It’s been more than 1,000 days since the ISU men’s basketball team walked off the court at Bramlage Coliseum victorious. The win over Kansas State on Feb. 21, 2001, was the Cyclones’ last conference road win.

Iowa State will — again — try to get the monkey off its back as the team travels to Manhattan, Kan., to take on the Wildcats Wednesday.

Kansas State enters the game with a record of 10-9 (2-6 Big 12), but seven of its nine losses have been decided by a total of 32 points.

After going winless last week, Iowa State (13-6, 4-4) will need this win to stay in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth.

“I think probably both teams should and will have a sense of urgency to play as well as they can play,” Kansas State head coach Jim Wooldridge said Monday during the weekly Big 12 teleconference. “Every team in the league right now is coming down the stretch drive, and there’s a lot on the line right now for each team.”

ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said the Cyclones need to improve in every area after struggling last week against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

“We’re going to have to play defense, we’re going to have to rebound and we’re going to have try to execute on offense,” Morgan said. “If we leave out one of those aspects, they’re going to have an opportunity to win.”

Wooldridge was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls under Tim Floyd. The Bulls are known for running the triangle offense, and Wooldridge brought that knowledge back to Kansas State.

The Cyclones had success earlier this season against another triangle-oriented offense in their season opener.

“The first game of the season against Mercer, they played the triangle offense and they ran it well, so we have seen it before and we will prepare for it,” Morgan said.

Senior guard Jake Sullivan said guarding the triangle offense takes a lot of preparation.

“It’s a hard offense to guard, so I’m guessing we’ll probably play some zone defense and things like that, so we don’t have to chase those guys around,” Sullivan said.

One of “those guys” Iowa State will be defending is Jeremiah Massey, a junior-college transfer who Monday picked up the latest Big 12 Conference Rookie of the Week honors.

Massey leads the Wildcats in six different categories, including scoring, rebounding, blocks and steals.

Wooldridge said ISU freshmen Will Blalock and Curtis Stinson are “dynamic” and that all the Wildcats will have the duty of trying to slow them down.

“They’re great transition players; they create opportunities for other players off the dribble and pass,” Wooldridge said. “You just have to work as a team to hold them in a containment-type defense; that’s how they play the game, that’s how they play their best. We’ll have to do it as a team — I’m not sure one individual can handle the speed and quickness.”

Stinson said the Cyclones must convert high percentage shots and focus on their rebounding.

“In the zone we just need to get good shots,” Stinson said. “In the Oklahoma game, we missed a lot of shots and we shot [poorly]. We’ve got to rebound the ball and we’ll be fine.”

Morgan said the Cyclones will have to toss out all their demons from past road games and just focus on the job at hand to break their conference road slump.

“I think that any time you lose, you have to put that in the past and go forward,” Morgan said. “If you go into the next game thinking about the game you just lost, you’re probably assuring yourself you’ll lose the next game.”