Players Era Updates, Day 2: Why Iowa State didn’t run up score vs. Creighton: ‘Want to do the right thing’

LAS VEGAS — The Players Era Championship is in Year 2. It’s gone from eight to 18 teams and caused more conversation, buzz, criticism and intrigue than anything else so far this season.

It’s also got some flaws.

So let’s address the biggest one right now. On Tuesday, No. 15 Iowa State beat Creighton with aplomb, 78-60. The Cyclones are 2-0 in the event after winning a great battle over No. 14 St. John’s on Monday.

But in the ensuing hours after this win, they have no idea when they’ll play on Wednesday nor who their opponent will be. 

That’s because Players Era’s 18-team format isn’t build upon a bracket. When you don’t have bracket play and you don’t have all matchups predetermined, you’re left to rely on game scores to settle the rest of the schedule. The primary tiebreaker is average margin of victory (with a cap of 20 points to avoid incentivizing teams heedlessly running up score). Iowa State’s average margin of victory after two games is 10.5. Will that be enough to put the Cyclones in Wednesday’s championship game — where the winning team will be awarded $500,000? We won’t know until late Tuesday night.

The event’s abnormal format isn’t lost on some fans who flew out here to take in hoops on the Strip. As final seconds died out Tuesday, an Iowa State backer sitting in Section 220 was shouting to ISU’s Milan Momcilovic, “YOU NEED TO MAX IT! SHOOT IT!” He knew one more basket could be the difference between playing for first place or playing in the third-place game. Momcilovic opted not to shoot.

I did a walk-and-talk with Cyclones coach TJ Otzelberger after the win to chat about the unusual (and criticized) tiebreaker scenarios at play here. The situation on Tuesday was muddled all the more by the fact that Otzelberger says he owes his career to Creighton coach Greg McDermott, who gave him his first break in 2006 by bringing him on staff at Iowa State (when McDermott was in his first season coaching that program).

“Going into it, you know that point deferential is a part of this,” Otzelberger told CBS Sports. “The respect I have for Coach McDermott and his program, we’re not going to put the game in position where we’re trying to run up the score and get extra points late to win by a greater margin. To me, the relationship and the character of our program is more important than that. The easy solution would have been if we would have been up by [20], then it would have been fine, but that wasn’t the case. We want to do the right thing.”

Players Era’s margin-of-victory rule has brought about some criticism. But that noise has also overshadowed a more important element of the entire experience: winning games. Players are already getting paid to play in this event. The more valuable thing is the Quad 1 wins for the taking.

“You’re here to win games, you’re here to get better as a team and a program,” Otzelberger said. “The main thing is to come out and give it your best to win the game. And I understand there’s other factors and variables that go into this event, but we’re just gonna focus on being at our best to come out win the game.” 

By the way, ISU won without starting point guard Tamin Lipsey, who sat due to a sore groin. His availability for Wednesday is questionable, Otzelberger said. 

The Cyclones are off to their first 6-0 start since 2021-22 and averaging a sizzling 90.5 points. It’s looking like a top-10 team in the country.

Will it be enough to play for the championship on Wednesday? Sit tight. There could be as many as five 2-0 teams battling for two spots in the championship game. I’ll update this story throughout the night with the latest as we learn more here in Vegas.

2025 Players Era scores, schedule

Monday’s scores

Tuesday’s scores, schedule

Wednesday’s schedule

Premiere Four (Field determined after Tuesday’s games)

Consolation games, TBD

Thursday’s schedule

Consolation games, TBD