I think the idea isn't to give up on transition but rather take easy opportunities in the primary and secondary break but if they are not there slow down and make the defense work until you get the matchup you want.
Exactly, the team is still outleting the rebounds and spreading the floor initially but instead of forcing the issue and going to the hole most times the team (Monte, Georges, Abdel) are more selective and only attacking the paint if the matchup is right.
If you look at the losses the "run and gun" was working on offense scoring wise in the losses (OU/UT/BU). The issue was the turnovers it also led to flipped and allowed those teams to score easily allowing BU and UT to stay in the game and score with ISU and hit late shots to pull out the wins.
I also suspect it lead to extra fatigue which hindered ISU's ablility to finish the games out.