Inside The Huskies

Former Husky Assistant TJ Otzelberger Is Talk of NCAA Tourney

The Iowa State head coach spent two seasons on Lorenzo Romar's staff.

Dan Raley

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TJ Otzelberger finds himself in a magical place, in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, as a master rebuilder who in his first season has turned Iowa State from a 2-22 disaster into a 22-12 giant-killer.

He used to be at the University of Washington. 

For the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Otzelberger was a Lorenzo Romar assistant coach, in Seattle long enough to recruit a top 10 class in Dejounte Murray, Marquese Chriss and Matisse Thybulle.

And then he was gone.

Otzelberger was never going to the Huskies' Tommy Lloyd, spending year after year as a loyal basketball lieutenant. He was much more ambitious.

The Milwaukee native and former Wisconsin-Whitewater point guard ultimately became a head coach for South Dakota State and UNLV before deciding that a third coaching stint at Iowa State was where he most wanted to be.

After previously serving as the lead recruiter and bench coach for Cyclones head coaches Greg McDermott, Fred Hoiberg and Steve Prohm, he replaced Prohm almost exactly a year ago. 

Otzelberger, 44, now is the youngest of the 16 coaches who still have their teams in March Madness contention.

After losing in the Big 12 tournament to Texas Tech 72-41, he's guided Iowa State past LSU 59-54 and Wisconsin 54-49 in a pair of stirring upsets.


Otzelberger first came to Iowa State as an assistant coach for McDermott in 2006 and stayed on when Hoiberg took over as the Cyclones coach in 2010, spending eight seasons in Ames altogether.

He left Iowa State for the UW, but went right back to the school after his two seasons in the Pac-12. This time, he stayed one year with the Cyclones before receiving his first head-coaching job at South Dakota State for the 2016-17 season.

He became a head coach the same year that Romar was fired at the UW and replaced by Mike Hopkins, a Syracuse assistant coach.

Otzelberger has another Seattle connection, as well. He's married to Alison Lacey, a three-time All-Big 12 player for the Iowa State women’s basketball program, leading it to four NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight (2009) and Sweet 16 (2010). 

She played professionally in the WNBA for the Seattle Storm, including its championship season of 2010.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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