AMES, Iowa – Iowa State Head Men’s Basketball Coach T.J. Otzelberger has announced updates to his staff for the upcoming season.

Nate Schmidt has been promoted to assistant coach, filling the void after Daniyal Robinson was named head coach at Cleveland State. Former UNI assistant coach Erik Crawford has been named the director of player development, while graduate assistant Mo Ba has been promoted to assistant director of player development.

Schmidt returned to Iowa State last season as the recruiting and player development coordinator. He’s in his second stint on the Cyclone staff, as he previously served as a graduate assistant and coordinator of player development from 2014-17. Over the course of his four seasons at Iowa State, the Cyclones are 94-45 with four NCAA Tournament appearances.

After leaving Iowa State, Schmidt was an assistant coach at Indian Hills Community College for two seasons, before spending the summer of 2019 in Las Vegas training former Cyclone greats Georges Niang, Naz Mitrou-Long and Will Clyburn. Schmidt then spent the 2019-20 season as video coordinator for the Wisconsin Herd of the NBA G-League. He followed that with a stint on Otzelberger’s staff at UNLV.

Crawford spent the last 12 seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Iowa. During his time with the Panthers, UNI advanced to the postseason five times and won Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles in 2020 and 2022. The Panthers also picked up MVC Tournament titles in 2015 and 2016. UNI advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2015 and 2016, while advancing to the NIT Second Round in 2012 and 2022. The Panthers made the CIT Semifinals in 2013.

This will be the second stint with the Cyclones for Crawford, as he served as a graduate manager and assistant director of basketball operations from 2006-10. Following his time at Iowa State, he was the director of basketball operations at Creighton for the 2010-11 season.

Ba completed his first season as a graduate assistant for the Cyclones in 2021-22. Ba assisted the staff with scouting, video editing and player development. Prior to coming to Ames, Ba spent the 2020-21 season as a graduate student manager at Houston, helping the Cougars to a 28-4 record and trip to the Final Four.

Prior to joining the Houston basketball staff, Ba spent two years as a basketball player development coach where he assessed player’s skills and deficiencies, creating individualized workout sessions to help athletes improve their overall games. The Ypsilanti, Michigan, native has also worked in sales for the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers.