Otzelberger Is Lone Husky Connection to Sweet 16

TJ Otzelberger was newly married, touted as an effective recruiter and in Montlake only for a minute in 2013 when he joined the University of Washington basketball staff as an assistant coach for Lorenzo Romar.

Today, he is the Huskies' only remote connection to what's left of the NCAA Tournament, now down to its Sweet 16 teams.

Otzelberger, 48, has moved Iowa State within two wins of reaching its first Final Four in 82 seasons, with the Cyclones (29-7) poised to face Tennessee (24-11) on Friday in Chicago.

Thirteen years ago, Otzelberger was hired by the Huskies after eight years as an assistant at Iowa State as Romar replaced his lead assistants in an effort to re-energize a program that had gone somewhat stale.

TJ Otzelberger is shown in his first season as Iowa State coach in 2021. | Kelsey Kremer/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Otzelberger stayed just 23 months in Seattle before returning to Iowa State as an assistant coach again for just a season before becoming the head coach at South Dakota State and UNLV.

For the 2021-2022 season, he took the job he always seemed destined to have -- as the Cyclones basketball leader, and he's taken them to five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

While in Seattle, he shared in UW teams that went 17-15 and 16-15, with the latter outfit in 2015 opening the season 12-0 before stumbling through the latter half of the season and winning just four of its final 19 outings.

Otzelberger wasn't enough to pull the UW out of its ongoing malaise or prevent Romar from ultimately getting fired in 2017.

Still, he seemed to show off his recruiting chops for the Huskies, who added Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss to the roster as freshman for the 2016 season before they were one-and-done as NBA first-round draft picks.

Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger shows his intensity in a 2026 game against Arizona State. | William Purnell-Imagn Images

A Milwaukee native, Otzelberger has worked at Iowa State for 14 seasons now in three different stints as an assistant and the head coach.

His connection to the school runs deep. As a Cyclones assistant in 2006-13, he worked for Greg McDermott and Fred Hoiberg, with McDermott recently retiring from Creighton after an exemplary career and Hoiberg coaching Nebraska into this Sweet 16, as well.

A month after taking the UW assistant job in 2013, he married Alison Lacey, a former Iowa State women's standout and WNBA player.

Iowa State swears by him because he took over a program that went 2-22 during the COVID pandemic and he turned it into a 22-13 and Sweet 16 team.

Otzelberger now hears his name mentioned for high-profile vacancies such as the one at North Carolina and possibly Kansas coming soon. He's known as a top player evaluator and a defensive-minded specialist.