Thomas John Otzelberger (born September 17, 1977) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach who is currently the head coach at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

Early and personal life

Otzelberger was born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, the son of Thomas L. and Jackie A. Otzelberger. He attended Thomas More High School in

, where he was a three-year starter on the varsity basketball team. He played college basketball at the

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, and was team captain for two years. On June 1, 2013, he married

Alison Lacey Alison Lacey Otzelberger (born Alison Mavis Lacey; 26 December 1987) is an Australian-American basketball coach and former player. She played in the WNBA and was subsequently a collegiate women's basketball coach in the US at Marshalltown Comm ...

, former ISU women's basketball standout, former WNBA player, and former coach of the

Marshalltown Community College Marshalltown Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Marshalltown, Iowa. It is part of the Iowa Valley Community College District. The campus is located just to the south of Marshalltown along Highway 30. A second campus, Iowa ...

women's basketball team.

Coaching career

Early coaching career

From 2001 to 2004 Otzelberger served as a basketball coach at

Burlington Catholic Central High School Catholic Central High School in Burlington, Wisconsin, United States, is a private, Catholic, co-educational high school in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Founded in 1920, it offers both college-prep and general studies for grades 9 through 12. Ac ...

Burlington, Wisconsin Burlington is a city in Racine and Walworth counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, with the majority of the city located in Racine County. The population of the city was 11,047 as of the 2020 census. History Prior to the arrival of Europea ...

. He was promoted to varsity head coach and athletic director in 2003. For the 2004-2005 season, he moved to

Marianna, Florida Marianna is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Florida, United States, and it is home to Chipola College. The population was 6,102 at the 2010 census. In 2018 the estimated population was 7,091. The official nickname of Marianna is ...

to join the

Chipola College Chipola College is a public college in Marianna, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. History The school was founded in 1947 as Chipola Junior College; its name was changed in 2003 after the college developed several bachelor's ...

staff as an assistant coach. In that season, the Indians finished 33-4, won the

Panhandle Conference The Panhandle Conference is a conference within the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 8. The conference consists of four state colleges and one community college located in Florida. Members Member institutions are Chipo ...

and placed third at the 2005

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

national tournament in

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 cen ...

Iowa State (assistant)

Otzelberger served on the Cyclones' coaching staff for eight seasons. He initially joined the

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

coaching staff under former

head coach

Greg McDermott Greg McDermott (born November 25, 1964) is an American basketball coach who has been the head coach of the Creighton Bluejays men's basketball team since 2010. Previously, McDermott served as the head coach at Wayne State College, North Dakota ...

in 2006, and served under him as an assistant through the 2009-2010 season. When

McDermott McDermott is an Irish surname from County Roscommon and is mostly found in the West of Ireland. Some notable people with the surname are listed below. Surname A * Alan McDermott (born 1982), Irish footballer *Alice McDermott (born 1953), America ...

was succeeded by

Fred Hoiberg Fredrick Kristian Hoiberg (born October 15, 1972) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He has served as the men's head basketball coach at the University of Nebraska since 2019. Hoiberg grew up in Ames, Iowa, and played coll ...

in May 2010, Otzelberger was promoted to the position of associate head coach. In 2011-2012, Hoiberg led

to a 23-11 overall record and a third-place finish in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

, advancing to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005. The

Cyclones In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

defeated reigning national champion

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

in third round tourney action, before falling to eventual national champion

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. In 2012-2013, the

finished 4th in the Big 12 Conference while advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Ohio State on a buzzer beater. During this stretch, the

were among the nation's leading teams in scoring, returning the team to national prominence. Otzelberger has been widely regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation. His efforts have helped secure the services of Cyclone greats Mike Taylor,

Craig Brackins Craig Lee Brackins (born October 9, 1987) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Shiga Lakestars of the Japanese B.League. Brackins played collegiately for the Iowa State Cyclones. A power forward, Brackins was the high ...

Diante Garrett Diante Maurice Garrett (born November 3, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for Ironi Kiryat Ata of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for Iowa State University. High school career Garrett atten ...

, Scott Christopherson,

Chris Babb Chris Babb (born February 14, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Bnei Herzliya of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for Pennsylvania State University and Iowa State University. Early life Ba ...

