Monday night was an unfortunate mess for Iowa State men’s basketball, Oklahoma State men’s basketball and frankly the Big 12 Conference all together.

Due to the Big 12’s set COVID-19 threshold policies, Iowa State had to play, even if it meant with just six scholarship players — half of which were freshman.

Iowa State Head Coach Steve Prohm said after Monday’s 81-60 loss he did not feel like the game should have been postponed — not like they had a say in the matter thanks to the Big 12’s set-in-stone policy — in order to get some kind of competitive balance back.

Iowa State had six available scholarship guys, so it did what the Big 12 said on Monday.

Sophomore walk-on Nate Jenkins had to play 19 minutes due to George Conditt’s foul trouble and a lack of other available roster members. Iowa State shot 34 percent from the field, got outrebounded 49-19, while the Cowboys had 24 sloppy turnovers of their own.

Like I said, it was a mess.

But sometimes, the mess can be exactly what you need to realize the bigger picture that is in front of you.

And for the Cyclones, the bigger picture has to be about what next season and beyond can be. I think we got our best look so far at what it could be Monday.

Let’s just take an objective look at where the team is at first:

-Iowa State is currently 2-8, 0-6 in Big 12 play

-Iowa State still has to play Kansas twice, at Baylor, at home against Texas and at home against West Virginia 

-With 11 games left, the Cyclones sit in last place in the Big 12 and are six and a half games back of first place

-NCAA DI men’s basketball NET Rankings have the Cyclones ranked 206th overall in Division I men’s basketball

I know there are probably some people out there who are saying this season isn’t over yet, so why would you move on to next year already?

If those objective numbers and the product on the court from the Cyclones in their first 10 games hasn’t told you enough then I guess I’m not talking to you in this column.

Let me be frank. I don’t see many scenarios where Iowa State wins more than three more games this season, and that’s being generous. And if the wins aren’t going to come, then what are these final 11 games even about?

The answer should begin and end with Iowa State’s three healthy freshmen in Dudley Blackwell, Darlinstone Dubar and Jaden Walker.

We’ve seen each of them in stretches and Dubar even started a few games while Tre Jackson was injured at the start of the year. Even so, I don’t think anyone can give you a real concrete outlook on any of those three going into next season.

And if you’re Prohm and this Iowa State staff, that is your projected future core, so you would be doing yourselves and those three players a disservice by not playing them more and more in these final 11 games.

It wasn’t the ideal circumstances of course, but those three played a ton Monday and gave us all the best glimpse at what they can all be like in extended roles and minutes. 

Hopefully for Iowa State, it finds out these three freshmen can play and can play in their respective roles effectively if given the chance.

Going into the 2021-22 season, this program is in desperate need of a direction. Pick just one. Any would be better than the situation Iowa State is locked into right now.

In my mind the most important aspects of Iowa State’s remaining 2020-21 season have to stem around these two questions:

1) Right now, who is ‘the guy’ going forward for this program that can take you over the top?

I would say Iowa State fans hope it turns out to be Xavier Foster, but it’s not like we saw him play much this season. And who knows how long he’ll need to recover fully and truly begin a “normal” offseason. So until the 7-footer returns from injury, I would say we’ll have to wait and see.

Junior Rasir Bolton has had issues at his new role of primary ball-handling point guard and is best suited to be a No. 2 or No. 3 on a team.

Maybe it’s freshman Jaden Walker, who Prohm compared his game and size to that of NBA-lottery pick Tyrese Haliburton at media day before the season began. He’s looked good in the brief moments we’ve seen him and I think this team would be better off with him at the main point guard spot.

As we’ve seen on successful Iowa State teams, finding ‘that guy’ is the biggest step back to normalcy.

2) Do you have a good enough core in place to try and get back into even the fringe NCAA Tournament discussion that you’ve been out of for two straight seasons?

And if you’re Iowa State, I don’t think you have a good enough answer to that yet. But what better way to find out than in a season that has already had its wheels fall off?

It’s not like if Prohm decided to start his three freshmen along with Bolton and Conditt starting Saturday that Iowa State would be at risk of losing games and falling out of contention for something of value. As you can see, Iowa State is doing just fine without that taking place.

I’m not saying Walker, Blackwell and Dubar are going to be that program-changing core that brings Iowa State back to relevancy, but you can’t tell me they won’t be either. Again, it all comes down to Prohm figuring out what he has and what he doesn’t.

And with Tyrese Hunter being brought into the fold next season, perhaps the young guard from Wisconsin can be another good addition into a young and growing core.

But going off of my first question, even if Iowa State finds its next ‘No. 1 guy,’ what’s next? 

Haliburton was only able to lead his team to an 11-13 record before he went down with a fractured wrist.

Your program must have depth and continuing young talent filing in and out to keep the program afloat. A Haliburton or potentially a Xavier Foster can’t win a Big 12 Championship by themselves.

The future is cloudy for Iowa State right now, and it would be better to figure out what lies beyond the fog before you end up in the thick of it come next season, risking being stuck in the same spot again.