ISU men’s basketball star Joshua Jefferson broke with family tradition

MILWAUKEE — Soaked in sweat, a pint-sized version of a very big man squinted at the scorching Las Vegas sun.

Joshua Jefferson, then in the second grade, stood on the football field on a Saturday morning. Fully padded up for practice. And all the future star forward for Iowa State could think is …

“ (It’s) just taking too long to score,” the said Cyclones’ 6-foot-9 Swiss Army knife, who hopes to help his third-seeded team (24-9) slice through 14-seed Lipscomb (25-9) at 12:30 p.m. Friday (TNT) at the Fiserv Forum. “After (the season) was over, I went to my dad and said, ‘I kind of don’t want to play this anymore.’ He was surprised, taken aback by it, but he respected my decision.”

Unlike his father, Ben, and older brothers, Cameron and Noah— all of whom shined as 300-pound linemen through college and beyond - Joshua Jefferson wasn’t destined for the gridiron.

The basketball bug bit, sending him on a remarkable roundball journey that’s snaked through high-level AAU ball and high school, a two-season stint at West Coast Conference power St. Mary’s, and finally, to Iowa State, where Jefferson’s blossomed into the fifth player in Big 12 history who stands 6-9 or taller to record 100 or more assists in a season.

“It’s funny,” said Ben Jefferson, who rocked the trenches at Maryland before playing professionally and eventually seeing Cameron claim an NFL championship ring with the Denver Broncos. “Because a lot of the things that guys are seeing now, we’ve been seeing since middle school and high school.”

That’s virtuosic versatility. An uncanny ability to handle and crisply spray the basketball to wide-open teammates. An expansive skillset that enables Jefferson to slay would-be defenders with devastating baby hook shots in the paint and also run the floor like a guard — head up, in full attack mode, armed with 240 pounds of muscle barreling down the court.

“He’s a tremendous decision maker,” ISU men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger said of Jefferson, who’s averaging 13.0 points, a team-best 7.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.2 steals this season. “So we play him a lot like a point guard because he’s got that type of feel, those type of instincts, makes those type of decisions. He’s really challenging to guard in transition. The more defensive rebounds he can get and push, the better for our team.”

So Jefferson may have spurned a football-based family tradition, but that choice dovetails with Otzelberger’s observation. And every time he reaches into his deep bag of basketball tricks, favorable comparisons are drawn. Just ask former Cyclone great Georges Niang, who’s carved out a decade-long NBA career after graduating from ISU.

“(He’s) really impressive to watch,” Niang said. “His ability to pass, facilitate, handle the ball, score from all different angles — I’m a huge fan of his game. It’s actually a compliment to me that people think I play like him.

“He’s probably more athletic than I am. I don’t think I could get a (sheet of) toilet paper under my jump in college, but he’s extremely talented and I’m OK with that comparison because he’s a damn good basketball player.”

Jefferson has sealed more than one win this season by going 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. He’s shooting 78 percent from the stripe and appears unflappable as he sets his feet, takes a deep breath and spins the ball toward the rim. But beneath his stoic facade lies a fierce competitor dedicated to minimizing and fixing any mistakes.

And as many games as Jefferson’s helped the Cyclones win during their fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament, it’s a miss that could have sealed a triumph that stuck with him for a while.

Jefferson toed the line with his team leading by two points with three seconds remaining several weeks ago at Arizona. He missed the first free throw and made the second. Wildcats star Caleb Love preceded to sink a miracle 60-foot buzzer-beater to send the game to overtime and ISU ultimately lost, 86-75.

“I put a lot of guilt on myself for that game,” said Jefferson, who couldn’t even practice this summer after joining the program because he was rehabbing a knee injury. “My teammates did a good job of building me back up because I’ve proven I can do it in pressure situations (like the overtime win at Texas Tech), so I rubbed that one off.”

Every time Joshua made an explosive play at an elite AAU event in middle school and high school, his dad’s eyes widened as the ensuing “oohs” filled his ears. Then he looked around at the other slack-jawed spectators.

“People would come talk to me after the game and say, ‘I’m telling you, this guy is something special,” Ben Jefferson said.

That message also emanated from his AAU coach, Dedan Thomas Sr. — who starred at UNLV while Ben was playing professional football.

“He said, ‘I’ve seen him do multiple things most kids don’t even think about doing,’” Ben Jefferson said. “‘And he did it so easily it gave me chills.’”

It turned out Jefferson’s football-free destiny would send him to Ames. Otzelberger developed a bond with him in high school, and when he left UNLV to return to Iowa State, this time as a head coach, Jefferson hoped to join him immediately. But the Cyclones had already recruited enough bigs, so his status as a Cyclone had to wait … until now.

“It’s about checking all the boxes, and also checking the most important one: your gut,” Ben Jefferson said. “T.J. was the one.”

Now Joshua Jefferson’s squarely positioned to aid ISU’s pursuit of college basketball’s top prize.

So what’s the Cyclones’ ceiling?

“Final Four,” he said. “I think that’s what we’re all shooting for. I think we have the talent and bandwidth to get there. We’ve just got to continue to do what our coaches are asking of us, because they’re gonna put us in a position to succeed, so I think that’s what we can get to.”

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