Following Iowa State’s 73-63 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Wednesday night, frustration began to show in the post-game interview room.

Guard Will Blalock, after watching his team give up 37 points and 16 rebounds to Nebraska’s Aleks Maric – who came in averaging 9 and 7 – was especially vocal.

“He was on our watch list because he was due for a big game and we knew that going in,” Blalock said. “We were just going to try and limit his touches, but we were just irresponsible down low – I guess because we didn’t do it.”

Now, as the Cyclones prepare for their Saturday game against No. 19 Oklahoma, Iowa State is running out of ideas on what to do, prompting Blalock to turn to prayer.

“I’m going to go home and pray for [Iowa State’s big men] that they do better at Oklahoma, because in my opinion those [Oklahoma] kids are two times better than [Maric],” Blalock said. “Who could imagine what Taj Gray and those guys could do if Maric can score 37?”

The Sooners will welcome Iowa State with not one, but two inside big men with Gray and Kevin Bookout, who combine to average over 25 points and 15 rebounds a game.

“We see the intensity they play with, especially at home,” Blalock said. “Their bigs – aside from Texas – are maybe the best tandem in the league, and we just let one guy get 37 [points] and 16 [rebounds]. We just have to go get after it and battle.”

Even ISU coach Wayne Morgan was at a loss after watching the performance put on by Maric and seeing Gray and Bookout looming on the horizon.

“I don’t remember a guy having a night like that in my 30 years of coaching,” Morgan said. “We’ll try and look at the tape and come up with some strategies for Oklahoma.

“We’ll do the best we can. We’ll just go there and battle as hard as we can and the best can.”

Perhaps the most frustrating statistic for Morgan was the Cyclones ineptitude on the boards. Nebraska outrebounded the Cyclones 45-28 and had more than its share of second chances.

“There were five situations tonight where it was a free throw and we had four guys down there and they had two and they got the ball,” Morgan said. “That’s unconscionable.

“To me, that’s the worst play in basketball. When you have four [guys] and they have two and they miss and you don’t get the ball, that’s unconscionable.”

It didn’t help matters that the Cyclones worst defensive effort coincided with their worst offensive performance of the year. Iowa State shot a season-low 34 percent. A 6-of-28, 21 percent shooting night from star Curtis Stinson only added to frustrations in the locker room.

“[Stinson] was frustrated,” Blalock said. “He was going crazy in that locker room, but everybody was. The coaches were, I was, he was – we’re the leaders.”

The Cyclones current three-game skid has moved the team from controlling it’s destiny in regards to the NCAA tournament to bubble team – to now, on the outside looking in.

“I don’t think [the tournament] is even a conversation we can have at this point,” Morgan said. “We have to take it one day at a time.”

Blalock said he still will hold out hope that there is a chance the Cyclones can put together a run.

“We could’ve had something going if we could’ve won tonight,” Blalock said. “Losing three-in-a-row and then going to Oklahoma is not what I had envisioned.”

Blalock also said things are going to have to change to make it happen, starting with heart.

“I’m just tired of people making excuses – saying they’re young,” he said. “They’re young, but they’re talented, they just have to come out and use it. We expect more from our bigs. People frown at them, you guys write stuff in the papers saying they’re soft, but it just doesn’t register to them.

“I don’t want to say they don’t care but it just seems like that sometimes. It all comes down to heart. We really question their heart sometimes and they don’t have any answer but to go out and prove us wrong on the court.”