The cell phone game that has captivated and connected the Iowa State basketball team
BOSTON — The pure bliss and chaos of a championship celebration had settled into the quiet and dark of a coach bus and the impending 200-mile ride. Just hours earlier, the Iowa State University basketball team was accepting the Big 12 Tournament trophy from league Commissioner Brent Yormark.
The Cyclones had just dismantled No. 1-ranked Houston by 28 points in the title game, cut down the T-Mobile Center nets and celebrated the program’s sixth Big 12 Tournament title.
Then, they shuffled onto the bus for the ride to Ames. A silence fell over the group as if they had a moment to reflect on what they had just accomplished.
Or maybe they were just waiting for something.
“We exit T-Mobile, the gate shuts behind us and the first thing that the guys do,” Iowa State director of basketball operations Micah Byars said, “is scream, ‘Send code!’”
It’s been a constant refrain for the Cyclones to begin a game of ‘Among Us,’ a popular smartphone game that the team has become obsessed with — their words — over the last two months.
“I don’t recall something that a team has been as hooked on as they are with that deal,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger told the Register. “They’re locked in. They’re playing it all the time.
“There’s sometimes more energy on the bus than I might normally like, but it’s a good thing they’re all having fun together.”
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The No. 2 seed Cyclones have arrived at the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament to play No. 3 Illinois Thursday (9:09 p.m.; TBS) relying on the connectedness of a ferocious and dynamic defense and the togetherness of a selfless and balanced offense.
They play a brand of basketball that demands cohesion.
It might be a bit much to draw a line from becoming hooked on a game app to playing a truly team game, but for the Cyclones it’s become as routine as film work or shootaround.
“I don’t know if it does or doesn’t (contribute),” Iowa State guard Curtis Jones said. “There are probably good teams out there that don’t like each other, but it definitely helps and it makes the time more enjoyable.
Game guide: 'Among Us'
‘Among Us’ gained popularity as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed much human-to-human interaction online. It is a multiplayer game probably best described as something akin to a murder mystery dinner theater.
Up to 15 real-life players can participate in a single game, which is set in space. Crewmates are charged with fulfilling various tasks on their spacecraft, but among them (get it?) are up to three imposters.
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The imposters are tasked with sabotaging the craft and killing off the crewmates without being discovered. The crewmates work to do their tasks while also uncovering the imposters.
There is the ability to play along with strangers online or in an individually siloed game among friends which requires a unique code to join.
Thus why, ‘Send code!’ has become the cue to get going.
“Every bus trip and every time we’ve had any downtime anywhere from stuck at the airport at TCU to wherever,” Byars said, “it’s been the calling card.
“We get off the floor, win a Big 12 game, everybody's elated. We get on the bus, there’s about 10 seconds of silence and all of a sudden they yell out, ‘Send code.’”
The obsession
The exact origins of how the game came to envelop the Cyclones is unclear — the best guess is it started with the student managers — but by the team’s trip to BYU on Jan. 16, it had taken hold.
“Everyone hopped on, started playing,” freshman Milan Momcilovic said. “Obviously it was popular during COVID because there’s not many things you could do during COVID, (so) everyone kind of knew how to play the game, but we kind of brought it back to life.
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“Everyone loves it.”
Although while they’re playing, not everyone loves each other.
“When they’re in the game, they’re collectively taking it as fierce, as serious as possible,” Byars said. “I’ve heard guys — and I won’t even name names because I just hear voices — I never hear guys say mean things to each other, but just being accused of being an imposter is the angriest I’ve ever heard the guys interact with each other.
“The best part about it is that five times out of 10, they are the imposter. And they’re offended their peers think that they were.”
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There’s also intense competition to be considered among the team’s best Among Us players.
“The best crewmates — me, (Demarion Watson) for sure,” Jones said. “Cade (Kelderman) good. Tamin (Lipsey) good. They say (Jackson Paveletzke) be getting better. I’m not saying that though. If you put that in there, I didn’t say that. They say Pav getting better.
“Me and Pav got a little rivalry going.”
Momcilovic, though, is considered the top imposter.
“The imposters don’t get wins anymore though because everybody’s starting to figure out everybody’s game,” Jones said. “Milan just been playing really well. Last weekend, he got a few wins, and it’s hard to get wins as imposter now. He got a few wins, and they were good wins.”
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The trash talk among some of the most competitive people on the planet, as one might imagine, can get intense.
