Big 12 News and Notes: Otzelberger Extends Contract, Houston Reloads in Portal with LJ Cryer and More

Big 12 basketball has started to pick up news during the offseason during the transfer portal period. Let’s take a look at what has happened around the league recently.

Iowa State Extends Otzelberger

On Monday afternoon, Iowa State University announced the contract extension for men’s basketball head coach TJ Otzelberger until the 2028-29 season. Otzelberger has coached the Cyclones to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances during his first two years at the helm.

𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙂𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙙…

Otzelberger Signed To Extensionhttps://t.co/paqRT0TJjB#Cyclones | #C5C pic.twitter.com/eDZoCH3Kgn

— Iowa State Men’s Basketball (@CycloneMBB) April 10, 2023

Otzelberger was an assistant at ISU multiple times throughout his career with Fred Hoiberg and Steve Prohm. Otzelberger was the head coach at South Dakota State and UNLV before being hired by Iowa State in 2021.

Iowa State is 41-27 in Otzelberger’s first two seasons with two NCAA Tournament appearances. Iowa State made the Sweet-16 in 2022 and lost to Pitt in the first round this past March.

Houston Reloads in Portal

Kelvin Sampson and Houston look to make as easy as a transition into the Big 12 as they possibly can. The Cougars earned a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, making it to the second weekend. Houston lost Tramon Mark to the transfer portal as well as leading scorer Marcus Sasser to the NBA Draft. It was clear that Houston needed to reload in the portal once again but it happened just like that.

Over the weekend, the Cougars picked up two commitments from Baylor G LJ Cryer and Temple G Damian Dunn.

Cryer will stay in the Big 12, moving to the southeast part of Texas. Cryer spent three seasons at Baylor, averaging 15.0 points on 42 percent shooting from three this year. Cryer was named to the All-Big 12 Third Team. Dunn transitions from the American to the Big 12 with Houston. Dunn averaged 15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists this year for the Owls.

Other news: ISU picks up UNLV transfer Keshon Gilbert, OSU’s Moussa Cisse enters portal, Texas freshman guard Arterio Morris enters portal, Cincinnati lands Temple F Jamille Reynolds