed the Cardinals. So, in 1954, when a guy who owed a company named “Collegiate Manufacturing” rang up ISU and said “CHANGE YOUR NICKNAME SO WE CAN SELL A BUNCH OF MERCHANDISE,” they instead just created Cy the Cardinal. Smart move, honestly.
There is Cy The Cardinal lore: In 1966, Cy was married to Susie Snapper Hawk of Iowa City to the great distress of University of Iowa mascot Herky The Hawk. Cy and Susie had a baby together in October 1967, named Psychick. From reading the Iowa State Daily’s descriptions, this sounds like a Homecoming festival stunt.
HOWEVER, Susie and Psychick disappeared into the ether not long afterwards, and in 1989, Cy was given a gift: A baby cardinal named Clone. (Get it? Cy & Clone?) It is unclear as to Clone’s parentage, but we are left to presume one of two things. ONE: Cy had a child out of wedlock. TWO: Cy reunited with Susie and produced Clone but Susie refused to return to Cy full time.
IT GETS WEIRDER. Cy was less mobile than Clone, but when ISU introduced their new logos and so on at the 1995 Big 8 men’s basketball tournament, there was just one mascot left standing: Cy, but a pronouncedly more versatile Cy. WHAT DID YOU DO TO AND/OR WITH CLONE, CY?????
Notable Alumni: Frederick Douglas Patterson, founder of the United Negro College Fund; Five Pulitzer Prize winners, including two-time winner Tom Knudson; Thomas Whitney, co-inventor of the HP-35, the first handheld scientific calculator; Henry A. Wallace, founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred (their logo is on the ISU basketball court) and former Vice President of the United States; Elwood Mead, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the construction of Hoover Dam and namesake of Lake Mead; Bruce Roth, inventor of Lipitor; Steve Bales, Guidance Officer during the Apollo 11 landing, responsible for informing the Flight Director that the 1201 and 1202 alarms weren’t mission critical; Dan Gable, 1972 Olympic wrestling gold medalist and legendary University of Iowa wrestling coach; current U.S. Senator Joni Ernst; botanist and inventor George Washington Carver, who was also the first black student and first black faculty member at ISU; former U.S. Senator and former U.S. House Representative Tom Harkin, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act; Cael Sanderson, the first and still only collegiate wrestler to go undefeated with more than 100 victories (159-0); and finally, Lionel Dahmer, research chemist and father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
ARENA QUESTION #1: Hilton Coliseum isn’t for that Hilton, is it? No. It is officially James H. Hilton Coliseum, named for Iowa State’s president from 1953 through 1965, as he was the one who pushed for the development of the area on campus for not just this building but the football stadium, an auditorium, a theater, and a continuing education office center. Dr. Hilton hails from North Carolina, while Conrad Hilton, the hotel magnate, hails from New Mexico.
ARENA QUESTION #2: What’s up with Hilton Magic? On February 14, 1989, Iowa State went into a home game against #3 Missouri with a record of 11-9 with losses in five of their last seven games. The Cyclones stunned the Tigers at Hilton Coliseum by a score of 82-75, prompting Des Moines Register writer Buck Turnbull to write a game story with the headline “Hilton Magic Spells ‘Upset’ One More Time.” It’s unclear what “one more time” means, because ISU was winless against ranked opponents that season, although they had beaten #15 Mizzou at home 102-89 one year previous. They had also upset #16 Kansas and #7 Iowa at Hilton in 1987-88, so the picture is starting to come into focus.
Last year, Iowa State went 18-0 at home, including handing then-#1 Houston their first loss of the season on January 9th. ISU has not lost a non-conference game at Hilton Coliseum since a 95-56 defeat at the hands of Mississippi State on January 30, 2021. If you want to ignore The Weirdest College Basketball Season Ever, then they haven’t lost a non-con game at Hilton since Florida A&M pulled an upset, 70-68, on December 31, 2019.
Last Season: 29-8 overall, with a 13-5 record in the Big 12. That meant they finished second by two games behind Houston, but the Cyclones ended up with a measure of revenge by beating the Cougars, 69-41, in the conference tournament title game. That vaulted ISU to a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament, and they advanced to the Sweet 16 before bowing out to Illinois.
Final 2023-24 KenPom.com Ranking: #8
Final 2023-24 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #5
2024-25 Preseason Poll: Iowa State was picked to finish third in the Big 12 this season, trailing both #1 Kansas and #2 Houston. Bit of a miracle that they finished in front of Kansas the previous season, so this is a perfectly fine spot for ISU to be in, especially since they did get one first place vote from one of the B12 coaches.
So Far This Season: 5-1 with three unexciting buy games to start the year, an 83-81 loss to then-#4 Auburn in their first game of the Maui Invitational, and then wins over Dayton and Colorado in the consolation bracket. Yes, this is ISU’s first game since returning from Maui. Yes, it’s probably been a while since they’ve been back in Ames, but who knows how they’ll respond to the travel. The Cyclones did lead Auburn 81-79 with under a minute to go and had the ball with the game tied at 81 as well and only lost because of a turnover and Johni Broome got a tipin at the buzzer.
Current KenPom.com Ranking: #6
Current BartTorvik.com Ranking: #7
Returning Stats Leaders
Points: Keshon Gilbert, 13.7 ppg
Rebounds: Tamin Lipsey, 4.6 rpg
Assists: Tamin Lipsey, 4.9 apg
Current Stats Leaders
Points: Keshon Gilbert, 16.5 ppg
Rebounds: Joshua Jefferson, 6.2 rpg
Assists: Keshon Gilbert, 5.3 apg
Bigs? Dishon Jackson is Iowa State’s starting center, and they list him at 6’11” and 274 pounds. That’s a lot of dude all in one spot. He’s not the biggest component of what they do on the floor, if only because the transfer from Charlotte averages just 18.7 minutes a night. He is getting 10.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in that time, so it’s not like he’s slacking off out there. KenPom.com says he’s a top 115 rebounder on both ends in terms of rate, including #56 in the country on the defensive glass. He’s also incredibly surehanded with a turnover rate under 11%.
