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Iowa State’s Matt Thomas hoping to be consistently productive this season

Steve Prohm, Matt Thomas, Monte Morris, Jameel McKay

Iowa State basketball players Jameel McKay, from left, Matt Thomas and Monte Morris greet Iowa State’s new men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm, right, before a news conference, Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in Ames, Iowa. Prohm, who last coached at Murray State, replaces Fred Hoiberg who left last week to become the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

AP

Iowa State junior guard Matt Thomas was brought into the program a few years back to be a perimeter shooting weapon. The 6-foot-4 native of Wisconsin saw his minutes decline as a sophomore last season and he’s hoping to be more of a consistent presence under new head coach Steve Prohm.

In a story from Todd Sommerfeldt of the LaCrosse Tribune, Thomas described how he’s communicating and trying to learn what Prohm wants out of him for this season. Now that former head coach Fred Hoiberg has moved on to the Chicago Bulls, Thomas has a clean slate with a new head coach.
“We had individual meetings with him,” Thomas said of Prohm in the story. “He told me what he’s all about, and what he said matched my beliefs.

“He expects a lot and holds guys accountable, and I like that.”

While Thomas might have struggled to find the floor in the second half as a sophomore, part of the reason he wasn’t seeing heavy minutes is his perimeter shot has struggled at times during his college career. Thomas is a 33 percent career 3-point shooter in his two seasons at Iowa State and I’m sure both the team and Thomas would like to see that number improve this season.

It’s hard to say why Thomas didn’t shoot the ball as well as he could have these past few seasons, but he was a starter for Iowa State on their trip to Spain this summer and he could be an important piece to this season’s roster. If he’s spacing the floor and hitting shots, it makes the Cyclones that much tougher to defend this season.