1. Luka Garza is good.
34 points in 17 minutes. That’s a ton. And while 18 of those came from Garza’s best three-point shooting night of his career, he’s a good enough shooter for that to be within the realm of possibilities. Impressive stuff. That said…
2. Iowa State is woeful defensively.
There’s a level of excusability when you play like that against a team as good offensively as Iowa. But there’s also a level of this-was-Iowa’s-highest-scoring-game-of-the-year. And it wasn’t pace that was the problem. The Cyclones couldn’t guard anybody. Garza’s six threes grabbed the attention, but a similar problem in scope, and a less understandable one, is that he and sophomore big man Jack Nunge missed a combined three field goals on 23 combined attempts. The Cyclones looked powerless to stop them. The Cyclones were powerless to stop them.
3. Some shots were made.
It was finally a good shooting night for Steve Prohm’s team, with Jalen Coleman-Lands hitting five of seven threes en route to a 41% effort from deep for the team. It was an encouraging performance, especially from Coleman-Lands himself, who’d struggled with offensive efficiency in the first two games. All that said, though, this came against an Iowa team that relies solely on scoring to make things happen. With few exceptions, looks aren’t going to come that easy in the Big 12 (that’s not a knock on Iowa—what they do clearly works rather well for them).
4. This team has an identity issue.
I wouldn’t call it a “crisis,” but it’s hard to figure out what the objective is this year. Is this a rebuilding year? Is this a development year? On paper, the veteran core would seem to suggest that this is the personnel Prohm wants to compete with, but it’s not exactly a competitive core. Will Coleman-Lands and Solomon Young take advantage of the NCAA’s eligibility freeze and return next year? Quite possibly, yes. But that’s going to be happening for other teams, too. Iowa State can’t just get better. They need to get better-er. Blake Hinson is good but isn’t going to be the difference between a losing record and a tournament berth. The same is true of Tyrese Hunter. Which means the answer to “What is the goal this year?” is probably that it’s to develop this roster into one that can hold its own against teams like Iowa. Clearly, there’s a long way to go.
5. Xavier Foster got some run.
It was exciting to see the seven-footer out there a bit more, and while he didn’t slow Garza down much (good luck with that), he showed some promise on the other end. Is he the guy to develop? Is a Foster/Young combination—or Foster/Conditt, especially next year if Young does move on—better than the current all-guards approach? It might at least be worth a try.
