Iowa State men’s basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger has named Tim Buckley as a new assistant coach. Buckley will begin his duties with the Cyclones immediately. Buckley was a member of Otzelberger’s staff while at UNLV.
“A renowned coach in player development, I’m excited to have Tim join our staff at Iowa State,” Otzelberger said. “Tim brings a wealth of knowledge, both as a head coach and assistant coach. He has recruited and developed some of the top talents in the NBA. I’m thrilled that our student-athletes will get the opportunity to work with Tim.”
Buckley, a coaching veteran with over 30 years of experience, is widely known for his player development and recruiting some of the best talent in the country. Over the course of Buckley’s career, as both a head coach and an assistant coach, he has helped his teams to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, three NIT appearances and a trip to the NBA Playoffs. Buckley has also been a part of five conference championship winning teams.
He has worked with 12 NBA Draft Picks, nine of which were drafted in the first round. Among those nine first round picks, six of them were lottery picks. Some of the top talent Buckley has recruited and developed include Dwyane Wade (5th Pick in 2003 Draft), Victor Oladipo (2nd Pick in 2013 Draft), Cody Zeller (4th Pick in 2013 Draft and Noah Vonleh (9th Pick in 2014 Draft).
Most recently, Buckley spent the past two seasons at fellow Big 12 school Cincinnati. Prior to that, Buckley was at South Carolina for two seasons, where he helped the Gamecocks to the 2024 NCAA Tournament and the most wins in the regular season in program history.