Iowa State’s mission at Oklahoma: Slow Buddy down

AMES — Steve Prohm thought back to all the camps he worked as a college student trying to break into the coaching profession.

He remembered the days in the mid and late 1990s when he would make the trek from his home in Alabama to camps in Florida — and later Illinois — to work under Lon Kruger, an accomplished coach in the college ranks. Kruger was the kind of coach Prohm, as a fresh-faced college kid, could look up to.

Twenty years after Prohm worked at Kruger's camps, the two will be squaring off for the first time as coaches — and as conference foes, no less.

'(Kruger) was actually the one coach that reached out and called me when I got the job (at Iowa State),' Prohm said. 'He called me the day I got the job and congratulated me. So I've known him for a while and I've got a ton of respect for him.'

Saturday at No. 2 Oklahoma will just be No. 9 Iowa State's second true road game this season and won't afford the Cyclones (11-1) any way to ease into conference play. The Sooners (11-0) are just one of three unbeaten teams in the country and, much like Iowa State, are led by a veteran group.

Buddy Hield is a headache for opposing defenses while averaging 24.9 points per game, shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 52.9 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free throw line. Oklahoma also is the top 3-point field goal percentage team in the nation (46.2) and will draw the majority of the Cyclones' attention, particularly the shots coming in transition.

'He's making them in a great rhythm right now so our job is to make it tough on him,' junior Monte Morris said of Hield. 'We're not fixing to just stop him to zero points. I want to, but in real life it probably won't happen. But just slow him down, make him uncomfortable and just try to get the win down there in Norman.'

Hield is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year and leading scorer this season with 274 points, which is 48 more points than ISU senior Georges Niang — second in the conference. Iowa State is 7-3 against Oklahoma in the last 10 games and won 2-of-3 last season, but the Cyclones' losses have come at the Lloyd Noble Center by an average of 11 points while allowing at least 86 points in all three losses.

Isaiah Cousins, Ryan Spangler and Jordan Woodard — in addition to Hield — all have started the last 79 games for Oklahoma, but slowing Hield goes a long way in slowing the Sooners offensively.

'I think his intensity throughout the whole game is what really makes him great,' Niang said. 'He can lull you to sleep sometimes in the half court and come quickly off a screen and really make shots. I think the biggest thing with him, if you watch games, is he really gets open 3s and easy buckets in transition so that's one thing we want to take away and make him earn every bucket.'

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