It looks like Brandton Chatfield is the primary recipient of the minutes that Jackson doesn’t play. The 6’10”, 260 pound transfer from Seattle University — fun fact: Jackson and Chatfield were teammates at Washington State back in 2020-21 — chips in 3.0 points and 3.5 rebounds in a shade over 13.2 minutes per game. That’s still less than 32 minutes of a 40 minute game covered by those guys, so we’ll have to see what Iowa State does with that time. It might be going to Joshua Jefferson, as he’s listed at 6’9” and 240 pounds. He starts alongside Jackson and plays 25 minutes a night, and since he’s leading the team in rebounding, it stands to reason that he’s covering the middle here and there.
Shooters? It’s a feast or famine situation behind the arc for Iowa State, which is probably particularly annoying for an ag school. As a team, they’re shooting 33.6% from behind the three-point line this season, which isn’t great, right about middle of the country, but if you’re over 33.3%, you’ll find a way to deal with it.
However, Curtis Jones and former Shaka Smart recruit/Pewaukee native Milan Momcilovic are pouring it in from downtown. Jones leads the team in three-point attempts with 6.7 per game and he connects 40% of the time, while Momcilovic is one attempt per game behind him but hitting over 47% of his tries. That’s a bit over five makes per game between the two of them, so it’s up to Marquette to find a way to disrupt that 15 points a game.
Why? Because they’re probably not going to get a lot of three-pointers from anywhere else on the roster. No one else on the team is shooting better than 25% from long range through six games of this season. No one else is taking more attempts per game than the 2.5 from Tamin Lipsey either, so it’s not the world’s biggest problem for the Cyclones. Keshon Gilbert has hit at least 34% in each of the past two seasons, Lipsey was a 39% shooter for them last year, and Northern Iowa transfer Nate Heise connected at a 35% clip in the last two years he was healthy for the Panthers. They have guys who have shown to ability to hit shots in the past, which does create a slight problem for Marquette in terms of trying to defend them.
FUN FACT: Marquette is going to have to be careful about when exactly Curtis Jones is on the floor. He started in the opener but has come off the bench since. The guy who replaced him in the starting five after night #1? Milan Momcilovic, of course.
Head Coach: T.J. Otzelberger, in his fourth season at Iowa State and ninth season as a Division 1 head coach. The Milwaukee native went to Thomas More High School, attended UW-Whitewater where he was team captain of the basketball team for two years, and got his start in coaching in the high school ranks in southeastern Wisconsin. He has a record of 75-36 with the Cyclones and 174-99 overall. Here’s to hoping he gets to see #100 on Wednesday night.
What To Watch For: If you’re trying to figure out which team has some kind of advantage that they can exploit against their opponent here, good luck.
Both defenses love creating turnovers, both offenses are really good at keeping track of the ball.
Both offenses don’t do a great job collecting second chances off the glass, but they’re somewhere between good to great at ending possessions with a rebound on the defensive end.
Both offenses excel at scoring inside the three-point arc with shooting percentages over 61%, both defenses are a little shaky at defending those shots.
Iowa State does a great job at getting to the free throw line on offense, but Marquette’s defense avoids letting that happen to them. MU’s offense isn’t so hot at it themselves, but the Cyclones probably let too many trips to the line happen.
Throw a dart, pick a winner, move on with your life.
About the only true mystery contained in this game is the Zaide Lowery/Damarius Owens issue. Zaide Lowery left Marquette’s game on Saturday with some kind of leg injury very late, right as the walk-ons were checking in to mop up the 94-62 victory. Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has already reported that, to no surprise whatsoever, Lowery has already been ruled out of this game.
But that’s also the only report on Lowery, which is in itself good news about his long term prognosis. “Out against Iowa State” is not an announcement of season ending injury and surgery, at least for now, so that’s good news.
Lowery is still going to be absent though, which opens the door for Damarius Owens to take up a few more minutes. The consensus top 90 freshman prospect missed MU’s first three games because of a preseason training injury, and then played a total of 18 minutes against Maryland, Purdue, and Georgia. The 6’7” New York native broke out against Stonehill, posting 14 points, four rebounds, two assists, a block, and a steal against the Skyhawks in just 19 minutes. He followed that up with a 7/4/1 and two steals in 14 minutes against Western Carolina.
Owens is, quite obviously, the guy you would expect to pick up the slack left behind by Lowery’s absence in this game. It’s not a major ask, either. Lowery is averaging 2.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in just under 15 minutes a game this season. Lowery has played more than 18 minutes just twice this season, with both occurrences coming in the first two games of the year.
But this also means that Marquette is going to ask a freshman with a total of 52 minutes played to give them a real contribution of some kind in perhaps the most hostile environment that the Golden Eagles will see all season. I’m not going to go so far as to say that MU’s chances of victory hinge on Owens playing well — Kam Jones could put up 40 and nothing else would really matter, for example — but with just nine scholarship players available because of injuries and redshirt plans, Owens is going to be asked to be a contributing cog in the toughest test of the regular season to this point. If he’s not ready for the shining lights of Ames, that’s one extra hurdle that the Golden Eagles are going to need to jump over in this one.
All Time Series: Marquette leads 5-3 after Iowa State snapped a three game MU winning streak by getting the 77-69 W in the quarterfinals of the 2004 NIT.