Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is not able to play basketball due to injury, but that isn't stopping him from watching March Madness.
Haliburton, who was not personally able to play in the NCAA men's basketball tournament during college, still loves watching basketball at every level.
USA TODAY's For The Win caught up with Haliburton to talk about the NCAA men's basketball tournament, what he sees from this Iowa State team and shared his thoughts about an NBA prospect he admires.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
A lot of the top prospects in this tournament are guards. In your opinion, what skills translate the best from the NCAA to the NBA?
Haliburton: The only way you can win in March is if your team can be as focused on the task at hand as possible. Usually it takes your guard or your leaders to be the guy to keep guys focused on whatever's going on in the moment. It's very easy in a time like this to be looking ahead — "Hey, if we win this game, we play this team next. Easy Sweet 16." You're looking ahead already, which is human nature, but how quickly can you move from that to being focused on the task at hand? That takes a real leader to keep a group together like that.
That's important from all these guards, young and old. How can you get your team focused on the task at hand? And when you're not making shots and things get crazy in March, you can be playing a team you're expected to beat and they just can't miss and you've got to figure out how to win. So that's the biggest thing — looking at these guards, looking at the way they carry themselves, the way they lead these teams, the way they can get in huddles and get in their players' ears. All those things are important. That's what I pay attention to in a time like now.
Do any of these guards remind you of yourself when you watch them?
Haliburton: I wouldn't say that. I don't look at these guys that way. There are a couple guards that I really like. I really like Kingston Flemings. I'm a big fan of his. He's going to get drafted high, as he should, because I think he's unbelievable. That's somebody I watch a lot and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he plays in March.
Iowa State has multiple NBA prospects. What do you see from them?
Haliburton: I think we have a few guys who really have a chance. It's really exciting to see the program grow and the caliber of players we're able to get. These guys have done so many good things and they work so hard all summer and all year.
Any time an Iowa State guy makes the NBA, I'm very excited for them. The brotherhood is obviously cool — even Georges Niang is like my best friend and we didn't even play together in college. That's just our Iowa State camaraderie. It would be really cool to add these guys into the league, but I text with all of them pretty often. And my big thing is: Let's just focus on this one day at a time right now. Cherish these moments because you don't know what after the season is going to look like — if you're going to leave or stay or whatever. Who cares about that right now? That doesn't matter. Just try to be as focused as you can every day, be the best player you can be and help the team win. Those have been my big things.
You've got Iowa State going all the way in your Reese’s bracket. What do you see in this team?
Haliburton: They defend at a high level. That's the most important thing in March. You're not going to make shots every game — more than likely, to win a national championship, you're going to have one or two games where you literally can't make a shot. You've got to figure out how to win in a different way. I think we have one of the best, if not the best, defense in the country, and that's going to translate throughout March. We've also been battle-tested playing the best conference in basketball. The Big 12 has been the best conference for a long time now — obviously adding Arizona and Houston only makes it even better. I feel like that's prepared us well for March. I'm not ever picking anybody else to win. If I didn't think Iowa State could win, I'd pick them to lose, but I'm very confident we can go all the way.
How do you decide which brands to align with for endorsements like this one?
Haliburton: Reese's is something I'm very passionate about. It's one of my favorite candies, if not my favorite candy overall. Growing up, my name on all my social media was Tyrese's Pieces. So this is something I've wanted to do for a very long time, and it's so awesome that it came together in a moment like this where we're celebrating college basketball and March Madness. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everybody's bracket plays out and seeing who ultimately gets the chance to go to the Final Four. That's very exciting for me.
What's the biggest difference between the NIL era and the one you played in right before?
Haliburton: The fact that guys get to capitalize on their name, image and likeness, I think is really cool. I'm always a fan of it. Obviously sometimes when kids transfer a lot, that sucks. But I think it's ultimately been a very big benefit for the kids, which is the most important part.
The best thing I had in college was the relationships I was able to grow with my teammates and that camaraderie you get from being together, traveling together — figuring out when we're going to go to the cafeteria and use our meal swipes and things like that. Those are things I really cherish. But it's really cool that guys get to capitalize on their name and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
What does watching March Madness from the couch teach you that you can't learn from playing it?
Haliburton: It's on a game-by-game basis. There are games that go different ways that you look at differently. I try to take something from every basketball game I watch — even when I'm traveling with my AAU kids in the summer. If you look at the run we had with the Indiana Pacers in 2025, I've learned by now that a game's not done until the buzzer goes off. That's something I've taken from watching a lot of basketball in my life. Looking at how different players approach games and the plays they make — what made them make that decision — those are things you can always take away. Even as an NBA player, I can take something from watching any type of basketball. I watch basketball, man. Players make plays that I'm like, "That was a very smart thing to do," or "That was dumb" — whatever. There's something to learn in everything you watch, so I pay attention.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Tyrese Haliburton on Iowa State and his favorite March Madness guard