No. 13 Iowa State (19-8, 9-6 Big 12) handled TCU (11-16, 2-12 Big 12) on Saturday 92-83 at Hilton Coliseum, and looked very convincing at times.

Georges Niang dropped 27 points. Abdel Nader had 24, and Deonte Burton had 23. The offense flowed well throughout the game, with the Cyclones even shooting over 65 percent in the second half.

The main story, though, is once again centered on Jameel McKay.

McKay was suspended for a violation of team rules on Feb. 6, and missed two games as a result. He returned to action against Texas and Baylor last week from his suspension, however did not return to the starting lineup.

McKay did not see the court on Saturday, causing rumors to swirl on why the senior didn’t get any playing time. Both ISU coach Steve Prohm and the ISU athletic department insisted that it was not a suspension, but rather a coach’s decision.

Recently, Prohm said that the team needs McKay to play at their best. However, after the game, he said that he felt this was the best move going forward.

“[It’s] for the best interest of where we want to be down the road,” Prohm said. “We’re excited to move on to West Virginia. That’s it. It’s my decision. There really is not much more to it.”

Prohm continued to say that McKay would be available to play on Monday when the Cyclones head to West Virginia.

He also said that it was an option to play McKay tonight, just that he didn’t take that option.

“He’s available to play if I wanted to put him in,” Prohm said. “I mean Hallice didn’t play the other night at Baylor. It’s my decision on what I want to do. That’s it. It’s no more, no less. Obviously we need Jameel to be great. Everybody in this room knows it. Our team knows it, and he’ll be ready to go. And our team will be ready to go.”

McKay’s absence did not go unnoticed, and the stats show it. Iowa State was out-rebounded 43-31 and gave up 20 offensive rebounds, which led to 25 second-chance points for the Horned Frogs.

Point guard Monté Morris said that while they didn’t have a good showing on the boards, he thinks they will be fine when McKay returns.

“We missed [McKay] a lot,” Morris said. “The numbers speak for themselves. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. We really don’t make a big emphasis on that, because we know were missing somebody. It would be different if Jameel was out there and they still got it. We’ll be all right.”

McKay has now missed three games in February, and has had significantly less playing time than usual. While some watching the team may see McKay’s periodic absences as a distraction, Morris doesn’t see it that way.

“As a team, he’s like our brother,” Morris said. “It’s life. Whatever he’s going through, we’re all going through. We’ll have him back.

“He should play Monday.”

While Prohm wouldn’t go into many details of the suspension, he said they need to turn the focus to what the team is doing right — especially with a game at No. 10 West Virginia on Monday.

“I think everybody is on the same page,” Prohm said. “The one thing we’ve got to do is we have to start focusing on the positive things that this team is doing instead of always some of the negative things that are going on. We’ve done a lot of really good things. We’ve got two weeks left in the regular season… That’s where our focus is, and that’s it.

“I’m proud of these guys. It was a good win. Now we have to get ready for West Virginia.”