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Iowa State Media Relations

Defensive back Ben Nikkel, a former walk-on, has signed with the Washington Commanders. He wowed teams with an impressive performance at Big 12 Pro Day in Frisco, Texas at the end of March. The McPherson, Kansas, native, started his playing career as a wide receiver at McPherson College before coming to Iowa State as a walk-on in 2021.

After redshirting his initial season, Nikkel switched over from the offensive side of the ball to the defensive backfield and saw action in all 12 games as a special teams standout in 2022.

Prior to the 2023 season, ISU head coach Matt Campbell awarded Nikkel with a scholarship and his value to the program was recognized by his teammates, who voted him a co-captain. He finished the 2024 season with 40 tackles and was second on the team with eight special teams stops. He also scooped up a blocked punt against TCU.

Nikkel played in 24 career games and making 43 tackles.

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I'm glad I was finally able to do something with the great interview I did with Kayden on the NCAA Tournament trail last month.

The SCOTUS is evaluating immunity, and if for some strange reason they say he does not have immunity, then ALL presidents will face prosecution 100 % of the time. Obama murdered American citizens with drone strikes, Biden has committed child trafficking (ie, teenage girl illegal aliens dropped at the Des Moines airport in the middle of the night to be picked up by unknown organizations). So do democrats really want to go down this path? How stupid are they?

Biden said today he will debate.

If I had to bet, I would say the odds are at least 5-1 against it. The question is how the Dems will avoid it and blame Republicans?

Hits game winner in OT against the Bucks. He had a triple double at 18,10, & 16. Pacers up 2-1

What a bunch of crock the Dems are pushing. Here are some facts that Dems want to ignore:

Stormy Daniels has put it in writing that there was NEVER an affair with Trump.

Stormy Daniels currently owes Trump more than 670K in judgements against her. That's right, she owes HIM.

She obviously makes a good witness for the Dems. Reality is never important to a liberal.

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The Cyclones were in Bollers’ mix for quite a while when he was coming out of Clear Creek Amana. Not sure if ISU ends up having interest this time around or not.

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Listen to her make comments, she is a complete idiot. DEI is obviously a terrible thing. She has no clue what is in the constitution. Of course, she also has no idea what a woman is. Black women of America should be ashamed of her.

This is the same court system that “convicted” Trump of rape and is trying him now on federal charges. Tell me again about how there’s no justice for them and and a different one for us.

This guys is a Dem partisan...so this is shocking. Almost as shocking is the NYTimes editorial today calling Bragg's case an "Historic mistake". This thing truly is a Soviet style show trial...rigged judge, rigged jury pool, rigged DA. This kind of travesty should never happen in our nation...luckily most of the country is seeing quite clearly what this mess is.

JULIAN EPSTEIN: This is an outrageous case. It's an embarrassment to the legal system that this case is being brought. The notion, the theory that we heard on Monday from the prosecution, that this is about election interference because the Trump campaign was trying to suppress bad stories. Suppressing bad stories is not election interference. Everyone does it. Nondisclosure agreements are perfectly legal. If suppressing bad news were election interference, then what would one say about the Biden campaign in 2020 that actively used all of its resources to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop case? I mean, that had much more serious implications in terms of the election than the alleged affair with Donald Trump in 2016. You know, everything falls apart, Brian. I mean, the idea that this was election interference, the conduct, the election occurred in November of 2016. The conduct in question here, namely, the recordkeeping, and the failure to disclose this, if there was any obligation as a campaign contribution, all occurred in 2017.

... and it's remarkable how many future NBA players were on the floor and only two of them were from Kansas. We had Bryce Dejean-Jones, Monte Morris, Georges Niang, Abdel Nader, Matt Thomas and Naz Long, who all played at one time or another in the NBA. Jameel Mckay also appeared in some NBA summer league games for the Pelicans. Kansas only had Frank Mason, who had a cup of coffee in the NBA, playing in 102 games for Sacramento, Milwaukee and Orlando, and Kelly Oubre, who still plays with the 76ers. Perry Ellis was never drafted, but caught on with the Mavericks for the Summer League, but was waived, then was waived by the Hornets.

