BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 19, 2022

T.J. Otzelberger

Iowa State Cyclones

Media Day Press Conference

COACH OTZELBERGER: Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Really been a whirlwind 16 months since the opportunity to take over as the head coach at Iowa State. Couldn't be more humble and grateful to this program, institution and want to do better for our fans and community.

So exciting. Our team, certainly, felt like we worked hard, played together. We were able to accomplish some things last year, and we're really looking to build on that this season.

We've got a blend of veteran, experienced guys who transferred in from winning, well-coached programs. And we've got some freshmen that we've got tremendous confidence in as well.

Just like everybody this time of the year, we're looking to put those different line-ups and combinations together, as well for us building our work habits every single day and coming back and rolling up our sleeve.

Excited to embark on another journey and I'm sure our guys are ready to play some other folks here soon.

Q. Can you speak on Caleb Grill, had a great year shooting the ball for you guys? What kind of expectations do you have for him this year the expectations?

COACH OTZELBERGER: Caleb Grill is an unbelievable young man, tremendous character. I've known Caleb since back to, following the conclusion of his sophomore year in high school. Recruited him when I was the head coach at South Dakota State.

I've seen his development over a number of years. It's an opportunity for Caleb to take a big step both on the court in terms of production, garnering more minutes, ability to make more plays offensively and be an impactful player. And then to play that defense that we've come to know, really aggressive mentality base.

Caleb is a player I've always had a lot of confidence in. He's a winner. We're excited to see his continued growth and development. And I know that he's going to have, take a step up for us this season and excited to see what that looks like.

Q. You had to rely a lot on the transfer portal last year when you took over. You had quite a bit of turnover this year, six transfers coming in. Is this just the nature of how college basketball is going to be, even for a program like yours that went to the Sweet 16 last year?

COACH OTZELBERGER: I can't speak for everybody. What I can say about our specific situation is that we want to continue to build a roster with veteran players who have winning habits, guys that have been in winning programs, or whether they've been within our program that want to continue to be with us and continue to grow and develop.

But our program's always going to be based on player development. And at the same time, you want that veteran experience and you want to bring in young talent that you can develop over time because I do believe that's the strength of our coaching staff.

As college basketball moves forward, there's certainly a lot of changes, evolutions, things that are going on that we all have to be adaptive to. I know for us we're going to continue to seek out young men that have great character that want to work really hard and want to develop and have big dreams and goals.

Whether those guys are freshmen that we're developing, which we believe is our strong suit, or whether it's those opportunities to bring in transfers, we're going to be open minded to doing whatever we need to do to put together the best team roster and build our program.

Q. How do you use the Sweet 16 berth from last season to help motivate get your players ready for this season?

COACH OTZELBERGER: Our belief is that the guys that were within our program, they did the hard work every single day. They rolled up their sleeves. They continue to have an unwavering spirit. They played with some toughness and some togetherness. And they were able to have success as a result.

Now we have four individuals that were part of that group that can carry that message forward to our guys. The transfers that have come in and the freshmen were able to watch it on TV or through highlight films. So they see what our demands are, what the standards are that we're going to expect again this season.

And we hope to continue to build that. For us, it's not about -- we've realized that the wins and losses matter and we're highly competitive. At the same time, we're seeking to build a program year in and year out that's sustainable with those work habits and success habits.

Q. Several coaches have described the Big 12 as the best conference in the land. Do you also believe this? And if so, why?

COACH OTZELBERGER: When you look at our conference, you can look at the analytic metrics, you can look at head-to-head competition, the quality of the players, their competitive spirit, the quality of the coaches. A lot of hall of famers, national champions, Final Four coaches, guys that have done this for a long time and won a lot of games.

So I don't think it really matters what metric you look at, whether it's an eye test, whether you watch those games or whatever it may be.

And shoot, we lived it firsthand last year. We were 15-1 against teams outside the Big 12 and we were 7-11, if memory serves me correctly, against teams in the Big 12. Or 7-12, rather, even with the conference tournament.

I don't think our season was a roller coaster. I think our season was more a credit to what great coaches, players and programs we have within this league. We know what that challenge is every day when you're playing Big 12 teams.

Doesn't matter who you're playing, home or road, and we're going to continue to prepare every single day to be ready for those challenges when they present themselves.

Q. Do you think that just the success in the NCAA Tournament was due in part to what you went through in conference play?

COACH OTZELBERGER: Absolutely. It's a credit to the programs and the teams that we played against all year, because we knew when we got outside of the league, the level of physical play, the discipline, the toughness, the competitiveness, not to take anything away from any other league, but we know what we play against every night. We knew we were tested.

There were times in conference play we lost three games in a row, lost four games in a row. We knew if we kept working, things would come around for us. And our guys, as we heard our name called on Selection Sunday, we felt good that since it wasn't going to be a Big 12 team, we had a lot of confidence going into it that, regardless of who we drew, we knew that we were prepared for that opportunity and we're excited to embrace it.

I give all the credit to the coaches, players, programs in this league for preparing us for that opportunity.