No. 15 Iowa State missed out on a big name, image and likeness (NIL) payday for its athletes. Coach T.J. Otzelberger had other goals in mind: improving his team and upholding his program’s character.Despite going 2-0 over the first two days of the Players Era men’s tournament, the Cyclones cracked neither the championship game nor the third-place game. Iowa State will face Syracuse — which lost its first two games of the week — in the first consolation game on Wednesday in Las Vegas.After Iowa State (6-0) defeated No. 14 St. John’s 83-82 on Monday, it had a clear objective in front of it Tuesday: win against Creighton, and try to win big.Because the field of the second-year event ballooned from eight teams to 18, Players Era organizers skipped a traditional bracket and used point differential as the first of several potential tiebreakers to determine final matchups. That created an incentive to run up the score in case it would come into play.However, Otzelberger opted to ease up against Creighton and settled for a 78-60 win, putting the Cyclones at plus-19 in the point differential category.By day’s end, Michigan, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Kansas were all 2-0 and had larger point differentials than Iowa State. Those four teams will populate the championship and third-place games where team NIL payouts range from $1 million to $200,000. The Cyclones won’t be playing for additional money, though all participants are guaranteed a set amount.Iowa State finished just two points behind Kansas in total margin of victory after the Jayhawks beat Syracuse 71-60 on Tuesday.Otzelberger understood the scenario but told CBS Sports he respected his opponent too much to get greedy.”To me, the relationship and the character of our program is more important than that,” Otzelberger said. “… We want to do the right thing.”You’re here to win games, you’re here to get better as a team and a program. The main thing is to come out and give it your best to win the game. And I understand there’s other factors and variables that go into this event, but we’re just gonna focus on being at our best to come out win the game.”Freshman Killyan Toure led Iowa State with 20 points against the Bluejays, and Joshua Jefferson compiled 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.