The curse of unfulfilled hope for Cyclones

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Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey reflects on the end of the Cyclones’ season

Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey reflects on the end of the Cyclones’ season

MILWAUKEE – What do you say when it’s just not meant to be? When all the work, want-to and wherewithal find a dead-end with destiny? 

The basketball gods blessed Iowa State with all the ingredients needed to make a run. In the Big 12. In the NCAA Tournament. On history. 

Those deities overlooking the hardwood, though, used those blessings in service of their cruelest curse. 

Unfulfilled hope. 

The celestials governing basketball bestowed the Cyclones with the talent, experience and cohesion to make them one of the country’s best teams. They even let coach T.J. Otzelberger’s team see the potential of those gifts with what almost certainly were among the two best months of basketball this program has ever seen. 

More: How do Cyclone players view their season after second-round NCAA Tournament exit?

Iowa State was 15-1 overall, perfect in the Big 12 and ranked No. 2 in the country. The hope of history dripped off the banners at Hilton Coliseum. The possibilities of greatness pulsated out of Ames and into the rest of the country. 

Then it was all taken away. 

Iowa State’s season ended Sunday with its 91-78 loss to Ole Miss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but it was a slow, painful and tortuous demise that started in January. 

All that could have been, snuffed out amid injury and inconsistency. 

“We saw what we could do when everyone was clicking, everyone was playing well,” sophomore Milan Momcilovic said from a somber locker room. “We were one of the top teams in the country. We were having a lot of fun together, and then it’s just tough with injuries, substituting guys in and out. Different lineups.  

“It sucks.” 

It’s difficult to say it more succinctly, bluntly and, most importantly, accurately than that. 

The entire ordeal just feels extremely unfair and unfulfilling. Instead of going out swinging, the…

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Publish date : 2025-03-24 10:49:00

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