Ahead of Friday’s matchup with the No. 3 Iowa Hawkeyes, Darlinstone Dubar’s entrance into the starting lineup seemed like a turning point.

After two slow starts to open the season, poor shooting and a perimeter-happy offense, Steve Prohm tried to give some new life into Iowa State with one of its young and promising freshman to offer some much needed length and rebounding.

But as the game progressed, Dubar would be subbed out and eventually finish with just 10 minutes of playing time.

So why even make the switch at all if you aren’t even going to commit to the lineup experiment? I understand keeping Dubar, a young freshman, in the fire against the No. 3 team in the country won’t increase your chances to win by that much, but if you’re Iowa State, did you expect to walk away with a win on Friday night?

So with a 105-77 loss in the rearview mirror, there’s a question that Iowa State must answer as conference play approaches.

What are you playing for this season?

Are you playing for wins?

Are you playing to try and finish in the top half of the Big 12?

Do you want to try and have a shot to make the NCAA tournament?

Three games in, the odds would be no to all three of those plans.

The answer should be developing your young core because let’s face it, there are going to be a lot more outcomes like Friday night once Big 12 play gets started. Winning games will be a rare occurrence this season, so it’s a strange message for fans to buy into, but Prohm and his staff need to decide what they are going to value for the rest of the year.

Prohm can choose two options.

1) You can have a better shot to win games on paper by continuing to give big minutes to Jalen Coleman-Lands, Solomon Young and Tyler Harris. And keep in mind, outside of about seven more games this year, Iowa State has a low shot of winning and really staying competitive in games going forward.

2) Give extended minutes to freshman who will be in this program and get more development out of them than previous freshman classes under Prohm. 

Iowa State Head Coach Steve Prohm had this to say before the game on Thursday.

“There’s only so many games really in your career that are ‘moment’ games, this is a ‘moment’ game.”

But outside of a 34 point performance from Luka Garza, including 21 straight points, what part of this game was going to be ‘a moment’ for Iowa State?

Iowa State did not come into this game as a ranked team, far from it in fact, and showed no signs of ever really taking control. Iowa State isn’t the team and program it was five years ago.

This annual rivalry and other ‘big moment’ games like it are going to end up the same way this season, so losing games while developing its young team would be better than losing while Harris and Coleman-Lands throw up tons of shot attempts to lose just as ugly.

“We’re still growing,” Prohm said after the loss to South Dakota State.

Yes, yes you are.

So why not spend time giving minutes to your freshman who should be here for the long haul? 

But again, it’s not a question I can answer. It’s what Iowa State needs to ask and answer fairly soon before another season of lost development passes by.