Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Iowa State Cyclones

The Big 12 had a successful year in men’s college basketball in 2020 as the Baylor Bears closed out the season as the national champs. It was a dominant run, and they truly were the best team in college basketball.

The conference comes into the new year looking strong from top to bottom, but there was some drama in the offseason with a few teams planning to leave for the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma will be headed to the SEC in the near future, but for this year at least it’ll be business as usual.

Like many other conferences around the country, Big 12 teams took advantage of the expanded transfer portal and loaded up with all sorts of new faces. Figuring out rotations will be especially important for this group so let’s dive in and take our best crack at deciphering the best players for each squad.

In this one, Iowa State.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Iowa State Cyclones 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 2-22 (0-18 Big 12), 10th/last in Big 12
Postseason: None

Key Departures | Iowa State Cyclones

Rasir Bolton (transferred to Gonzaga)
Jalen Coleman-Lands (transferred to Kansas)
Javan Johnson (transferred to Depaul)
Solomon Young (graduated)

Key Additions | Iowa State Cyclones

Gabe Kalscheur (transferred from Minnesota)
Izaiah Brockington (transferred from Penn State)
Tristan Enaruna (transferred from Kansas)
Blake Hinson (transferred from Ole Miss)
Aljaz Kunc (transferred from Washington State)
Caleb Grill (transferred from UNLV)
Robert Jones (transferred from Denver)
Tyrese Hunter (top 50 recruit)

Returners | Iowa State Cyclones

George Conditt (2.4 PPG/3.6 RPG)
Xavier Foster (4 PPG)
Tre Jackson (6.3 PPG/4.3 RPG)

Iowa State Cyclones Outlook for 2021-2022

The Cyclones have turned over the roster and will try to move on from the sour Steve Prohm era. TJ Otzelberger takes over as the head coach going forward. This team has to find an identity but has plenty of new pieces in the fold to try different combinations until they find it.

Izaiah Brockington was a fantastic DFS option last year at Penn State where he averaged 12.6 PPG/4.9 APG/1 SPG. He will be a starter from day 1 along with fellow newcomers Gabe Kalscheur (9.2 PPG) and Blake Hinson (10.1 PPG/4.6 RPG). Aljaz Kunc is the sneaky play of this group and he flashed double-double upside at times with the Washington State Cougars.

Top-50 recruit Tyrese Hunter will likely be thrown into the fire right away and he has drawn favorable comparisons to former program star Tyrese Haliburton. The other pieces of this team will be lower end role players that have fleeting value at the end of the day.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

This team will take time to gel, but Tyrese Hunter could be a bona fide star while Izaiah Brockington and Blake Hinson will be usable players in all formats. Aljaz Kunc is my pick for the breakout candidate on this team and he could potentially average a double-double in his career at some point.