Memphis walked into Sioux Falls and spent Monday night taking Iowa State out of its comfort zone.
The No. 18 Cyclones opened the season with an 80-76 loss at the Sanford Pentagon, and the game turned on the kind of possessions Iowa State usually wins.
Instead, it was the Tigers who kept making the tougher, nastier plays. They forced seven steals, got to the foul line more often, and outpaced ISU from deep by 15 points.
For a team built on pressure and defensive edge, that was the wrong kind of mirror.
Tamin Lipsey’s 15-foot jumper with four seconds left in the first half looked like it might send Iowa State into the break with a one-point lead. Memphis had other ideas.
The Tigers answered with a late dunk for star forward Luke Almodovar, a sequence that T.J. Otzelberger said summed up the night.
“I think that’s a microcosm of the whole game,” Cyclone head coach T.J. Otzelberger told reporters after his team’s first season-opening loss since 2017.
“Because you see that three and a half seconds, or what it was, and what did they do? They drove us straight-line to the rim, sealed at the rim, and then dunked the basketball on us.
… So that play is very typical of the ones that put us in a tough spot, and we’ve gotta do a better job of having pride guarding the ball.”
Iowa State never really settled in after that. Memphis led for all but 18 seconds of the second half, and the Cyclones couldn’t string together enough stops or clean possessions to flip the game. Otzelberger didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
“They were the aggressor, and I think the first possession is probably as indicative of anything in the game,where we had a near turnover that turned into them being at the foul line,” Otzelberger said, “So for us to change the position that we’re in, we have to be more committed to our identity defensively - finishing plays, getting stops, guards rebounding down. But tonight, Memphis (and head) coach (Penny) Hardaway, they deserve all the credit. They outplayed us, outcompeted us, start to finish.”
The numbers on the ISU side were solid on paper but not enough to change the outcome. Ryan Prather Jr. scored 19 points off the bench, Dominykas Pleta added 15 in reserve, Lipsey finished with 12, and Tre Singleton posted 11 points and 11 rebounds. Still, the Cyclones couldn’t match Memphis’ edge in the moments that mattered.
That’s the part that stung most for Otzelberger’s group, which has built its reputation on forcing opponents into uncomfortable basketball. This time, the Tigers did that to Iowa State instead.
“It’s personal pride,” said Otzelberger, whose team trailed for all but 18 seconds of the second half on Monday. “I mean, we’ve seen how our program’s looked over the last five years, and it’s been a program that’s been elite guarding the basketball - up with any in the country.
And so right now, we’re working hard to form that identity. … I don’t know any other way to do it outside of you work on it every day and then you take tremendous pride and you make it go your way.
We didn’t have a strong enough will in terms of our pride to get stops tonight.”
The Cyclones get a quick chance to reset with Friday’s 7 pm. home opener against Southern Miss at Hilton Coliseum.
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