Hlas: Serve held, now Cyclones must ace road tests

AMES - As good and appreciated as 14th-ranked Iowa State's men's basketball 79-59 win over No. 20 West Virginia was Saturday, it was still expected.

The Cyclones are unbeaten at home. Going into Saturday, they were one of 22 teams in the nation that held that distinction. But for this regular-season to be defined as anything close to special, the Cyclones (18-6 overall, 8-4 in the Big 12) need to take their Hilton Coliseum game on the road. They need to beat a good team in that team's gym, something they have yet to do in conference play.

ISU has dropped its last four road games, and looked sorely deficient defensively in the last couple. It ramped up the defense from drowsy Monday night in a 94-83 loss at Oklahoma to fully caffeinated here against West Virginia.

But holding the Mountaineers to 37.9 percent field goal shooting and helping cause 19 WVU turnovers needs to translate to when the Cyclones visit Oklahoma State next Wednesday night and then Texas three days later.

The coming week, ISU Coach Fred Hoiberg said, is 'huge.” He is correct.

'I think it's an opportunity, first of all. I'm excited about going on the road for two and I know our guys are as well.

'That being said, we're going into a couple of pretty tough places to win, like shoot, like every place in our league.”

Two things about Cyclone basketball are constants. One, the February wind blows bitterly cold in the Hilton parking lot. Two, there's no place like home.

But ISU did win three league road games last year, including a triple-overtime dinger at Oklahoma State. If the Cyclones can leave Stillwater with a win Wednesday, they'll do something league-leading Kansas couldn't do on Feb. 7.

'We came back from double digits, was it nine times last year, I think,” Hoiberg said. 'We found a way, when we splintered apart a little but we came back together.

'This year we've been down 10, then we get it to 20, then back to 10. We've got to cut out that middle run that teams go on us.”

The focus was on actual defense here last week after the Cyclones played the matador variety at Oklahoma. ISU's hands seemed to be everywhere the ball went.

The first half was grunt-and-groan, which means it was Mountaineer-style. But with sophomore point guard Monte Morris piloting, things gradually evolved into a more-typical Iowa State home game. Meaning, the play became as much art as mixed martial arts.

Morris was equal to WVU senior Juwan Staten, the Big 12's preseason Player of the Year, and Staten was good.

Morris had 19 points and five assists. He sank all four of his 3-pointers, including two that were 32 seconds apart in the sixth minute of the second half. That punched the game open.

The play that made the crowd's volume level rise the most came about three minutes later when, from about 35 feet from the basket, Morris fired a pinpoint lob to streaking Abdel Nader for a dunk.

Morris, Hoiberg said, is 'going to go out there and battle and scratch and claw and fight.”

Which sounds like West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins' kind of player as well as Hoiberg's, and anyone else who likes premier point guard play.

'He takes care of the ball, he makes open shots,” Huggins said. 'He doesn't do anything he can't do. That's what good players do. The difference between good players and bad players is bad players want to show everyone what they can't do, and good players stay within themselves and do what they can do.”

Now it's time to show it on the road. Iowa State is a good team headed back to the NCAA tournament, that's understood. To establish itself as a genuine upper-level club before postseason play arrives, this will be the biggest week of the season.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com