Iowa State not panicking with Texas up next

AMES — Iowa State coach Steve Prohm hasn't fallen into the trap of getting too high during the good times or too low during the down moments.

His four seasons as Murray State head coach were the perfect tool to show him that teams can't afford to get hung up on one game too long. Sure, the Cyclones' loss to Baylor in Hilton Coliseum was an unforeseen stumble, but Prohm's objective becomes keeping his team as level headed as he's tried to be and keep them away from the outside criticism.

'They don't need to worry about it,' Prohm said. 'If it's not going right, put it on me. If it's going right, give them the credit. That's how it should be. I'm OK with that, I want that and they don't need to hear all that stuff.

'I'm in this for the long haul,' he added. 'People are going to nitpick and kill me on everything, that's part of it and what I signed up for. I'm not going to be able to be somebody I'm not and I know what I'm doing is going to work in the end.'

Social media and knee jerk reactions following a disappointing loss often drive the narrative that a team's ultimate goal is unattainable. No. 18 Iowa State has a two-game stint on the road this week and is far from being nudged out of the picture in terms of a Big 12 championship or high NCAA tournament seed.

'Pump the brakes a little bit,' said senior Georges Niang. 'I know we had a lot of high expectations for this year and those can still be high. We're working. We're working at this. I heard someone say earlier, 'Rome wasn't built in one day.' We've had a lot of adversity hit us this year and I don't think we're crumbling at all. We're still positive and still believing in ourselves so I think [fans] should too.'

Iowa State (12-3, 1-2) was coming off a loss the last time it scored a road win — at Cincinnati — and will try to replicate that mentality Tuesday at Texas. Walking away with a win means turning up the screws on defense.

Prohm pointed to the Cyclones' first-half defensive numbers in which Iowa State holds its opponents to 39 percent shooting, 12 percent 3-point shooting and 33 first-half points. He also hopes tweaking the offense on occasion to affect defensive efficiency could be the answer to woes on that end.

'(Prohm) talked to me about just in the second half just holding it for probably about 20 seconds so we ain't have to get back on defense so fast,' said junior Monte Morris. 'We're like top-six in the country on quickness to take a shot or something like that. At Texas when things are getting kind of ragged with the pace I'll try to slow it down for a least 15-20 seconds.'

The Longhorns (9-6, 1-2) run most of their offense through guard Isaiah Taylor, who is averaging 16.4 points and 4.8 assists per game, but Iowa State won all three meetings last season — including in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament.

Texas — coming off a road loss to TCU — has dropped three of its last four games without center Cameron Ridley, who is out indefinitely with a foot injury, and searching for options.

'They're going to be feisty at home and really try to get things going,' Niang said. 'I think with them, they're going to try to speed us up with their press and throw junk defenses at us and we'll need to be able to capitalize on it. I think we will. I think everyone in here is ready to respond.'

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