Prohm looks ahead to Baylor
Iowa State hosts Baylor in an important early Big 12 game on Saturday. Cyclone head coach Steve Prohm talked with reporters about the game.
On what he saw in the first three fouls on Georges Niang against Texas Tech:
“The first foul, the ball went into the big fella inside and he went to double a little bit and got our rotation out of whack a little bit. He got a cheap one there. The second foul, he did a great job sprinting his tail back and contesting his shot. I was right near the play and he kind of scraped the kid’s fingers. The third foul, I’ll let you guys write about that. The good thing is he was able to come back in the second half and have 14 points and six rebounds and make some big plays.”
On how Niang was able to turn it around in the second half to help deliver a victory:
“He’s good. He’s a good player and has a good feel for the game. He understands we need him. He probably just got a little frustrated in the first half, not playing. He only played around two minutes, but responded in the second half and was able to put up good numbers and we were able to win. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. He’ll play a lot better on Saturday.”
On how Niang’s demeanor was on the bench during the first half:
“I thought he was good. I don’t look down at the bench too much while I’m coaching, but when I watched the TV copy he was engaged, cheering, up and supporting his guys. You’re going to be a little frustrated because he’s got three fouls and wants to be out there, but I thought he was engaged and into the game. That’s all you can ask for.”
On the team’s ability to win against the Red Raiders despite not playing well:
“I guess we’ve won a couple games this year shooting 38 or 37 percent from the field. That’s a good thing, because we’re not always going to shoot like that. There were some plays when I watched the tape, a couple of shots against the zone that we missed that you hope you make the wide-open shots. You hope you’d make and finish some layups around the rim, but we didn’t. Credit Texas Tech for doing a good job in some of that. But you’ve got to win ugly sometimes and win on bad-shooting nights. That happens. We’ve been able to respond. Defensively, I thought we were really good in stretches. We still had some breakdowns in the second half with ball-screen defense. We need to keep getting better at it.”
On the team’s struggles with ball-screen defense:
“The biggest thing is maybe it’s fatigue a little bit. At the end of the day, we want to be more pressure in our ball-screen attack and not as passive. The pressure is on the ball handler and then the big has to be up to the point of the screen. Sometimes our ball pressure won’t be as strong and then there’s too much gap between the screen and the helper. We’re getting split, driven or the ball is getting reversed. We’ve got to do a good job of getting the ball corralled.
“You see different moments at Cincinnati, at Oklahoma when we’re really engaged and then you see the breakdowns. We’re getting better at it. Against Northern Iowa, we didn’t really play like that and hadn’t played like that. That’s the way we need to play if we’re going to be a better defensive team. We’re getting better at it and just need to continue to take baby steps at it.”
On Baylor’s strength in rebounding the basketball:
“(Rico) Gathers is probably one of the best rebounders we have to play. They’re plus-11 rebounding. Our first-shot defense has been pretty good, it’s got to be good, but now we’ve got to rebound. All five guys. Everybody. Sometimes we’re leaking out and I thought (against Texas Tech) and gave up some rebounds. We’ve got to all be in there and rebound the basketball. Plus, getting back and not giving them anything in transition and then finishing plays.”
On Baylor’s rebounding 45 percent of its missed shots this season:
“You break it down, if you’re 40 (percent) or better that’s supposed to be high-level. That’s a key. You look at the numbers, Gathers is really the number-one guy and then you’ve got (Taurean) Prince and (Johnathan) Motley when he’s in the game. That’s something we’ll preach with the guys. The first-shot defense has to be good, but then we have to finish plays. If we can finish plays, we have a great opportunity to play in transition.”
On the importance of getting a win at home over Baylor after last season:
“I just know we got beat and have an opportunity to go plus-one this weekend. If you look at what we did last year in the league, this is the chance to go plus-one from right out of the gate. It’s not going to be easy. Baylor is very good. They played here and have won here before, so they’re going to be confident. We’re confident. We’ve got to do a great job of attacking the zone and defending and rebounding.”
On what he’s expressed to Jameel McKay about Gathers on the glass:
“I don’t want him thinking too much, but he’s got to know he’s got to keep Gathers off the glass. I just talked to him about that. I thought he was really a presence (against Texas Tech) and I thought he made huge hustle plays for us that kept balls alive and gave us second chances.”
On his assessment of Hallice Cooke’s play:
“I thought he played well (against Texas Tech). Like I told Hallice, ‘you played 15 minutes last night and there are a lot of seniors and experienced juniors in front of you. There are only so many minutes to get. If you want to get into the 20s or 25s, you’ve got some seniors.’ I thought he played well against Texas Tech and was glad he made that shot. I wish there was one more second on the shot clock and he would have made that three. But I thought he did a good job defensively. Down the stretch, I’m going to go with those five guys a lot. We needed Jameel and Georges on the floor, so that led to Deonte (Burton) or Dooley at the three and I went with Dooley.”
On the importance of getting more bench points on Saturday:
“I didn’t know what we scored off the bench, two points? Deonte had a couple of great scoring games, so we need his scoring. He had some opportunities the first half, but I thought he played great with six rebounds in 18 minutes. One rebound every three minutes. He’s a bull going to the basket and just missed a couple that he’ll usually make. We need to get 10, 12, 14 points if we can hopefully.”
On his impressions of the Big 12 through a few games:
“It’s a great league. There’s a lot of good in this league and now you’ve got Scott Drew who’s been to an Elite Eight, as well as Rico Gathers and Prince coming in. It’s a big game, but every game in conference is big. It’s the next game. Tech is over and down with and now we’ve got to figure out how to beat Baylor.”