For Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim, it’s going better than he expected. For Georges Niang, they’re ahead of schedule. And for head coach Fred Hoiberg, that’s the case because there were so many unknowns coming into this season.

This is a consensus that the No. 17 Cyclones (5-0,) is where they hoped they’d be after passing two major early season tests before Auburn (4-1) comes to Ames on Monday night.

“I just think there were so many unknowns,” Hoiberg said about coming into this season. “For everybody, for us, for the guys, just because of all the new faces. The thing I’ve been most impressed with and I said this last night, was how well they come together and how well they’ve fought through adversity when it’s hit us in games, specifically Michigan and BYU. You find a way to bounce back and gut out a tough win and in BYU’s case in an extremely difficult environment.”

At this point in the season last year, Iowa State had just dropped two consecutive games to No. 22 Cincinnati and No. 18 UNLV in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving.

Now this year’s team, which only returned two of the main rotation players Niang and Ejim, hasn’t missed a beat and ranks in the top-10 in points, rebounds and assists per game through November.

“I think it’s coming together better than I thought it would,” Ejim said. “We have great guys, we have great pieces, but I thought it’d take a little more time. Last year it took a little bit of time, we didn’t really start clicking until the end of the season. This year we started clicking really early where we’re playing well, we’re all comfortable with each other, we’ve got a good chemistry off and on the court so it’s going well.”

In the two wins, Niang has taken on the role of closer.

In the 77-70 win against then-No. 7 Michigan, with 3:21 left, Niang scored six straight, including the last two field goals Iowa State made to put Iowa State up two scores with just more than a minute to play.

Then against BYU with Iowa State only leading 80-77, Niang assisted on the first, then scored the next three buckets to put Iowa State ahead 88-83, before Naz Long and Daniel Edozie free throws sealed the game.

Niang is averaging 13.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game so far this season. 

“That’s not too bad of a name now is it,” Niang joked when he was asked about his closer role. “I feel like I’m just going out and helping my team in whichever way I can and if that’s having to score in the last four minutes of every game then that’s what I’ll do. I just felt like my name needed to be called and so coach gave me the ball and I made plays.”