Monté Morris, Cyclones ready for TCU after big win at Okie State

Senior guard Monte Morris pushes his way to the basket during teh game against No. 2 Baylor in Waco, Jan. 4, 2017. The Bears won 65-63. Morris finished with 12 points, five assists and seven rebounds.

Ryan Young

Iowa State point guard Monté Morris garnered national attention last season as one of the nation’s best point guards. He was placed on multiple award watch lists, earned a spot on the Associated Press All-Big 12 first team and had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country.

Wednesday night, the Flint, Michigan, native did it again.

Morris dropped 30 points in Iowa State’s (11-4, 3-1 Big 12) 96-86 win against Oklahoma State (10-6, 0-4 Big 12) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He went 10-of-16 from the field, had five assists and — most notably — didn’t commit a single turnover.

So far in conference play, Morris has 22 assists and just one turnover.

That’s right, only one turnover through four games in arguably the best league in the country.

“The character, the toughness, the attention to detail you’ve got to have on the floor [to do that] is huge,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. “Obviously to go zero turnovers the other night was huge. 22-1, that’s pretty good.”

His one turnover so far in conference play came on Jan. 4 in the Cyclones’ two-point loss to then-No. 2 Baylor. Since that time, Morris has seemed to elevate his game immensely.

Against Texas on Saturday, Morris dropped 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and was just four assists shy of his second triple-double of the season. He followed it up with his 30-point performance against Oklahoma State.

Morris said he hasn’t changed anything.

“I’m just doing what I do,” Morris said. “I’ve been playing this way for a very long time, trying to take care of the basketball. When you play that way, we get a lot more possessions.”

Morris said his play Wednesday night opened up a lot of the offense for the Cyclones. Matt Thomas dropped 19 points against the Cowboys, going 4-of-9 from behind the arc, and Naz Mitrou-Long had 17 points, going 6-of-11 from the field.

Without Morris’ play, they said, it wouldn’t have been possible to keep the offense moving and get Mitrou-Long or Thomas open.

“When Monte’s scoring at that type of rate, it opens things for everybody,” Mitrou-Long said. “You look in transition, you have me and Matt running left and right. That doesn’t happen too often. When we play great defense like we did, guys like us are able to push the break, it opens things up for everybody.

“Especially having Monté at the head of the snake, he can pull up at that mid-range spot like he did yesterday. … It opens up windows for everybody when he’s playing like that. “

Iowa State will attempt to keep its offense flowing this Saturday when it takes on TCU (13-3, 2-2 Big 12) at 4:30 p.m. in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Horned Frogs, led by first-year coach Jamie Dixon, are off to a hot start. TCU already has more wins this season than it did all of last season, and has fallen to only SMU, No. 2 Kansas and No. 10 West Virginia.

The Cyclones counter with a two-game win streak of their own — and a third would likely put them back in the AP Top 25 prior to their matchup with Kansas on Monday at Hilton Coliseum.

And should Morris have a game like he did against Texas or Oklahoma State, Prohm is confident that they’ll be sitting in a good place.

“He wants to have a great senior year,” Prohm said. “That’s all he’s focused about. And he knows that we need him at his best. And he was at his best, and we’ll need him at his best on Saturday.”