DENVER — Georges Niang didn’t spend his senior year trying to forget the failures of NCAA tournaments past.
Instead, he had a constant reminder of postseason heartbreak staring him in the face dozens of times a day.
Shortly after Iowa State’s first-round upset loss to the UAB last March as a No. 3 seed, the Cyclones’ forward changed the background picture on his cellphone to a photograph of himself from that game. He’s in disbelief, his hands locked behind his head.
“That was a dark time, but it’s been very motivating for him,” fellow Cyclones senior Nazareth Mitrou-Long told USA TODAY Sports.
Now that Niang has exorcised some of those NCAA tournament demons by leading the Cyclones to the Sweet 16, might he change that cellphone background to something a little less somber? No chance, Mitrou-Long said, and Niang agrees. The Sweet 16 sure is nice, but it’s not the ultimate goal.
“That's not what we aspire for. Like coach (Steve Prohm) says, he wants bigger things for us. We want bigger things for ourselves so we're going to keep fighting,” Niang said.
But that doesn’t mean this trip to the Sweet 16 isn’t special for Niang. The Cyclones will play No. 1 seed Virginia on Friday at the United Center in Chicago.
The winningest player in school history, and the first Cyclone ever to play in four NCAA tournaments, will finally get a chance to play in the tournament’s second weekend. Until now, Niang’s tournament history has been defined by disappointment.
As a freshman in 2013, Niang was guarding Ohio State’s Aaron Craft when the Buckeyes guard lofted a buzzer-beater to knock off Iowa State in the Round of 32. A year later, Niang suffered a broken bone in his foot during the second half of his team’s first-round win.
The Cyclones went on to beat North Carolina later that weekend to advance to the Sweet 16, but Niang couldn’t play. Iowa State lost in that round to eventual national champion UConn, with Niang watching from the bench.
“That was the (most down) a locker room has ever been after a win,” Niang recalled about the last time the Cyclones advanced out of the opening weekend. “I tried to not make it about me even though I was extremely upset about it. It was a great joy to be in the Sweet 16, but I will tell you, it sucked sitting there watching it at Madison Square Garden.”
Before this current NCAA tournament started, Niang told Mitrou-Long, his roommate for four years in Ames, that if and when the Cyclones advanced to the Sweet 16, Niang wanted to feel like he had earned it.
He certainly did that in two games at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Niang had 28 points in each of the Cyclones first two games, first in a 94-81 win against Iona on Thursday, and then in a 78-61 win against Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday. Niang was particularly dominant early in that second game, scoring 17 points in the first half while completely staying out of foul trouble.
“Your best player has to play the best in March in big moments. The last two games he's been unbelievable,” Prohm said.
That was a big difference for Niang than in last year’s tournament loss to UAB, when he had just 11 points and was limited to just 28 minutes on the floor because of early foul issues.
When the Cyclones returned to Ames after that loss, they shut off their cellphones for days, trying to limit their interactions with anyone but each other. Once Niang finally emerged, he found that photograph and placed it on his phone. It’s on his Twitter page, too.
“But this year, this is the year, and we believe that. He's on a mission. Look at what he's putting up on the board, it means everything to him,” Mitrou-Long said.
GALLERY: THE SWEET 16 TEAMS
