IOWA — Twenty five years ago, Larry Eustachy’s team was about to begin Big 12 play. They’d go on to win the conference championship, the conference tournament, and make it all they way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s considered to be the greatest Iowa State team of all time. Led by stars Marcus Fizer and Jamal Tinsley, the Cyclones could do it all and they rolled through the Big 12.

On Saturday, Eustachy and many of his players are expected to be at Hilton Coliseum to watch TJ Otzelberger’s Cyclones play. One of those players arrived early — forward, Paul Shirley, who went on to a long professional career in the NBA and overseas.

We were reminded of what a treat it is to talk with him — an accomplished author who’s always spoken his mind.

“There will be guys that honestly I may not recognize,” Shirley said about the upcoming reunion with his former team. “That’ll be interesting.”

He said fans still ask him what made that team so good. He says the answer is simple: two future NBA first-round players.

“It was Marcus (Fizer) and Jamal (Tinsley) who were great,” he says, “and then the rest of us were kind of orienting around them much of the time and that’s as it should have been because those guys were some really good college basketball players.”

Shirley says much of the credit lies with those who put the team together.

“Somebody like Larry Eustachy was able to put us to the test and integrate new people all the time,” he said, “which I think was also a credit to their ability to find guys in kind of a way that would be impossible today. So Jamal Tinsley I don’t think would be able to sneak up on people today like he was able to back then — that required a lot of work on behalf of all of these coaches who were finding these guys.”

Shirley, who’s always been honest about his disaffection for Eustachy and his difficult practices and personality, said there was ultimately a payoff for the team.

“We had, not only guys who were tough, but also we’d been through so much in practice that the games seemed easy and it seemed easy to just keep going and keep that motor running.”

Looking back at old video, Shirley now laughs at the fashions.

“We had bad hair, we had big shorts, there weren’t tattoos back then as you’ll recall — and Iowa State was red. Now there’s a whole ‘nother color!”

So, how much basketball does the former NBA journeyman watch now?

“Zero,” he says. “Like truly none. I haven’t watched a game in five years.”

He says he follows TJ Otzelberger’s team online.

“They’re good!” he says.

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