With the transfer portal and NIL era of college athletics in full swing, roster changes happen without much thought. Iowa State brought in nine new faces: five freshmen and four transfers. 

Wisconsinites unite

Iowa State has taken over the Badger State recently in recruiting. Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said he likes what he gets out of Wisconsin recruits. 

Junior forward Milan Momcilovic from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, chose Iowa State over UCLA, Virginia and Creighton. His decision may have started a pipeline of Wisconsin talent to the Cyclones.

Freshman guard Jamarion Batemon, another Wisconsin native, has already impressed Otzelberger. 

“There’s a reason why he’s early for everything, and that he earns trust not only from his coaching staff but from his teammates,” Otzelberger said. “So he puts himself in a great position by what he does every single day.”

Batemon did just about everything you can do in a high school basketball career. He scored 1,914 points while shooting north of 40% from three-point range, making 308 in his career. Batemon, from the Milwaukee Academy of Science, made three appearances in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) State Tournament, winning it all his senior year. 

Also from the Milwaukee area is freshman guard Anthony Rise. Rise attended Brookfield Central for his secondary education. Rise was a conference freshman of the year and then player of the year his senior season. In Rise’s senior year, he averaged 24.6 points a game while shooting 51% from the field. 

The Iowa State freshman led the Brookfield Central Lancers on an impressive playoff run, which ended in a loss to Beaver Dam in the WIAA Division 2 regional championship.

 Xzavion Mitchell rounds out the freshman from Wisconsin. The four-star recruit had offers to stay close to home and play for the Badgers, but one player, maybe, gave him a nudge into becoming a Cyclone: Tyrese Haliburton.

“I made the decision on my own, obviously, and what was right for me and the best decision, but I think there was definitely a connection there, you know, being from the same hometown, coming to the same college,” Mitchell said.

The Oshkosh North graduate had an all-around impressive high school career. Earning first-team all-state honors all four years, then wrapping up his high school campaign as Mr. Basketball in the State of Wisconsin.

Mitchell ended third on the Wisconsin career points leaderboard. The two men above Mitchell on the leaderboard are Drew Daoust of Southern Door and Anthony Pieper of Wausaukee.

The pair of Daoust and Mitchell graduated in 2025, with Daoust finishing just 272 points ahead of him on the list. Pieper’s record, set in 1993, is still safe for now.

European Additions

Iowa State will welcome freshman forward Dominykas Pleta of Gotha, Germany, and freshman guard Killyan Toure of Pamiers, France.

Pleta talked about how his NCAA recruitment started after the European Championship in Poland.

“I would say I played solid, so some schools reached out to me and one of them was Iowa State, so we hopped on a Zoom meeting,” Pleta said. “Then I went on a visit here, and I really felt welcomed and appreciated from the first second on.”

Pleta left the top professional league in Germany to become a Cyclone. Pleta will also become the first true international player under Otzelberger. Joining Pleta as an international recruit is Toure. 

While Toure was born in France, he went to high school at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Toure talked about how he went from Brewster to Iowa State.

“My head coach at Brewster knows pretty well coach [Oztelberger], that was, making sense, to come here because he told me this program fits with me, perfectly,” Toure said.

Toure also talked about how having and sharing a lot of offers on social media wasn’t for him. He found the best fit in Iowa State and made his decision.

Transfer Portal

The Cyclones went to the portal to fill out the roster for the 2025-26 season. The team added four transfers from the portal. 

Junior forward Blake Buchanan transferred from the University of Virginia. He scored double-digit points for the Cavaliers under former Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. 

Buchanan just mentioned that Bennett’s departure was the primary reason he transferred. 

“If he would have stayed, you know, I probably would still be there,” Buchanan said.

While Buchanan transferred from a national championship caliber program, the Cyclones are also adding three transfer students who are joining a Power Four conference for the first time. 

Senior forward Eric Mulder transferred from Purdue Fort Wayne, out of the Horizon League. Mulder put up decent numbers last season, with his best game being a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix. 

Mason Williams transferred from the Big Sky Conference’s Eastern Washington. While Washington only averaged just short of 14 points a game, he had multiple outings where he scored 28 plus. Including a career high of 35 points against Idaho State. 

It was announced in June that Williams underwent hip surgery for an existing injury and that he will likely miss the entirety of the 2025-26 season.

The last transfer portal add for the season was senior guard Dominick Nelson. Nelson has had a collegiate career full of accomplishments. 

To start, he has made the all-conference team in his respective conference for the first three years of his career. 

He started his career at Polk State for two seasons, then transferred to Utah Valley for his third and is now finishing his career at Iowa State. 

“And then we’re really challenging [Nelson] defensively because we feel like we have as much speed as we’ve had on the perimeter,” Otzelberger said. 

The coaching staff sees Nelson playing an important role behind senior guard Tamin Lipsey. Lipsey might not be completely healthy, so we could see a big role early for the Utah Valley transfer.

“We can’t have anybody settle in the role,” Otzelberger said. “So if there’s a guy that right now feels like, I might play 10 or 12 minutes a game, they’ve got to fight to try to take the starter spot. If it’s a guy that’s not in contention for playing time, they’re gonna fight to get into playing time.”