Iowa State Shrugs Off Rim Delay as an Issue
Prior to sixth-seeded Iowa State’s 59-41 first round loss to No. 11 seed Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament, there was a hiccup you don’t see every day. Of all things, play was delayed because the rim was bent, forcing workers in the arena to adjust it before play could begin.
Afterwards, head coach T.J. Otzelberger was asked about the delay and how it might have affected things. He, of course, shrugged it off and instead was more focused on his team’s poor performance.
“Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t speak for our guys,” Otzelberger said. “I wasn’t sure what all happened by the time they came out. They were checking it, and obviously there was a delay. I like to think our guys have enough mental toughness. We’ve been in a lot of big games and a lot of tough environments that that wouldn’t impact us, but I can’t speak for them exactly on that and how it affected them mentally.”
Guard Gabe Kalscheur was adamant that it didn’t play into what happened.
“Definitely wasn’t a factor,” Kalscheur said. “One thing that we’ve always talked about is how adversity is always coming. You know how we deal with it, and that was one of those things that wasn’t for us in the beginning. We knew that, and we played it in our mind and we just knew we had to come out and play even harder.”
Afterwards, the NCAA released a statement clarifying how it handled the situation.
“Iowa State asked us during pregame warmups to check if the rim was level,” started the NCAA. “Building personnel checked it and made a minor adjustment prior to the game beginning. We offered them additional warmup time but they declined.”
While this was an interesting and unlikely situation, we see the crazy sometimes in sporting events. Host Greg Gumble talked about the likelihood of that in a tournament scenario, which Charles Barkley also commented on.
“Greg, actually your point is well taken,” Barkley said in studio. “It probably happens more in like a tournament situation where you play multiple games like every day, because then you factor in you know that your kids are probably doing crazy stupid things on practice, dunking all kinds of crazy ways in practice. So, that’s probably the only time it really rears its ugly head.”
Barkley also took some time to praise other workers in the arena before things officially got underway.
“Man, one of the things we take for granted is all the people who work at arenas, especially in a situation like this, where you’ve got multiple, multiple, multiple games, multiple, multiple, multiple practices,” Barkley said. “I mean, there’s so much stuff that goes into this. And shout out to all the trainers also, and the guys who do all the uniforms to get these uniforms cleaned up and everything, because I’m so old we used to take a shower in our uniforms.”
And even with what happened at the start, by the final result, it’s clear Iowa State’s play overall left plenty to be desired. It ultimately ends the season with a 19-14 mark, while Pittsburgh advances to take on No. 3 seed Xavier on Sunday.
