Steve Prohm ‘embarrassed’ by Iowa State’s 91-64 loss to Texas Tech

AMES - History wasn't made at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday, but it was darn close.

Iowa State lost to No. 18 Texas Tech 91-64 to fall to 0-5 in the Big 12. The 27-point loss was ISU's third worst in Hilton Coliseum history to a Big 12 team.

Last season, the Cyclones lost to the Red Raiders by 30 points, which was the biggest loss in Hilton Coliseum history against a conference foe.

'Not really much to say other than they came in here and kicked our tail,” coach Steve Prohm said. 'I'm really disappointed and embarrassed.”

Iowa State was on track to lose by 30 again until Jalen Coleman-Lands hit a 3-pointer in the final minute. The Red Raiders (10-3, 3-2) also played their subs for the last five minutes.

Maybe the most unfortunate part for the Cyclones (2-7, 0-5) was there was reason for optimism heading into the game against Texas Tech after playing Baylor and Texas, two top-five teams, down to the wire.

'This one caught me off guard,” Prohm said. 'Not necessarily about winning or losing, but more about doing it the right way. I didn't see this coming. I thought our focus was good the last couple of days and I thought we understood what we needed to do. But we gave up so many easy baskets. They ran it down our throats and kicked us on the glass.

'That's what I was most shocked by today. You don't know if you're going to win or lose but I thought we were growing.”

The Cyclones' defense was nonexistent, allowing the Red Raiders to shoot 59 percent from the field and 39 percent from 3-point range.

'What we have to understand is we have to compete every second of every possession for all 40 minutes to put ourselves in a position to win,” Prohm said. 'We didn't do that at all today, outside of a couple minutes.”

Some of Texas Tech's offense was undoubtedly created by its stellar defense.

The Red Raiders had 11 steals and forced 15 Iowa State turnovers to score 17 fast-break points.

'We have to be a team that focuses on possessions instead of the whole game,” Iowa State's Solomon Young said. 'We're losing games possession-by-possession and stop-by-stop. Those are things that are holding us back from breaking through and winning games.”

Prohm could handle the close losses because this Iowa State team is young and he thought he saw growth.

But this drubbing to the hands of Texas Tech has made him change his tune.

'Just competing to be close - that's not what this thing is about,” Prohm said. 'You're going to have growth in stages but there are high standards. This program has done a lot in the last 10 years and overtime, it's done a ton. And we have to understand that.

'Playing close as this team grows was good but that's not good enough (going forward). We have to understand that. And nothing is going to be easy in this league. That's what you sign up for in this league and it's what makes it so great. You want to play against the best. Today surprised me. I didn't see this coming at all.”

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