AMES — It’s been over a week since Tamin Lipsey was tended to on the court during the closing minutes of Iowa State basketball‘s 83-82 victory over St. John’s on Nov. 24.
Since then, Lipsey has shown positive signs of progress, according to Cyclones’ coach T.J. Otzelberger, but he remains day-to-day. Otzelberger gave the latest on the standout senior guard on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
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“He’s continued to progress every single day,” Otzelberger said. “We just finished practice. He’s going to do some additional evaluations with our medical staff this afternoon. He’s trending in a good direction. I don’t know exactly what that means. I don’t want him to feel any pressure to need to play or feel like he has to play. I want to be (that) when he feels great, he returns, so we’ll just stay on day-to-day.
“It literally can be any day. It’s more really just how he feels and that he has all the burst, all the explosiveness that we saw him playing with at the start of the year. I want him to be fully healthy before he steps back out, but progress has been great.”
Through the first five games this season, Lipsey had been averaging 18.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.2 steals per game, while shooting 50.7% on the floor.
He missed the remainder of the Cyclones’ games at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. They dispatched Creighton and Syracuse by double-digit margins of victory in his absence.
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Iowa State returns to action against Alcorn State at home on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. CT.
However, it has big games on the horizon, starting with a road trip to No. 1 Purdue on Saturday, Dec. 6, followed by the Cy-Hawk game against Iowa at Hilton Coliseum on Thursday, Dec. 11.
Despite the high-profile matchups on the horizon, Otzelberger wants to reiterate that there is no pressure for him to return. Given Lipsey’s injury history, they’d rather play it safe.
Before the 2025-26 season tipped off, Lipsey was sidelined with an MCL injury that kept him out of action for six weeks. Last year, he played through shoulder, thumb and groin ailments at various points of the year.
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His newest groin injury is unrelated to the one he suffered towards the end of last season.
More: Iowa State basketball guard Killyan Toure steps up for Tamin Lipsey
“I think the great thing about Tamin is he knows, based on what he’s been through, how important it is to be honest,” Otzelberger said. “Maybe at some times, when he was younger, he might say, ‘I feel great,’ when he doesn’t. I think he knows now that doing that could have further repercussions, so we’re very mindful, intentional. I want to be the best, better or as good as any coach in the country can be having his back to make sure that we make great decisions in his best interest. That really matters to me, so it’s with a lot of communication, a lot of intentionality that we’re going to get it right, as opposed to feeling like we need to rush him back.”
Iowa State is 7-0 this season. Six of the Cyclones’ wins were by 16 or more points. Freshman Killyan Toure has taken up the point guard role in his absence, while Nate Heise was moved into the starting five.
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“I just think everybody takes a step forward and we’re fortunate that our guys are really connected and did that, so that we didn’t skip a beat,” Otzelberger said.
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Tamin Lipsey latest injury update for Iowa State basketball
