Struggles of Iowa State Cyclones' Starter Has Become Major Problem for Program

The struggles of a starter for the Iowa State Cyclones have had a major impact on the program.

Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger watches the game from the bench during the second half in the Big-12 conference men’s basketball against Texas Tech on Feb. 28, 2026, at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the regular season coming to a close for the Iowa State Cyclones, one of their starters has unfortunately started to struggle quite a bit. 

As the Big 12 tournament gets ready to kick off next week and the Cyclones face the Arizona State Sun Devils in their final game of the season on Saturday, there are some concerns for the team. 

Following their back-to-back wins against the Kansas Jayhawks and Houston Cougars, Iowa State has now lost three of their last four games and feel like they are limping to the finish a bit. While the schedule has done them no favors with two trips to Utah and a trip to Arizona, the team has struggled quite a bit of late. 

While it certainly isn’t just one player that hasn’t been performing up to par, one has stood out a bit more than the rest and that is freshman guard, Killyan Toure. The talented guard got off to a great start to the season, but has really cooled off. Struggles offensively might be affecting him a bit on the other end of the court and his confidence looks a bit shaken right now. 

Cyclones Need Toure to Bounce Back

Iowa State Cyclones guard Killyan Toure | Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

Really up until the beginning of February, Toure was playing at a very high level for Iowa State. The lengthy guard was an absolute terror defensively and he was also chipping in with some solid production on the offensive end. While he might not have been a lights out shooter, he was respectable and the offense of the Cyclones looked great. 

Unfortunately, there has been some recent correlation with Iowa State struggling as an offense and Toure being in a massive slump. The freshman guard hasn’t scored in double figures since a February 1st win over the Kansas State Wildcats. For a player that is a starter and has been playing over 20 minutes per game for most of that stretch, that is not ideal. 

Of late, things have really fallen off the rails with Toure going 0-for-7 from the field in a recent loss to the Red Raiders. Furthermore, he is now starting to see his minutes decrease a bit with Jamarion Batemon and Nate Heise starting to see their roles expand. 

Even though he got off to a great start, these struggles have been ongoing for about a month now. With March Madness right around the corner, the Cyclones really need to figure out what to do with their struggling guard.