The Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team is going to look a lot different during the 2026-27 season than it did when the 2025-26 season came to an end.
A few of the departures the team was prepared for. Tamin Lipsey, Joshua Jefferson, Nate Heise, Dominick Nelson and Eric Mulder all exhausted their eligibility. The one they were hoping wouldn’t depart was Milan Momcilovic.
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With one year of eligibility remaining, he opted to declare for the 2026 NBA Draft, putting Iowa State in a tough spot. They couldn’t afford to wait until May 27, the deadline for players to withdraw from the draft, and as a result, Momcilovic entered the transfer portal.
His departure is a major reason why the Cyclones are moving down the way-too-early Top 25 rankings shared by James Fletcher III of On3. He has Iowa State at No. 19 in the post-withdrawal deadline rankings, a drop from where they finished the 2025-26 season.
Iowa State drops in way-too-early Top 25
Mar 26, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger speaks ahead of the Midwest regional of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at United Center. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
The Cyclones finished the campaign at No. 8, extending their streak of being inside the top 10 to 16 weeks. Iowa State has been ranked in the top 25 since the week of Jan. 15, 2024, as one of the most consistently productive teams in men’s college basketball.
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Head coach T.J. Otzelberger is going to do everything he can to keep that level of consistency despite losing so many talented players from last season’s team. Replenishing the roster is something he has excelled at during his tenure in Ames, always fielding a competitive team.
Losing Momcilovic certainly hurts, but Otzelberger could have the deepest roster of his tenure for the 2026-27 season. Retaining Killyan Toure, Jamarion Batemon, Blake Buchanan and Dominykas Pleta was a huge win this offseason.
All four were key members of the rotation this past season and should be even better in Year 2 in Ames. In the transfer portal, five players committed to the Cyclones: Jaquan Johnson, Ryan Prather Jr., Leon Bond III, Tre Singleton and Taj Manning.
Otzelberger envisions all five of them being in the rotation, providing specific skills to the rotation. For example, Bond looks like the ideal replacement for Heise and Singleton was referred to as Jefferson’s replacement.
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Manning brings toughness to the interior. Johnson, the Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year, will be tasked with replacing the two-way production of Lipsey. Prather is a big guard who can make an impact at all three levels offensively.
Iowa State may not have the same star power for the upcoming season, but anyone underestimating them will quickly be proven wrong.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/iowa-state as Milan Momcilovic Departure Has Iowa State Basketball Dropping in Top 25.