“One time a player — I'm not going to say who — was swearing someone out that it was them (who was an imposter), they promised,” Momcilovic said, “and then it wasn’t them so they got crucified because they were wrong.”
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Why it matters
While bonding over a game that was at the peak of its popularity years ago certainly hasn’t won Iowa State any basketball games, it undeniably has kept them connected as a team in a time where it is much easier — and common — for players to isolate themselves.
“I realize this sounds corny and sounds like an old man,” Byars said, “before there were cellphones or before cellphones had games and it became a device you could watch movies on, that’s what buses sounded like. The interaction.
“It was those barbershop conversations people had prior to having your earphones in and being with your own device. It brings back that era, so to me, I think it’s cool because they all want to do it with each other.”
Perhaps most important of all, it has been player-driven.
“Everybody looks for all of these ways — and sometimes it can feel artificial or forced — when you say our guys spend time together,” Byars said. “Because what does that really mean? Does that mean they use contrived something to make them spend time together? To me, it’s the organic nature of how it happened. It connects all of them.
“The fact the guys are doing something organic that they wanted to do, it makes it 10 times better than if we suggested, ‘Hey, guys, here’s an amazing way to bond.’ And they go, ‘Get out of here. Go yell at clouds.’ That to me is the best part about it. It’s completely organic. They came up with it on their own.”
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For a program that preaches the importance of habits and the importance of every single thing they do in their day-to-day lives, it does stand out that this team chooses itself over the literal unlimited options to pass the time on a bus, plane or hotel.
“Obviously, we’re a really close team,” Momcilovic said. “We like each other, and hits game just makes it more vivid, I guess, that we like each other and play well with each other on the court because of the off-the-court activities we do. It shows we truly like each other.
“The season is so long. You’re with these guys from June until now. It’s so long, and to find things to do that are fun, it’s good.”
It’s also not the norm.
Jones is at his third collegiate stop after stints at Indian Hills Community College and Buffalo, and this is the first time he’s seen this level of off-court engagement. And it’s not just the players. Team managers and support staff also participate and play the game against and with each other.
“It’s very different,” Jones said. “I’m glad that we got it, because it occupies time. The bus sometimes can be boring, and it's also a way to bring us all together, doing a certain thing.
“It’s a lot of laughs. It’s a lot of jokes. We always joke with each other about who sucks, who’s good, who’s not. I’ve never done anything like it, but it’s super fun.”
So, too, is all the winning.
While correlation is not causation, the Cyclones are 16-4 with a Big 12 Tournament title and a Sweet 16 appearance since playing the game en masse.
“I think it’s been great for our team chemistry, our bonding,” Otzelberger said. “They’re playing it at dinner, on the busses. I don’t know exactly how it all goes. I think someone is an imposter and they’re trying to figure out who it is. But it’s one way they do a great job connecting with one another. They’re obviously into it.”
So into it, sometimes it can create a slight traffic hazard.
“For every single bus driver that we have, every bus trip starts the exact same,” Byars said. “They start the bus. We count the number of players. We’re ready to pull out. Bus driver cranks it up, we’re about to pull up, the guys say ‘Send code.’
“And the first person goes, ‘Hold up! Hold up! Hold up!’ And every bus driver slams on their brake. It is the tradition of traditions.
“It’s just somebody who hasn’t gotten the code yet or they didn’t get in (the game) in time.”
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On the bus ride from Ames to Des Moines for the flight to Boston, the Cyclones played. When the Cyclones arrived and boarded the bus for dinner, more Among Us.
When they beat Houston, Among us. When they secured a spot in the Sweet 16, ‘Send code!’
“They love that deal,” Otzelberger said. “We had games on (TV) on the way back (from Omaha). We had the Illinois game and the Creighton/Oregon game, but you could tell their focus and attention — the game was on the background and Among Us was the priority.
“I don’t know who cut the net down in Among Us that night, but they probably remember who did.”
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The Cyclones have a chance to cut down nets this weekend by reaching the program’s first Final Four since 1944. It will take a collective effort that will have to put the Cyclones as close to their ceiling as they have ever been.
That effort will be required against the Illini and will surely be a necessity in the Elite Eight, where the NCAA Tournament’s top seed, UConn, will likely await.
The Cyclones will have to be at their best. Together.
Whether they can achieve that remains to be seen. In the NCAA Tournament and the Cyclones’ world, not much is guaranteed.
Except one thing.
“We definitely going to play on that bus,” Jones said.
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State basketball manages obsession with 'Among Us' at Sweet 16
