After breaking Iowa State’s all-time assists record in the team’s 84-78 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday, point guard Monte Morris wasn’t immediately greeted with cheers and praise. 

His mother, Latonia, who flew to Nashville, Tennessee, to watch Monte accomplish the feat, instead showered him with criticism. With just seven seconds left in the game, Monte fouled out.

“After the game, she told me to quit jumping over people’s back,” Monte said with a laugh. “That’s just her coaching mindset coming into play. She did say congrats [on the assists record], but she was most disappointed about me fouling out the game with seven seconds left.

“But I was happy to see my mom and my family there.” 

Monte dished out three assists in the game, raising his career mark to 666 — one more than the former record holder, Jeff Hornacek, who played for the Cyclones in the early-to-mid 1980s.

Although Monte’s mother gave him a few proverbial jabs, Monte’s day wasn’t without praise. He said he received texts from people who congratulated him on the feat. 

“A lot of people reached out to me and showed love,” Monte said. “I was happy with the people who reached out to me — much respect for them doing that for me. It meant a lot.” 

Monte is already on his way to his most prestigious season to date. He sits second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 5.0 clip. In Big 12 play, Monte leads the conference with a 6.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. 

He was also tabbed as one of the 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the nation’s best point guard, on Monday. 

Now Monte is turning his attention to another individual record. He has 202 steals, which is just 10 swipes away from breaking the program’s all-time record of 211. 

“[I’m going to] try to get the steals record now,” Monte said. “[I’ve] got to turn it up on defense to get that.” 

The steals record is also held by Hornacek, who is the current coach of the New York Knicks. Monte said he hasn’t talked to Hornacek — contact between them could be a violation of NCAA rules because of Hornacek’s position in the NBA. 

“One day, hopefully, we’ll have that conversation,” Monte said.