After a 1-3 start to Big 12 play earlier this month, many fans were quick to doubt the ISU men’s basketball team, wondering if they would be able to live up to the high expectations set for them at the beginning of the year.

But Iowa State’s 82-77 win against top-ranked Oklahoma on Monday not only proved to fans that this team is capable of beating anybody in the country, but that this is finally Steve Prohm’s team.

Coming into this season, Prohm was placed into a very difficult situation. Replacing Fred Hoiberg at the helm of a basketball program with the talent to make it to Houston in April for the Final Four is no easy task, and that has shown early on.

At times, the ISU basketball team has seemed out of sync and incapable of stringing together a full 40-minute game. But against the Sooners, that finally changed.

“I think the biggest thing was that after we hit rock bottom, we came together and realized that where I have flaws, Monté [Morris] has to pick me up,” said senior Georges Niang after Monday’s game. “Where Monté has flaws, Jameel [McKay] has to pick him up, and down through the line. I think we’ve done that so far, and we finally put two halves together [tonight].”

While Prohm did admit there were a few stretches he wasn’t happy with on Monday, he said they were locked in and focused during the majority of the game — and it showed. At no point during the game did it seem the win was out of reach.

The Cyclones have worked on staying focused little by little over the past weeks, and Monday’s game was just when it all came together. It has been a work-in-progress. It won’t come together overnight, and nobody expects it to.

But the real change came right before the Kansas State game on Saturday.

ISU coach Steve Prohm suspended redshirt sophomore Hallice Cooke for one game prior to the matchup with the Wildcats for a violation of team rules — something Cooke later confirmed via Twitter was because he was late to a practice.

Just to clear the air, I was late to practice, & I’m not going anywhere I genuinely love my teammates & I love the fan support. Take care

— Hallice Cooke (@Hallywood_03) January 19, 2016

“He didn’t do the things that I wanted done,” Prohm said after the Kansas State game. “And then he didn’t do what he was supposed to do, so I left him back.”

All seem to have moved on from his suspension, and things seem to be back to normal for the most part. But by suspending Cooke, Prohm finally took charge of this team.

“I finally kind of got to be me,” Prohm said. “I just met with the team and I just told them, ‘Hey I’ve got to be me. This is who I am. This is what I’m about, and I want to fit in but I want to do things the way I want to do them.'”

Prohm has taken a much tighter grasp on this team. He’s being true to himself and what he stands for, something that didn’t seem entirely evident until now.

Now these aren’t huge changes — not in a long shot. But since Prohm has taken control of this team, the impact has already been felt. The Cyclones turned around after the Kansas State game and upset the No. 1 team in the country, something that hasn’t been done at Iowa State in nearly six decades.

This team can now live up to its full potential, something that wouldn’t have come without every player on the team completely buying into Prohm’s system.

“It’s not drastic [changes],” Prohm said. “I’ve been in a situation like this before where last year I had to get uncomfortable and I’ve got to get uncomfortable here to do the best job with this team. That doesn’t mean we’re going to win 15 [games] in a row, but it means this team is going to max out.

“That’s my biggest goal, to max this team out.”

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Ryan Young is an assistant sports editor at the Iowa State Daily. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at @RyanYoung44.