KANSAS CITY, MO. — Speaking at Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday at Sprint Center, Iowa State men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm addressed his team’s play in Kansas City, winners of two of the past three Big 12 tournament titles.
“What I think the number one factor coming over here is being just three hours from here, that Cyclone Nation really makes this — Hilton South is what they call it, it’s an unbelievable atmosphere here,” Prohm said. “I think that obviously goes a long way in winning games in this arena.”
The Cyclones, coming off a 23-12 season, were ranked fourth in the Big 12 coaches’ preseason poll behind Kansas, West Virginia and Texas. KU coach Bill Self gave the Cyclones his first-place vote.
Iowa State split the season series with the Jayhawks last year, winning in Ames, 85-72. When the two schools played again in the regular-season finale, the Jayhawks won, 85-78.
“I thought both games were really well played,” Prohm said. “We were fortunate to beat them at our place. Then we went to their place last game of the regular season and actually really played well. I think we led by three with three minutes to go. But when you’re playing Kansas, you’re playing elite teams, you have to make tough plays down the stretch and you have to finish games. We weren’t able to do it up there this past season.”
Iowa State senior Monté Morris was picked as the conference’s preseason Player of the Year. The dynamic point guard is the top returning scorer in the league after averaging 13.8 points per game, adding a league-leading 6.9 assists per game last year.
But of course, Prohm wants the Cyclones to contend for a Big 12 title and work their way to the level of success that is common at Kansas.
“Obviously Kansas is the standard, like I touched on, and our goal is to continue to put ourselves in a position to challenge them,” Prohm said.
“But Allen Fieldhouse, Hilton Coliseum, there’s probably, like I said, not five better places to play college basketball.”