Iowa State holds players-only meeting, refocuses for end of Big 12 season

AMES — Of the handful of players-only meetings held by the Iowa State men's basketball program this season, the latest might have hit home the most.

Behind closed doors without coaches present, the group had what they all felt to be an honest, emotional, but most importantly supportive discussion. Nobody is hitting the panic button, but as the postseason draws near, the sense of urgency is heightened.

'I think sometimes in the grand scheme of things this game is crazy so you can get steered off the beaten path,' said senior Georges Niang. 'Sometimes you've got to realize what you're aiming for at the end and sometimes (a) meeting is the best thing for that.'

Two of No. 15 Iowa State's four losses have gone an extra five minutes while the other two were one-possession games with about a minute to go. The Cyclones (18-8, 7-6) host TCU on Saturday — the Horned Frogs are last in the Big 12 at 11-15 and 2-11 — but it's the losses to middle-of-the-pack teams that have hurt Iowa State.

Six Big 12 losses have come by a combined 29 points — three of which were in overtime — which is an encouraging notion for Iowa State Coach Steve Prohm, but also entirely frustrating.

'You know you're right there from being 21-5 and maybe first place or second place,' Prohm said. 'We're really a game behind where we were last year at this time. We've just got to get better. We've got TCU and we need to be locked into them.'

Getting better and back on the same page is exactly the purpose of the Cyclones' closed doors meeting. Players said Naz Mitrou-Long took a vocal role within the meeting, and helped bring everybody back down to earth.

Iowa State has three home games against the three bottom teams in the Big 12 left with road trips to West Virginia and Kansas. Those final five games will serve as an example for the Cyclones to put this refocused effort together and build on their Big 12 tournament seeding and an NCAA tournament run.

'Like we all said in the meeting, the only thing we remember from last year is not even the Big 12 championship. It's losing to UAB,' said senior Jameel McKay. 'If we go out and make a run in March, nobody will say anything about what happened this season. Everybody will just talk about how great of a run we made in March and that's where our mind is right now. But it starts now.'

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