With North Carolina job open, Iowa State's T.J. Otzelberger says 'any speculation with me and any other jobs or opportunities is not true'

· Yahoo Sports

Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said Wednesday that he was “thrilled and excited” about the future with the Cyclones. 

Otzelberger has been seen as a possible candidate to be the next head coach at North Carolina after the Tar Heels fired Hubert Davis on Tuesday night. No. 2 Iowa State plays No. 6 Tennessee in the Sweet 16 on Friday evening and it’s the school’s third Sweet 16 appearance in his five seasons in charge.

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“Any speculation with me and any other jobs or opportunities is not true,” Otzelberger said. “I’m the coach of the Cyclones, thrilled to be the coach of the Cyclones and what I can say to you even more as we move forward together is the alignment on our campus with Dr. Cook, Jamie Pollard is amazing and we’re thrilled and excited about our future together.”

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Otzelberger, 48, took over as Iowa State’s coach in 2021 after the school went 2-22 during the 2020-21 season. The Cyclones made the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed in 2022, and have been a top-three seed in each of the past NCAA tournaments. 

Though Iowa State hasn’t made it past the Sweet 16 — yet — in Otzelberger’s tenure, he’s turned around a program that had three losing seasons in the four years before he took over. After serving as an Iowa State assistant over two different stints, Otzelberger was the head coach at South Dakota State for three seasons before he succeeded Steve Prohm in Ames.

Otzelberger’s team lost in the Big 12 tournament semifinals to regular-season champion Arizona before the NCAA tournament and Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd has also been mentioned as a possible candidate to be the next coach of the Tar Heels.

Lloyd was asked about the opening in Chapel Hill during his pre-Sweet 16 news conference on Thursday and said that his current focus was entirely on Arizona.

“I already have one of the best jobs in the country,” Lloyd said. “One thing we talk about in our program all the time, and I think I’ve gotten better at, and I think our team has been crushing it this year, is just the ability to have full focus and be present in the moment.

“So I think we have a great team. I think we have a chance to advance in this tournament game by game. But I’m not delusional, I know we could lose tomorrow.

“But this team deserves my full focus, so there’s not one thing that is going to knock me off my path. I’m 100% focused on Arizona basketball and this program, and I can’t wait until the ball gets thrown up [Thursday], and then can’t wait to try to figure out a way to come out on top.”

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