Iowa State trying to cure defensive woes at Kansas State

AMES — Georges Niang spoke about a Kansas State team that still is finding its niche after going through an identity shift in the off-season.

Much to his surprise, No. 18 Iowa State is trying to rediscover its own identity after a two-game conference skid has many on the outside questioning what is going on. But Niang knows guys on the inside of the locker room aren't waving any white flags on the season.

'We're ready to fight back and keep climbing,' Niang said. 'There are no quitters in this locker room and nobody thinks we can't do this. We all believe in each other or we wouldn't be here. So I think you guys are going to be in for a surprise.'

A road trip to Kansas State on Saturday could be just the opportunity to put Iowa State back on track. But it also starts a five-game stretch that features home games against No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Oklahoma, plus road trips to TCU and a top-15 Texas A&M squad.

The gauntlet of the schedule combined with the unexpected slow starts in conference play led Iowa State Coach Steve Prohm to jettison the Facebook and Twitter applications from his phone. He wanted to narrow his focus to the necessities and try to help cure the ISU woes.

'I don't want to let anybody down,' Prohm said. 'So yeah it bothers you and hurts you as a human, but where I came from they wanted to win the same way. They beat me up (at Murray State), too, but we're going to get through it. We're going to get through it and at the end of the day we're going to do special things.'

Offensive issues haven't been the reason for the struggles, on the surface at least. Iowa State's four losses have come by a combined 14 points and the Cyclones shot 54.3 percent and 47.8 percent from the field against Texas and Baylor. Five Cyclones average double figures with Matt Thomas nearly there at 9.5 points per game.

Issues rest with the Iowa State defense, but can be traced back to the offense more often than not. Shot selection can mean the difference between allowing teams to go on quick runs and trading methodical possessions while not letting shooters get into a rhythm.

'We think to kill this run and if we make a 3 we'll kill the run,' Niang said. 'But really, those runs are when you can get to the front of the rim or get to the free throw line. You get time to regroup and get back in your defense. It's hard for teams at this level to score in the half court so you definitely want teams to play against you in the half court defense when you're set.'

All five Iowa State starters are playing at least 29 minutes per game while Monte Morris is averaging 40.5 minutes in Big 12 play — 162 of 165 conference minutes. Fatigue hasn't factored into the lapses on defense, he said, but pinpointing a defensive identity will cure what ails the Cyclones.

'We know how good we can be and how much success we had last year with these same players,' Morris said. 'There's not a big drop off just because we took a couple losses. I feel like last year, we had the same losses to the same teams and we just played them at a different time. I just feel like we've got to take it one game at a time and that's all we can do.'

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