It’s a hard week to be Buffalo.

Coming off a 23-point loss at No. 7 Duke, the Bulls will now take on No. 5 Iowa State on Monday night at Hilton Coliseum. Facing one top-10 team away from home is enough, let alone two.

“Man, I was joking with [assistant coach] T.J. [Otzelberger],” said ISU coach Steve Prohm. “I was like, ‘Man, that’s a tough three days.’ If I’m them, I’m thinking, ‘Hey it’s a great opportunity. We got a chance to go play two top-10 teams on the road and find out about ourself.’”

Buffalo (4-3, 0-0 MAC) will be a significant underdog on paper, with losses against St. Bonaventure, Old Dominion and Saint Joseph’s, but Prohm isn’t taking the Bulls lightly.

“They’re still very talented,” Prohm said. “[The] point guard makes them go. [He’s a] really looking-to-score-first point guard. [Buffalo is] very capable of putting up points, so we got to do a good job defensively against them.”

Georges Niang echoed Prohm’s defensive emphasis. Iowa State has put a greater focus on defense throughout the season.

The Cyclones have shown defensive improvement in long stretches, but the team is now working to be good defensively on a more consistent basis.

Niang, who is good to go after an injury scare in his last game, said the team is focusing on avoiding sloppy defense over a short stretch. 

“Coach Prohm has instilled a belief in us that we can have an identity as a team that plays defense,” Niang said. “I think every day, when you get a little bit of success with that, you start working harder and harder at it and realize that can be somewhat of our identity.

“We can score, but we can also stop you on the other end.”

Point guard Monté Morris also recognizes the occasional defensive lapses and said some of that blame falls on him.

“I know some stretches, we look great on defense, and some stretches we might look a little tired,” Morris said.

The ISU defense seems to be at its best when the guards apply pressure to the opposing team’s ball handlers and force turnovers.

That responsibility falls largely on Morris, who is averaging two steals per game, but Hallice Cooke and Naz Mitrou-Long have also been important in pressuring the ball.

“You can tell when I’m into it and energized on defense,” Morris said.

The problem is that Morris plays a lot of minutes, as the Cyclones don’t have a true backup point guard. When Morris gets tired, his defensive intensity drops a bit.

To combat those quick breaks to which Morris is susceptible on occasion, he said Cooke will usually take a few minutes guarding the opposing team’s main ball handler. That shift allows Morris to take a break for awhile by guarding someone who plays off the ball.

The Cyclones will focus on limiting those defensive lapses and improving their consistency on the defensive end Monday against Buffalo, before they get in-state rival Iowa later in the week.