Otzelberger announces new hires and promotions

AMES, IOWA. ~ For next season, Iowa State Men’s Basketball Head Coach TJ Otzelberger has made some changes to his coaching staff. assistant director of player development Stevie Taylor; Graduate assistants Brian Pearson and Lavonte Davis. “Stevie is an excellent teacher and communicator and takes tremendous pride in developing young men, on and off the pitch,” raves Otzelberger. We believe that his talents and personality will be an asset to our team. After two years as the team’s manager, Pearson is now officially on staff for the team as a graduate assistant. Pearson was a manager who helped grow players, teach skills, and administer training schedules and scouting reports.

After spending the 2022-23 season as operations manager at Toledo, Taylor decided to join the team at Iowa State. Taylor was one of the main reasons the Rockets were able to win three consecutive MAC regular season titles. The Toledo Rockets were 16-2 in the league and tied the school record for wins with 27. Taylor was an assistant coach at Nicholls in 2021-22, when the Colonels won the Southland Conference and were 21 -9 in total. Taylor was a graduate assistant at Boston College for two years (2017-19) before spending the next two years (2019-21) as an assistant coach at Langston, Oklahoma.

Taylor, an Ohio graduate, played in 137 games throughout his college career, starting 34 of them. When Taylor was on the Ohio team, the Buckeyes advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. I’m thrilled to join Coach Otzelberger’s team at Iowa State, and look forward to contributing to the Cyclones’ long history of success, as Taylor said. I am delighted to work with Coach Otzelberger and the rest of the team to help our players improve on the pitch. I’m thrilled to see what all the hype about “Hilton Magic” is from Iowa State fans.

Davis has been the head coach at North Eugene High School for the past two seasons and spent the last year as an assistant coach at Lane Community College. Before becoming head international coach at the US Basketball Academy for the next college year, Davis worked there as an assistant coach in 2018-19. In 2018, Davis also volunteered with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League. Davis, a recent Indiana Tech alumnus, graduated as the school’s career leader in blocked shots. He was named to the all-conference second team as a senior. He has also used movie analysis tools such as Sportscode, Synergy and others to improve training planning and scouting.