TRANSCRIPT: TJ Otzelberger, Milan Momcilovic, Killyan Toure talk Iowa State win over Syracuse
In the moments following the 15th-ranked Cyclones’ 95-64 victory over the Orange in the final round of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, head coach TJ Otzelberger and players Milan Momcilovic and Killyan Toure broke down the team’s seventh win to open the 2025-26 season.
Q. TJ, what was the halftime messaging to your team after a close first half and have you ever seen a 71 percent shooting in the second half response before?
TJ OTZELBERGER: Yeah, proud of our guys for their execution the second half defensively, setting the tone with our ball pressure, generating turnovers and scoring off our defense. That’s our identity.
I felt like in the first half we got away from that at times, weren’t as intentional and as focused. When we do that, we guard the three-point line well, we turn them over, we score in transition. Just an overall great team win, great team effort and felt like even as we went to the bench everyone stepped up for us so it was great to see.
Q. What were your thoughts on the tiebreaker format of the tournament and how it felt for your team when the Wednesday matchups were unveiled?
TJ OTZELBERGER: Yeah, how our team operates is just whatever is in front of us we are going ti tackle with the best intent and mindset, mentality, and that’s where we’ll keep our focus.
Our guys did a great job of doing that today, and that’s really all that matters.
Q. You were without one of the best players in the country the last couple games. What did you learn about your team?
TJ OTZELBERGER: So many guys stepped up for us. These two guys obviously have had a tremendous tournament all the way through, but so many guys on our team stepped up.
So it should give us a great sense of confidence as we move forward. You know during the season you’re going to have injury, you’re going to have illness, you’re going to have guys that maybe need some extra rest.
To be able to build that confidence in guys knowing that they’ve stepped up in key moments in big games and they’re ready for that opportunity when it presents itself, that’s huge for us. Proud of our guys for that.
Q. Milan, how would you describe the dynamic between you and Joshua?
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: Man, I think he just finds me when I’m open, and he can pass out with the defense. I mean, he makes all the right reads. When he passes to me, I know I’ve got to knock it down because then it’s going to come right back to me.
But he’s one hell of a player. He had 10 assists today, obviously, can score, can pass, can rebound, can defend. He can do really anything he wants.
It’s great playing with him, and I’m a much better player when he’s on the court with me.
Q. I would love to get your thoughts on the event and the past three, four days and what it was like to be a player playing in the Players Era Championship.
MILAN MOMCILOVIC: I mean, it was a great event. We played three good teams back to back to back. That’s always good. We are going to be one of three teams that I think that’s 3-0, so I think that’s really cool.
KILLYAN TOURE: Like he said, that was a great tournament for us. We won all of the three games, so three days in a row. I think that helped us, like, to build a better team chemistry I would say.
Now we’re really together, and like you guys seen, Tamin get injured on the first game, but we stayed together we played for him. And yeah, we just won two other games and we did really good. So yeah, it was a good tournament.
Q. TJ, wanted to ask about the prep process and playing three games in three days. What does that look like in terms of the late night structure, especially last night with the quick turnaround?
TJ OTZELBERGER: Yeah, we have tremendous pride in our daily work habits. Guys are up early every morning. They’re in our building 6:00 a.m. and doing the hard work.
We build a culture and a mindset and mentality for quick turnaround to have a next-play mentality with everything that we do.
Specifically in this setting we find out our opponent, and again, we have tremendous respect for everybody that we play, but we believe in what we do and doing what we do to the best of our ability.
Last night whatever time we found out, 9:00, that our opponent would be today, we got all the guys came into our meeting room, went through a quick prep, got them off their feet, got them to bed.
And like I said, to me as much respect as we have for Syracuse and their program, their coaches and players, it’s about us doing what we do at our best. That’s where we put our focus.
Q. There was a sequence where Killyan hit a three, you guys go down, hit a turnover then Milan hit a three. What does it say about your team to turn offense and defense and really compete on both sides of the ball?
TJ OTZELBERGER: Yeah, that’s our identity. That’s when we’re at our best, when we turn people over, we have pressure to the ball and then we get it and go in transition.
We’ve got a lot of weapons offensively, guys that can make plays. Specifically, like Milan with his dunk here today, I think that was a big play in transition and one that I’m sure that he’ll be showing his kids some day when he tells them about all the bounce that he had back in the day.