, Chris Allen,

Will Clyburn William Dalen Clyburn (born May 17, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball Super League and the EuroLeague. Clyburn attended three colleges, from 2008 to 2013: Marshalltown Community College ...

Korie Lucious Korian "Korie" Lucious (born November 5, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Iowa State University Cyclones men's basketball team. Upon transferring from the Michigan State University ...

Melvin Ejim Melvin Obinna Ejim (born March 4, 1991) is a Nigerian-Canadian professional basketball player for Unicaja of the Liga ACB. He played college basketball for Iowa State University before playing professionally in Italy, Russia and Spain, as well as ...

Georges Niang Georges Niang (born June 17, 1993), nicknamed "The Minivan", is a Senegalese-American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an All-American college player for Iowa State U ...

Naz Long Nazareth Jersey Mitrou-Long is a Greek-Canadian professional basketball player for Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Iowa State Cyclones. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, ...

, and Matt Thomas, among others. In addition to recruiting, Otzelberger was in charge of opponent scouting and game planning for the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

run in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. In April 2015, Otzelberger returned as an assistant coach for

after leaving

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Washington

On May 7, 2013, Washington Huskies head coach

Lorenzo Romar Lorenzo Romar (born November 13, 1958) is an American basketball coach and former player. He is the head men's basketball coach at Pepperdine University, a position he held from 1996 to 1999 and resumed in 2018. Romar also served as the head me ...

announced that Otzelberger had joined his staff as an assistant coach. NBC Sports called Coach Otzelberger's hiring at Washington as one of the top 10 key assistant coaching hires for the 2013-14 season. Following the 2014 season, Jay Bilas and Jeff Goodman ranked TJ as one of the top college head coaching candidates. On April 1, 2015 it was announced that Otzelberger was returning to Iowa State to replace Matt Abdelmassih.

South Dakota State

On April 14, 2016, Otzelberger was named head coach of South Dakota State, replacing

Scott Nagy Scott Michael Nagy (; born June 7, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach for Wright State Raiders men's basketball. He had previously served as head coach at South Dakota State Jackrabbits men's basketball, Sout ...

, who left after 21 years to become the head coach at Wright State. In his first season as head coach, Otzelberger led the Jackrabbits to the Summit League tournament championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round to eventual tournament runner-up Gonzaga. On March 6, 2018, Otzelberger led the Jackrabbits back to the NCAA Tournament, their third straight trip to the Big Dance, with a 97-87 win over the University of South Dakota.

UNLV

On March 27, 2019, the

UNLV Runnin' Rebels The UNLV Runnin' Rebels are the men's basketball team that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Mountain West Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); it plays at the Thomas & Mack Center on campus. As ...

announced Otzelberger would become its 13th head coach. On February 22, 2020, Otzelberger and the Runnin' Rebels defeated #4 San Diego State University, handing SDSU their first loss of the season.

Iowa State (head coach)

On March 18, 2021 Otzelberger was hired at

, replacing

Steve Prohm Steven Marshall Prohm (born July 12, 1974) is an American basketball coach who is in his second tenure as the head coach for Murray State men's basketball. Previously, he was the head coach at Iowa State University, a position he had held from ...

who was fired after winning just two games in a COVID shortened

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. Otzelberger won his 100th career game on November 9th, 2021 in an 84-73 victory over Kansas State. Otzelberger accomplished the nation's largest turnaround in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

at the helm at Iowa State, winning 22 games and making the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament.

Community service

Otzelberger is openly passionate about teaching young people and was actively involved in the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University o ...

"Stay in to Win" program. This program was set up to help students focus on making important decisions in order to become more successful in school and impact their overall quality of life. Otzelberger is also highly involved with the

Boys and Girls Clubs of America Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, ...

. He is also a member of the Villa 7 Consortium, which aims to develop the nation's top assistant coaches.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

*
South Dakota State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otzelberger, T. J. 1977 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Basketball players from Milwaukee College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in Wisconsin Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Point guards South Dakota State Jackrabbits men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Milwaukee UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball coaches Washington Huskies men's basketball coaches Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks men's basketball players