Big 12 Basketball: Preseason mailbag entering 2021-22 campaign
By Andrew Tineo
Is there any way Iowa State wins a conference game, after losing their top two players?
I believe last year’s team was just an anomaly of some bad breaks and bad stretches of basketball to go winless in the conference. However, Iowa State was in fact not good last year.
Although the argument can be made this Iowa State team is worse than last year, the schedule should favor a couple of Big 12 wins.
Under first-year head coach TJ Otzelberger, he has acquired a good chunk of solid talent, headlined by Penn State guard Izaiah Brockington and Ole Miss forward Blake Hinson.
The lone commit in his recruiting class and an immediate impact will be Top-50 guard Tyrese Hunter. Hunter will get the keys to the point guard spot.
The impact players, unfortunately, stops there and although Otzelberger brought in a new crew of players, I question how much they’ll bring on a night-to-night basis.
Is Kansas transfer guard Tristan Enaruna going to develop into a rotation player, will guard Tre Jackson provide a three-point shot, can UNLV transfer guard Caleb Grill find a role and steal some starts from Minnesota transfer Gabe Kalscheur.
This team has a lot of question marks but has potential for a few Big 12 wins. The rebuild will not happen overnight and Otzelberger has his work cut out for him in Ames.