Hlas: Took time, but Cyclones, Prohm came together

CHICAGO — Yes, Iowa State is going up against the opposite of chopped liver Friday night.

The Cyclones are 5-point underdogs against Virginia in their NCAA men's basketball Sweet 16 game in United Center not out of disrespect, but because the Cavaliers have been uncommonly good.

UVA's record tells you all you need to know about what Iowa State is up against: Eighty-eight wins and 18 losses over the last three years. A 45-9 ACC record with two league-titles in that time. A No. 1 NCAA seed in 2014, a No. 2 in 2015, a No. 1 this year.

Senior guard Malcolm Brogdon not only is the ACC's Player of the Year, but its Defensive Player of the Year.

That said … the Cyclones are giving off the kind of vibe here that suggests they'll be a difficult team to eliminate. It may seem a contradiction, but ISU's players seemed locked and loaded during their Friday shootaround here, but also loose.

Video: Iowa State's open practice Thursday (Commentary: Naz Mitrou-Long)  

They went to Denver last week looking like a team that had been waiting all along for this second season, the one that matters most. They drilled Iona and Little Rock. Critics who say it was just Iona and Little Rock may want to consult Michigan State, West Virginia, and especially the Purdue team that fell to Little Rock in the first round.

Losing to UAB in the first round of the NCAAs a year ago didn't do the Cyclones any good at the time, for sure. But it may have done a lot for this year's ISU club.

Wednesday, former Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said he thinks the Cyclones are doing the same thing with that UAB loss that Duke did last season after being a first-round NCAA victim to Mercer in 2014.

No, Hoiberg wasn't predicting a similar national-title result to the one the Blue Devils got in '15 (Nor does he rule it out.). But he said Duke's loss to Mercer gave Duke a hunger to correct things, and he sees the same in the Cyclones.

Iowa State senior star Georges Niang uses a photo of himself after that UAB debacle as constant motivation.

'That's the first thing that I pick up when I wake up,' Niang said. 'It really helps me realize the pain that I went through really when we lost to UAB. The picture is of me with my hands over my head and just a depressed look on my face.

'If I woke up a little bit tired, maybe I'm going to hit the snooze button, but when I see that screen saver, it makes me realize that I've got to get up and go get after it because nothing in this world is going to be handed to you.'

Niang was a man on fire in Denver. He had a pair of 28-point games, making 48.8 percent (21-of-43) from 3-point distance for a team that hit on 53 percent of its field goal attempts.

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ISU didn't play Virginia's defense last week, nor did it face the Cavaliers' brand of offensive patience. UVA is second in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 59.5 points per game. It wears on opponents physically and mentally.

But the Cyclones, despite averaging 82.1 points, aren't run-and-gun. Run-and-gun teams don't shoot 50.3 percent from the field over 34 games.

Virginia's style is somewhat foreign to Iowa State, and vice versa. There is only one Niang in college basketball, and teams facing him for the first time tend to have trouble with him.

Shoot, Oklahoma battled him for the 11th time when it beat the Cyclones 79-76 on March 10 at the Big 12 tourney, and he still dropped 31 points on the Sooners.

Even in defeat, Iowa State looked crisper that game than it had through much of a rocky Big 12 season. Who knows? Maybe the Cyclones were better off being competitive and making a quick exit in Kansas City this year rather than when they won the league tourney a year ago and fell so hard in the NCAAs.

'Sometimes you're on your high horse,' Niang said. 'We had been to the Sweet 16 the year before. We had just won a Big 12 tournament championship.'

There were moments of glory during this season, sure. Wins over Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas at home, against Cincinnati on the road. But the more that time passed, the more it felt to the outer world like this team was nothing special, no real threat to go far in the NCAAs.

But Iowa State had a new coach whom the players had to accept, understand and respect.

When the Cyclones went on a basketball trip to Spain last summer, Steve Prohm said he felt like a stranger to 'some of my coaches, the players, everybody.'

Now, point guard Monte Morris often holds Prohm's 1-year-old son, Cass, before practices in Ames. Abdel Nader held the child during part of his team's shoot-around in United Center Thursday.

'That's what it's about,' Prohm said. 'It's about the progression of how we've become a team, how we've gotten relationships stronger, gotten to know each other.

'It just takes time. You can't rush it. You've got to take time, invest time. Eventually if you have success along the way, I think you get everybody's respect and trust.

'It's gotten real strong, and hopefully it will take us further.'

Now, maybe this is as far as it gets. The Sweet 16 isn't chopped liver, either. Having the trail end at the doorstep of a No. 1 seed isn't a basketball crime. Virginia is very good, and every bit as hungry as the Cyclones.

But for the first time all season, it seems reasonable to see Iowa State with a path to the Final Four. No team from our state has reached an Elite Eight since ISU in 2000. Why not now?