Tinsley makes a case for another Iowa State run

Sporting News, The, Jan 22, 2001 by Kyle Veltrop

The state called Kelvin Sampson as its expert witness. The first question to the Oklahoma coach in the case of "Iowa State vs. the rest of the nation" was simple: Can the Cyclones be as good as last year?

That team had Marcus Fizer, went 32-5, was the second-best team in the NCAA Tournament and would have gone to the Final Four were it not for the NCAA selection committee's fumble of putting it in the same region as Michigan State.

So, Mr. Sampson, can the Cyclones be as good as last year?

"I don't know about that," he says. "I mean, I don't think so. That was a pretty special team."

Then, like a prosecutor unwittingly entering evidence that helps the defense, Sampson continued: "But last year, there were one or two guys that you didn't have to worry about guarding a whole lot. Well, they don't have that anymore.

"They can shoot the 3 really well, but they can win games other ways. They defend. They rebound. Martin Rancik and Paul Shirley give them a lot of great experience inside. (Kantrail) Horton is a great shooter. Jake Sullivan is a very underrated player...."

And then the damning line that would ruin Sampson's testimony: "And every night they play, they have the best player on the court, and that's Jamaal Tinsley."

A pause. Then a quick laugh. "OK, I really do like them," Sampson says. "The more I talk about them, the more I think they can be as good as they were last year."

Jamaal Tinsley has a way of doing that to people. Tinsley with a ball in his hands is like Eric Clapton with a guitar, Dido with a microphone, Bobby Flay with a spatula, M. Night Shyamalan with a movie camera.

And like a Shyamalan film, you can always expect a twist from Tinsley. Play off of him because you don't respect his jumper, and he'll torch you, like he did Oklahoma on January 6, when he nailed three 3s in the first three minutes of the second half and helped turn a halftime deficit into a 20-point win.

Overplay Tinsley when he drives the lane, and he'll get the ball to an open teammate, one way or another. Whipping it out to the open man beyond the arc is his specialty. But he has other ways, too. With the Cyclones trying to kill the clock in the dosing minutes against Oklahoma, Tinsley drove the lane and was met by two Sooners. With his back to the basket, Tinsley flicked a blind two-handed pass over his head to a cutting Shirley for a layup.

No wonder Sampson is smitten with the guy. And he's not alone.

"I'm a little bit of a fan with him," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said after his team needed four overtimes to beat Iowa State 112-109 last Saturday. "He uses his momentum well. He gets you overpursuing and then changes direction. He makes your bigs come out and help out and that opens up the floor."

The Cyclones lost two of their first three Big 12 games, falling to 13-3, but Oklahoma State and Missouri needed a combined five overtimes on their homecourts to prevail.

Six players average more than 9.5 points per game. They are bigger than last year. They are deeper. With Tinsley and Horton, they have two of the most gifted ballhandlers and passers around. And they outrebound teams by an average of 13.1 per game.

"They are still one of the best teams in the nation," Missouri point guard Brian Grawer said in a barely audible rasp in the locker room following the game against the Cyclones. Asked how they stack up against some of the Tigers' other opponents, such as Illinois or Iowa, and Grawer says, "They can play with anyone."

That's because few can play with Tinsley. He doesn't overwhelm you with stats or eye-blink quickness, but he makes everyone around him better. Yes, he can be wild at times and doesn't always seem to have his accelerator going at full bore, but he heightens everyone's awareness, and that can't be underestimated. Teammates have to be ready for his every pass or else risk getting drilled in the head with a ball.

Snyder said he tried to have his team double Tinsley whenever the Cyclones ran "1-4 Flat," a play in which Tinsley's teammates fan to the baseline while he works his one-on-one magic, but Tinsley's court vision and passing foiled the strategy when he repeatedly found an open man. "After a while, I realized it was smart to just leave well enough alone," Snyder says.

"He doesn't beat you so much with his quickness but rather his ballhandling,' says Missouri's Kareem Rush, who calls Tinsley the best point guard in the nation. "The things he does with the ball in his hands are amazing. You really can't prepare for some of his passes."

Though ISU firecracker coach Larry Eustachy pushes his blood pressure to the limit at virtually every one of his team's mistakes, he knows not to micromanage his point guard's game.

"I've seen him do some unbelievable things," Eustachy says. "Some of the things he tries, if he tried them 1,000 times, he'd complete about 130. The other 870 would hit the ref in the head. But I want him to do things like that. You take that away, you take away his creativity and his love for the game."

Tinsley says simply, "Coach has confidence in me. He tells me to take control of the team, and he gives me the leeway to do that in my own way."