SAN ANTONIO — Hours had passed since Iowa State’s NCAA tournament victory and Friday had turned to Saturday as Georges Niang and Naz Long laid in their hotel beds wide awake and talking.

Niang’s season was over after an X-ray showed a fracture in his right foot and some time had passed since he sat in the corner of the locker room with his head down. Now, as he talked at 1:30 a.m. from his hotel bed, he gave off confidence.

“I don’t know why everyone is counting us out,” Niang told Long, his roommate back home in Ames, over and over and over again.

The postgame locker room at the AT&T Center following the Cyclones 18-point victory March 21 was somber. There was no celebration, just attempts to answer questions about what Iowa State does next.

Niang talked from his locker as if he might be able to return March 23 against North Carolina, playing through an injury he wasn’t sure anybody had ever done before. A team trainer eventually shot those hopes down — Niang’s sophomore season was over in the second round of March Madness.

At 1:08 a.m., amid his talk with Long in their hotel room in downtown San Antonio, Niang sent a subtle tweet to ISU fans letting them know the story that night wasn’t him or his injury, which he echoed one day later.

“This isn’t about me. I’m not this whole team; we’ve got other players on this team,” said Niang, who scored 24 points in his team’s second-round win. “Yeah, I got injured. That’s unfortunate, but that’s how it goes. We still have a great opportunity ahead of us, and I don’t want me being injured to ruin that.”

When the Cyclones play in the third round of the NCAA tournament March 23 for the third-straight year, there will be adjustments. Long is expected to assume Niang’s role in the starting lineup, but ISU coach Fred Hoiberg wasn’t ready to commit to the move before practice.

Iowa State will be forced to look elsewhere to find Niang’s 16.7 points per game and his 4.5 rebounds per game, all while contending with the Tar Heels’ height.

“We’ve got some big shoes to fill. Georges is an irreplaceable player, we can be honest and say that,” Long said. “To replace Georges — I don’t know if any team in the country that had him could do that — we’ve just got to play our role.”

Dustin Hogue and Daniel Edozie will be called upon to pick up rebounds against a North Carolina team that grabbed 21 offensive boards in its NCAA tournament win. Long, Matt Thomas and others will be looked at to score.

That didn’t have the Cyclones, who are seeking their fourth Sweet 16 appearance in program history, bothered one day after their second round victory as Niang sat in the locker room this time with a boot on his right foot.

“If you believe in each other, if you believe in yourselves, it’s pretty powerful,” Hoiberg said. “You can go out and compete with a team like this that has all these McDonald’s All-Americans and all these great athletes.”

That’s the confidence Niang gave off in the wee hours of the morning as he talked with his friend and wondered why people were counting Iowa State out.

“He was basically saying he believes in the team, he believes in the guys coming off the bench, the guys that are coming in to fill his role,” Long said. “I feel like we’re going to be able to do it.”

Niang will have surgery Tuesday to insert a screw into his right foot. He hopes that Iowa State will be preparing for a trip to New York by then.

As the conversation between Niang and Long wore on into the morning, Niang talked about how he wished he could play. He has one more message.

“Listen, this doesn’t damper our parade,” Niang said. “We still won. We’re still in the NCAA tournament.”