Big 12 Basketball: December Power Rankings

3. Iowa State Cyclones

Feb 28, 2015; Manhattan, KS, USA; Iowa State Cyclones forward Abdel Nader (2) dribbles the ball as Kansas State Wildcats guard Jevon Thomas (1) defends during the Cyclones

Record: 6-0

Notable games: beat Colorado 68-62

Overview: Like Oklahoma, it’s tough to draw a ton from the Cycones’ first few games because the competition hasn’t been great. Colorado is the only team there that might make the NCAA Tournament, and they struggled a bit on the offensive end in that game. Steve Prohm has kept much of Fred Hoiberg’s offense, and that has continued humming, but also has the ‘Clones playing great defense, holding opponents to 38% from the floor up to this point.

What I liked: Abdel Nader

I was a bit skeptical coming into this season on how Iowa State would replace last year’s glue-guy Dustin Hogue. That skepticism has already gone away after watching Abdel Nader. He’s averaging 15 points and six rebounds per game, and is doing it efficiently, shooting 54% from the floor and 35% from the three-point line. Everything Hogue did well on offense, Nader does even better.

He’s no joke on the defensive end either, and that’s a big deal for a player that commonly plays with two defensive liabilities in Naz Mitrou-Long and Georges Niang. He’s big enough to guard forwards, and quick enough to guard guards. His 7’2″ wingspan allows him to bother opposing players on just about any pass or shot. Watch him close out and use his wingspan to force a miss here:

So instead of the Cyclones losing a key player in Hogue, it seems as if they’ve just gotten better.

What I didn’t like: isolation-heavy offense

Last season, the Cyclones assisted on 58% of their missed field goals. This season, that number is down to 52%. While that isn’t a massive drop, in their only two somewhat-challenging matchups, Colorado and Illinois, that number was 41% and 33%, respectively.

As I mentioned earlier, new head coach Steve Prohm has kept many aspects of Fred Hoiberg’s offense that made the Cyclones so successful the past few seasons. But it hasn’t been uncommon to see them breakout in just straight isolations like this one:

You can even see Prohm calling for the isolation, so it’s definitely coming from him. It just doesn’t make sense to me for Prohm to call for an isolation for Georges Niang when he has so many other great options on this team that he could utilize. I figured he would at least have some off-ball action, but he doesn’t. Just straight isolations. Unless Lebron James is walking through the door for Iowa State, there shouldn’t be any isolations like this.

Bottom line is that the ball seems to be sticking, and stats would back that up. That could just be a team adjusting to their new coaches offense, or it could be an actual cause for concern. I guess we won’t find out for awhile.

Next: West Virginia Mountaineers