T.J. Otzelberger on the response to the Arizona loss, preparing for Kansas State

On if he, his team are ever amazed by Gilbert’s ability to finish at the rim

Yeah, I mean, he certainly has always had that in his game. He’s an elite downhill player, finisher, body balance, competitiveness, both hands, one foot, two foot, he’s got all of it in his bag. And it’s something he’s always been great at.

He’s finishing even higher level this year than he was last year. And I thought he did a great job last year. So, much of that is his innate ability and his work ethic and how those two things propel him to that level.

And we try to do what we can throughout our workouts and our development process to continue to improve it even more.

On if Arizona effectively took away Curtis Jones ability to get to his floater game

Yeah, they did a great job locating him in transition. So they weren’t, when he was breaking the plane of the three point line, they had bigger physical guards who had a body into them.

They intentionally probably didn’t play Dell’Orso. So the last however many minutes of the game because it felt like him out there would give Curt ability to get to his spots more. And so I think it was their awareness and transition.

So they didn’t have to fly by and necessarily run them off the three and get out of the play. They were able to stay in the play and be physical and then congest the floor so he wasn’t able to get to a spot the same way. So again, credit to them for being able to have a great plan but then sustainability and focus and execution over 40 minutes.

Because they never really let him get clean ones, right? They were very deliberate in how they defended and how physical they were with guarding him to take that away. So credit to them and we’ll continue to be better finding those opportunities for him.

On the lesson Iowa State learned from the way Arizona defended Jones

Yeah, I would say more than anything, Curt, one thing he’s done well for us over his time is he’s really helped us move the basketball, be a great mover off the ball.

I think when the ball would stop with him and the whole defense could focus on him, look, he’s a great playmaker but that’s us not putting him in the best spot to be successful. So I would say where we’ve seen him be at his best is when Tamin and Keshon is kind of breaking down the defense. And now the ball comes from the pain or it comes from J-Jeff and he’s in space.

That’s where he’s so good because he moves so well. He never stops moving and now it’s hard to locate him. So, I think the lesson learned is he’s always got to be hard to locate.

He can’t be somebody that they can know where he is because then you can make choices that make it harder.

On an updated status for Milan Momcilovic and his hand injury

“Cast is off, he’s doing strengthening exercises. I don’t know where we’re at in that time right now. What are we at, week three? I would say four is probably aggressive, but we’ll see. I think it’s more just do the strengthening stuff, hopefully this weekend and get some form shots up, and then just kind of see where we go from there. I think now it’s probably more contingent on how quickly he can get that strength back.”