ISU men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm has talked about his top six players for much of the preseason.

Those six players consist of his five experienced starters: Georges Niang, Abdel Nader, Monté Morris, Naz Mitrou-Long and Jameel McKay, along with junior Matt Thomas coming off the bench.

That has become a top seven after Hallice Cooke’s performances in the early season.

“Those seven guys, they kind of separated themselves.”

While the top six had previously separated themselves by their play in past seasons, Cooke, who sat out last season per transfer requirements, has done so more recently.

Prohm said Cooke played well in Iowa State’s scrimmage against Tulane, which gave Prohm the confidence to put Cooke into the rotation for the Cyclones’ exhibition game against Grand Valley State.

Prohm stuck with a normal rotation for much of the exhibition game, doling out the majority of court time to his five starters and playing Cooke and Thomas off the bench until the game was put out of reach in the second half.

“That’s what you’ll probably see, I would guess,” Prohm said of his rotation moving forward.

Once Deonte Burton becomes eligible midseason, he will likely be added to that rotation.

Cooke responded well during the 106-60 exhibition win, hitting on 4-of-5 3-point attempts and finishing with 12 points in 20 minutes of action.

His offensive abilities have already been established. Now, Prohm is working on other aspects of Cooke’s game.

“Defensively and energy,” Cooke said. “Coming in with energy, and everything else will take care of itself. [Coach Prohm] doesn’t ever talk to me about offense, it’s just always defense and energy.”

Cooke is adjusting to a new style of play after transferring to Iowa State last season and sitting out an entire year. Now that he’s back and working in a new system under Prohm, it’s taken some time to adjust.

“Just learning the [nuances] of everything,” Cooke said. “The offense, defensive rotation, just knowing each spot, because I got to play multiple spots, either the two or the three or the one. It’s just all the little things and fine tuning those things, not turning the ball over and knowing where to be offensively.”

Prohm expects Cooke’s play to only get better after strong performances throughout the preseason.

“The good thing about Hallice tonight, I think he got some confidence,” Prohm said.

Cooke displayed some of that confidence after the Cyclones’ only exhibition game of the season.

“I know I can play, and I just got to go out there and prove every time I step on the court whether it’s practice or in a game.” Cooke said.