Most of the attention this fall season has been focused on Jack Trice Stadium and the Iowa State football team. Now, some of the focus this weekend will shift to Hilton Coliseum and the Iowa State men’s basketball program.

The Cyclones will host the Emporia State Hornets on Sunday at 5 p.m. for an exhibition game. The team had a scrimmage under its belt and a concentration on improving as a team for the first regular season game on Nov. 10 at Missouri, but also is dealing with young players sitting out.

“Just do a better job defensively,” said senior guard Donovan Jackson on expectations for the game on Sunday. “I think that’s the biggest thing for us. Just being a hound on defense and us getting back on plays. Just being a team player.”

Defense was a small struggle in the secret scrimmage loss at Nebraska on Oct. 29 with a 92-84 final score. Even though it was a secret scrimmage, the box score from the game was released on Twitter and it shows Iowa State was outrebounded 30-23.

The Cyclones were pretty even on defensive rebounds, but the Huskers won the battle 21-20, and they were dominant in offensive rebounds, winning 9-3.

The loss to the start the season doesn’t reflect great light, but coach Steve Prohm is not worried. He’s happy to have some film to show the team regarding improvements and he’s pleased with the performance from his team in preparation for the exhibition game.

“We scored better than I thought,” Prohm said. “Wasn’t really sure offensively where we would be at this point of the year. Defensively we got a long way to go, but that’s normal this time of year.

“Zoran [Talley Jr.] didn’t play, that was a coach’s decision, but he’ll be back Sunday.”

Even though Talley Jr. will be back for the exhibition game, there’s quite a few faces that will not see action on Sunday.

Prohm made a couple more coaching decisions in sitting out freshman guard Terrence Lewis and redshirt freshman forward Cameron Lard for the game against Emporia State. He didn’t get into specifics about the two and their situations, but said they will be sitting for the game.

As for the start of the regular season against Missouri, Prohm will reevaluate the situation after the game on Sunday and let people know next week.

With two players sitting and two players (Michael Jacobson and Marial Shayok) who can’t play this season because of NCAA transfer rules, Iowa State is down to eight players. That might drop one more by Sunday.

Prohm said senior forward Hans Brase will suit up for Sunday, but will be a game time decision from the Iowa State training staff.

“[The training staff] will have the final say,” Brase said. “I’ve been feeling good, doing some full court stuff now and it’s feeling good.”

Brase tore his ACL last season while he was playing at Princeton and has been recovering from that injury for the past 10 months. He traveled with the team to Nebraska, but didn’t play. This Sunday could be the first time in quite a while that Brase is able to play on the court.

Prohm has been happy with Brase’s recovery process. He started with no contact to contact to 5-on-5 half-court to, finally, 5-on-5 full-court and he continues to be looking good, according to Prohm.

“He’s getting knocked down and popping up,” Prohm said. “Whether that’s going to the hoop offensively or drawing a charge defensively, he’s made a lot of growth. So, I’m excited to see him get out there because he could bring a lot to our team.”

If Brase is out on Sunday, that means Prohm and the Iowa State team has seven total players for the game. The projected starting lineup looks similar to the lineup from Nebraska. The starting five consisted of: Jackson, Lindell Wigginton, Nick Weiler-Babb, Solomon Young and Jeff Beverly.

The only bench players would be Talley Jr. and Jakolby Long if Brase doesn’t play, but Jackson is ready for anything on Sunday. He’s just excited to play a different team than his teammates.

“It’s good to play against somebody else, I’m tired of playing those guys,” Jackson said joking about playing his teammates.

“Yeah I know,” Jackson said on having only seven or eight players on Sunday. “Got to be in shape for that one.”