Iowa State’s 60-45 win over Jackson State on Sunday at Hilton Coliseum was anything but pretty.
Steve Prohm’s Cyclones turned the ball over 20 times against their SWAC opponent, but escaped with their second win of the season.
“That’s probably my biggest concern, right now,” Prohm said. “We’re usually a program that’s one of the top in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, but now we’re nearing 20 the last couple of games.”
Iowa State finished with 21 turnovers in its last game against West Virginia – who’s known for a pressure-heavy defense.
They had 18 turnovers in their Big 12 opener against Kansas State.
“It’s obviously a frustrating thing,” Prohm said. “We want to play four guards and play fast, but you’ve got to be able to handle it, make decisions, and keep good pacing. Right now, we’re not doing that.”
The thing about turnovers is that the Cyclones know what they need to fix.
Solomon Young, who finished with a team-high 18 points in Sunday’s win talked about the turnover issue carrying some reassurance with it, because the team knows what they need to do better.
“There’s a lot of things that we can control,” Young said. “That’s the good thing, but now it’s actually going and looking at film and trying to make those corrections. It’s in our power and that’s the reassuring thing, but we have just got to actually put it into effect.”
Prohm wants to see Jalen Coleman-Lands’ game improve and turning the ball over less could play a big part in that.
Coleman-Lands has had three turnovers in each of his past two games with the Cyclones.
“The one thing that we want to continue to grow with him is just making good decisions with the basketball and getting his turnovers down,” Prohm said. “But, I think his energy, effort, toughness and ability to shoot the basketball is really high.”
The Indianapolis native, however, did finish with 16 points and nine rebounds, nearly completing the double-double.
It’s the fifth time in six appearances where Coleman-Lands has hit double digits scoring.
“I think his energy’s been really good,” Prohm said. “His energy and effort has been really good all year long. He made a couple of shots for us in the second half.”
After Coleman-Lands was grabbing the boards, the team was getting the ball in to Young on the inside.
The senior finished the day with 8 buckets on 14 attempts.
“I saw the Solomon that I know,” Coleman-Lands said. “(I saw) a great defensive (player) that can guard well and a guy that was just being himself. We threw it in to him and he did what he does.”
Prohm identified that getting the ball to Young and working from the inside out is another step for the Cyclones to take.
He identified a few things that he wants to see get better before his team returns to the court on Tuesday.
“I thought he really competed,” Prohm said. “We need his scoring around the basket and I thought he fought in there and battled. We really need to make a conscious effort to get the ball inside and flatten out the defense.”
Iowa State on the defensive side, though, might have played its best game of the year, so far.
The Cyclones held Jackson State to 45 points and a 24% mark shooting from the field.
“The defensive effort and really the talking and communicating with it has to be there,” Coleman-Lands said. “I feel like we did a solid job on the defensive end and we are going to continue to grow on both ends. I think we grew today.”
Iowa State will get another chance to grow on Tuesday (Noon, ESPN+) as the team battles against a team that hasn’t won a game all season in Chicago State.
