The ISU men’s basketball team’s chances of obtaining a No. 1 seed at the Big 12 tournament in March are tethered to its road fortunes, which have been ill for weeks.

The Cyclones began the season 2-0 in true road games, but own a fruitless record of 0-4 in the 39 days since edging out No. 21 West Virginia at WVU Coliseum.

The Mountaineers, following a 20-point loss to Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum, better defended their home court Feb. 16, when they held on to defeat No. 8 Kansas by way of a Juwan Staten game-winner.

The WVU victory against Kansas left the Cyclones a game and a half back of the Jayhawks in the race for a Big 12 regular season title with six ISU games left to play.

No. 14 Iowa State (18-6, 8-4 Big 12) can prove itself outside of Hilton and cut the KU conference lead to one game in its next matchup against No. 22 Oklahoma State (17-8, 7-6 Big 12).

“Hopefully we give ourselves a chance,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg. “That’s all you want. When you go on the road against a tough team … you want to give yourselves an opportunity at the end.”

An opportunity in the closing minutes has also eluded Iowa State lately. The Cyclones have been unable to keep a defeat outside of Hilton to less than a double-digit margin since losing at Texas Tech by five points.

After starting last season 1-3 away from home in conference play, it was sharp-shooter Naz Long who provided the means necessary in Stillwater, Okla. to end a three-game ISU road skid against another ranked OSU squad.

Long connected on a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining in double overtime to tie the game. He also scored the team’s final two points at the free-throw line in triple overtime to help secure a one-point ISU victory.

“That was a crazy, crazy game, obviously,” Hoiberg said. “And to be able to fight back after things didn’t look so good — that’s what you have to do, especially when you go on the road. You have to find a way to make plays when things [are] maybe stacked up against you.”

Now, a year later, the Cyclones have four consecutive road losses stacked against them. Oklahoma State is a ranked opponent that has proven difficult to defeat at home. Except for a few names on the backs of jerseys, everything appears similar, save for two substantial differences.

First, Iowa State was not a real contender for the Big 12 crown last time it visited Gallagher-Iba Arena. This year is different.

Second, Long is not at 100 percent physically and hasn’t been since he suffered an injury Feb. 7.

“It’s a hip-pointer. It’s basically a bruise on my bone,” Long said. “It’s all about just getting the pain down, getting as close to 100 percent as possible and just staying warm on it.”

The absence of the “Cowboy Killer” as some ISU fans have branded Long, would not just be a blow to the starting lineup and the team’s 3-point shooting prowess.

“I don’t think it’s any secret. Naz is as good of a leader as we have on this team,” Hoiberg said. “He’s a guy that stays positive throughout the entire game. It doesn’t matter what’s going on out there.”

Hoiberg added that he believes his players maintaining a level head in moments of adversity, something the Cyclones have failed to do on several occasions this season, will be essential to ending the team’s drought outside of Hilton.

“It’s making a play. It’s getting your guys to huddle after every play. It’s not trying to come down and get it all back at once,” Hoiberg said. “You have to go on runs. We went on some runs both against Kansas and Oklahoma. They responded to our runs. We didn’t respond very well to theirs.”

Iowa State did respond, however, to its most recent defeat at Oklahoma with the aforementioned 20-point win against West Virginia.

Point guard Monté Morris said that not just the result, but how it was attained is a testament to a corner he believes the Cyclones have now turned.

“The games we’ve lost — we feel like a few of them we weren’t ourselves,” Morris said. “But I feel like our team is finally peaking a little bit with that game, holding West Virginia to 59 points. I feel like we actually defended and if we defend like that on the road, the sky is the limit for our team.”

Iowa State will start reaching for that limit against Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Feb. 18.