Tamin Lipsey has already made his presence felt at Iowa State, and he hasn’t even gotten back into a game yet.
That’s the strange reality around the Cyclones’ longtime point guard as he waits for the NCAA situation around his eligibility to sort itself out. For now, the legal fight hangs over his fifth year, but on the practice floor, Lipsey is back where Iowa State has always liked him most: setting the tone, raising the edge and reminding everyone why he matters so much to the program.
Lipsey returned to practice after being officially added to the roster on Sept. 28, and even with plenty of familiar faces around him, he admitted the first steps back felt a little awkward.
“A little bit,” said the four-year starter, whose playing career remains in legal limbo as a series of class action lawsuits filed against the NCAA wind their way through the courts. “Obviously there are a handful of guys I played with last year, but there (are) a lot more new faces.
So to start, I was a little bit nervous just about integrating in and missing the summer and not being with there guys and building that connection, and what they would think about it and stuff like that. But from day one they were all invested in me being back and that kind of showed me they just want what’s best for the program.”
That feeling of uncertainty is real, but so is Lipsey’s importance. Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said the day-to-day effect of having him in practice is impossible to miss.
“I’m somebody (who) always looks at, what are the controllable and what are the things outside of your control?” said Otzelberger, who seeks to guide the Cyclones to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season.
“And right now what’s in the realm of our control is having Tamin in practice (and) every day is elevated. The competitiveness - I mean, what a winner, competitor.
There’s not been a player (who) has more pride to wear the Iowa State jersey.”
Lipsey’s resume already says plenty. The Cyclones’ all-time steals leader and the player with the most starts in program history at 137, he has become one of the defining figures of this run in Ames.
Former Iowa State star Tyrese Haliburton even gave him a nickname that fits the local connection perfectly: “Mr. Ames.”
And while Lipsey waits to learn what the NCAA situation will mean for his season, Iowa State is building around a roster that looks deeper and more varied than ever.
The Cyclones are dealing with a setback in guard Killyan Toure, who is out until at least January after surgery to repair a shoulder injury he worsened at Damian Lillard’s elite camp in August. But there’s still a long list of players expected to matter, including returners Blake Buchanan, Jamarion Batemon and Dominykas Pleta, who are all positioned for larger roles in 2026-27.
The transfer group adds another layer. Leon Bond III comes over from Northern Iowa, Jaquan Johnson from Bradley, Taj Manning from Kansas State, Tre Singleton from Northwestern and Ryan Prather Jr. from Robert Morris. Bond and Johnson both earned Missouri Valley Conference all-defensive team honors last season, and Bond said the depth gives the staff plenty of options.
“We’ve got so many talented players and this is a talented roster - I mean, why not give everybody an opportunity?” said Bond, who like Johnson, earned Missouri Valley Conference all-defensive team honors last season. “If they can come in and even if it’s something that’s (just) winning a play, that play can turn into something bigger and create that momentum that leads us to a win.”
That kind of depth may end up mattering a lot, especially with Toure sidelined and Lipsey’s status still unresolved heading into the opener Nov. 2 against Memphis at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Otzelberger made clear the rotation won’t be set in stone.
“It’s not about who’s starting, who’s rotating, who’s finishing the game,” Otzelberger said. “That will all be determined on the day and night of the game based on the production individually and collectively, and guys’ impact on winning.
So I think there will be more variables that you guys will want to ask me about after games, and why this group started, why that group started, why this guy played, why that guy played. … It’s gonna be production-driven and, ‘Make your deal work.’”
For Iowa State, though, no one has made his deal work better than Lipsey. And for now, at least, he’s still eligible to do what he’s always done best: compete. That’s exactly what Haliburton hopes the next chapter looks like, too.
“I know how much this place means to him,” Haliburton said. “So I hope there’s not any funky stuff with the NCAA and he can just play.”
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