Luke Emmerich from Monticello, Minnesota is listed as a 6-2, 200 ATH in the database. Iowa State offered him yesterday after a track meet, where he posted a 10.69 time in the 100 meters. My guess is they are looking at him as either a safety or maybe a LB since his contact coach is Kratch.

An ISU graduate who was an Iranian hostage in Lebanon 30 years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Anderson

Pro-Israel march being planned for the Columbia campus. Pray for everyone’s safety.

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A late addition to Iowa State's 2022 recruiting class, defensive end Tommy Hamann never really gained much traction in the depth chart. He played six defensive snaps this past season and didn't contribute on special teams.

Iowa State Media Relations

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger has announced the addition of a fourth transfer to the 2024-25 Iowa State roster. St. Mary’s transfer Joshua Jefferson will join the Cyclones this summer.

Jefferson joins a transfer class that already includes Seattle transfer Brandton Chatfield, Northern Iowa transfer Nate Heise and Charlotte transfer Dishon Jackson.

A 6-8 forward out of Las Vegas, Jefferson played for the Gaels the last two seasons. Jefferson comes to Iowa State with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

He started 26 games for St. Mary’s last season before suffering a season-ending injury. He averaged 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Gaels in 25 minutes per game. He earned All-West Coast Conference Honorable Mention honors.

“Joshua is a high IQ basketball player that impacts winning in a variety of ways,” Otzelberger said. “He’s a gifted offensive player that can score at all three levels. He possesses terrific defensive instincts that will help us generate turnovers and end possessions with a rebound.”

Jefferson scored in double figures in 13 of his 26 games, including a career-high 21 points in a victory at San Franciscoon Jan. 20. He tallied four double-doubles on the year, including a 16-point, 13-rebound effort in a victory at No. 13 Colorado State Dec. 9. He had six games with four assists or more, including a career-high eight in a victory against Portland Jan. 11.

This is a pretty good refresher on the movement to and from Ames this offseason. The post-spring movement likely won't be in high of volume as over the winter, but we've already seen six Cyclones announce departures this spring and there's a few names that have collected offers and interest from the staff.

LINK

Iowa State Media Relations

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State men’s basketball team will host Marquette in the 2024 Big 12/BIG EAST Battle on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at Hilton Coliseum.

Iowa State is 4-0 in the BIG EAST/Big 12 Battle, beating DePaul (99-80) last season, St. John’s (71-60) in 2022, Creighton (64-58) in 2021 and No. 16 Seton Hall (76-66) in 2019 at Hilton Coliseum. The 2020 meeting with DePaul was canceled due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols just hours before tipoff.

The Cyclones and Golden Eagles will be meeting for the ninth time. Iowa State won the last meeting, 77-69, in Hilton Coliseum March 25, 2004. The victory sent the Cyclones to the NIT Final Four. Marquette leads the all-time series 5-3, while Iowa State holds a 3-2 advantage in Ames. The Golden Eagles went 27-10 last season, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. Both the Cyclones and Golden Eagles finished the year in the AP Top 25, with ISU at No. 8 and Marquette at No. 11.

With each conference adding member schools since the start of the original agreement, the Battle increased from 10 to 11 matchups last season and will continue with 11 for this year.

The Battle matchups are jointly determined by the two conferences, with the home team choosing the venue of its game. Broadcast arrangements for the contests will be determined by the national television rights holder of the home team, which is ESPN for the Big 12 and FOX Sports for the BIG EAST.

Game times and television networks will be announced when available.

2024 BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle Schedule
December 3 Cincinnati at Villanova
December 3 BYU at Providence
December 4 Marquette at Iowa State
December 4 Baylor at Connecticut
December 4 DePaul at Texas Tech
December 4 Kansas at Creighton
December 6 Georgetown at West Virginia
December 6 Xavier at TCU
December 7 Kansas State at St. John’s
December 7 Butler at Houston
December 8 Oklahoma State at Seton Hall

Bart Torvik released his 2024-2025 preseason rankings today and oh boy, we have some expectations for next year.

These will be updated as the portal moves continue throughout the off season but neat to see where things stand right now.

Bart Torvik Preseason Projections

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1) Omaha Biliew not pictured.
2) Jelani Hamilton, Kayden Fish & Jackson Paveletzke in the picture.
3) Hamilton must have suffered some type of left foot/ankle/lower leg injury. Sucks for him to be in the portal at the same time.