Prohm: Darrell Bowie handled apology for Drake postgame comments professionally

AMES — The nuts and bolts of the Iowa State men's basketball team's practice on Sunday centered on what it needs to do to get better on the court.

Coach Steve Prohm also took the opportunity to talk about some big-picture stuff as it pertains to image.

Following a 97-80 win against Drake last weekend, part of senior forward Darrell Bowie's comment to The Gazette and Des Moines Register said the Cyclones (7-3) 'don't feel like (the Bulldogs) deserve to' be on the same court as Iowa State. He also called them 'a good Drake squad' earlier in the interview.

'Darrell's a great kid,' Prohm said in his news conference Monday. 'Whether you play at Iowa State for one year, or you play for me one year, you're one of my players. You're an Iowa State basketball player and this is how we want to represent ourselves. Win, lose or draw, we're going to do things the right way.

'When you read the whole article, it's a little bit different but when you just read that one quote, it just sticks out and you're like holy smokes. I think our whole team understands that it was wrong. Darrell handled it professionally. I'm proud of him for doing that.'

Bowie issued an apology on Twitter. Prohm said all he asked of the 6-foot-8 forward was to call Drake Coach Jeff Rutter, but Bowie made the decision to apologize publicly on his own.

Message to CyclONE Nation & December 19, 2016

Message to CyclONE Nation & @DrakeBulldogsMB @CoachRutt_Drake pic.twitter.com/uOhHaa7wHh

— DB (@paidnfull414)

'Every team says things at halftime and inside the locker room that if it got out, people could take it in a different type of context,' said senior guard Naz Mitrou-Long, who was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday for the second time in his career. 'Darrell is friends with a bunch of guys over there, too. He didn't mean anything by it, but those are things you say to your teammate or your buddy to get some motivation going.'

Iowa State, which hosts Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (Cyclones.tv), has gotten its most consistent post play from Bowie, but the Cyclones are trying to figure out better ways to integrate the posts.

Bowie's averaged 8.8 points and 6.9 rebounds while Merrill Holden, a fellow 6-foot-8 graduate transfer, averages 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds. Solomon Young, a 6-foot-8 freshman, has averaged 6.0 points and 3.8 rebounds and missed four games with a broken hand.

'You can watch us play or not watch us play or look at the stats, we don't have a dominant low-post back to the basket. We don't,' Prohm said. 'That shouldn't hinder us from being able to score the basketball. But you still want to go in there because Deonte can play out of the post, Darrell can play out of the post, we can go inside out, chase ball screens, sprint to ball screens, get movement off the post. That's what our biggest emphasis was with that and it still will be.'

As experienced as the Cyclones' guards — plus forward Deonte Burton — are, the adjustment period to playing with a new cast of forwards has taken time.

'This is a whole new dynamic for a team,' said point guard Monte Morris. 'We don't have Jameel (McKay) where you can just throw up a lob and get things rolling. We just have to attack the rim differently. Deonte's the guy to play above the rim for us. He caught a couple against Drake and that's good momentum going into this game and later in conference.'

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