Following a 13-win season in 2017-18, Iowa State needed some new life to kickstart the upcoming men’s basketball season.

Coach Steve Prohm brought in plenty of help.

Virginia transfer Marial Shayok sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, as did Nebraska transfer Michael Jacobson. Both will be asked to play big minutes this season, as will Iowa State’s four incoming freshmen.

Shayok started 23 games over his three-year career with Virginia. During his sophomore year, he played 15 minutes per game as the Cavaliers won 30 games and made the Elite Eight — including a win over Iowa State in the Sweet 16.

“I just play to my strengths here,” Shayok said. “I just want to bring the experience I had at Virginia to here.”

One of those strengths is defense. Virginia has been consistently one of the toughest defenses in college basketball — in Shayok’s junior year, the Cavaliers ranked first out of all 351 Division I teams in points allowed per game.

However, Shayok’s offensive game will likely need to adapt to a different play style in Ames. Virginia had the slowest pace in Division I basketball while Iowa State ranked in the middle at 170th, according to KenPom.

Perhaps the key to Shayok’s adjustment is working with sophomore guard Lindell Wigginton, who was last year’s leading scorer at 16.7 points per game.

Prohm said Wigginton has been one of the bright spots through the first week of practice.

“I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but I’m pleased with his growth from last year to this year,” Prohm said. “He’s doing a really good job for us with that — he’ll play some [point guard], he’ll play off the ball sometimes as well.”

Wigginton was forced to take over as the team’s go-to scorer last season earlier than Prohm and the coaches had hoped. Injuries to Nick Weiler-Babb, Solomon Young and others thrust Wigginton into the spotlight early.

The challenge Iowa State has faced with the newcomers is meshing with this year’s roster. Of the 16 players on Iowa State’s roster this year, six played for the Cyclones in 2017-18.

For Shayok, that meant working on his weaknesses so he could fill in the gaps Iowa State had last year.

“I wanted to make my shot a lot more consistent,” Shayok said. “[I wanted to] expand my range, work on my ability to create for others.”

Shayok’s ability to play multiple positions — at 6-foot-5, Shayok can play guard, on the wing or can even play as a forward when Iowa State goes small, according to Prohm — will be critical as the Cyclones work to factor in several freshmen in different roles.

Injury update

Iowa State faced injury challenges all of last season. Prohm said last year the team was often forced to practice without playing 5-on-5 due to a lack of healthy players.

That seems to be a challenge early on in the 2018-19 season as well.

Prohm said freshman George Conditt IV is recovering from mono and has missed time. Freshman Zion Griffin has been dealing with a knee injury all summer and still has a brace on his knee.

Redshirt senior forward Zoran Talley Jr. took an elbow in practice and has missed time as well.

Prohm added Weiler-Babb has not missed a single rep in practice yet this fall after dealing with knee injuries last season and into the offseason.