After months of waiting, ISU coach Steve Prohm will finally get his first official chance at leading the Cyclones.

On Friday, Iowa State men’s basketball will host Grand Valley State at Hilton Coliseum in the team’s only exhibition game this season. And while the game doesn’t actually count, both Prohm and the team are excited and ready to go.

“It should be fun Friday night,” said point guard Monté Morris. “We’re going to approach it like a game and just have fun with it.”

No. 7 Iowa State boasts a very similar team from last season, including Morris and seniors Georges Niang, Jameel McKay, Naz Mitrou-Long and Abdel Nader, all of whom got significant playing time last year.

And while it will be an important game for them, too, Prohm said that they are not necessarily the main focus. It’s the rest of the team he wants to see in action as he sorts through his roster in hopes of defining his primary role players. 

Another big focus from Prohm so far in practice has been the team’s defense. Iowa State allowed 69 points per game last season, the worst in the Big 12 conference, and 35.2 rebounds per game, the second worst in the conference.

But Niang said that playing an entire game of defense has been something the team has put emphasis on lately, and he hopes that transitions to the court.

“[Prohm] is really challenging us to be a team that defends for 40 minutes,” Niang said. “I think that’s something that we didn’t have in our identity last year, so we’re really working on trying to be a team that really defends for 40 minutes and really slows people up throughout the whole game.”