Iowa State basketball coach Fred Hoiberg says even without Royce White he is excited about the future of the program. White announced on Wednesday he will enter the NBA draft after helping to lead the Cyclones to a 23-11 record and their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2005.

“We get two guys who sat out this year, they’ll be ready to go, guys will be coming back, you know freshmen who’ll become sophomores,” Hoiberg says. He says everyone that played this year that are coming back will have more experience.

Hoiberg says after experiencing success the Cyclones will be expecting more next season. “It’s a group that’s going to work hard..and we begin the process of getting prepared for next season,” Hoiberg says. He says the players are hungry after losing to Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament and want to get back there again.

Royce White

After leading Iowa State to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005 Royce White is moving on. The sophomore forward announced he is leaving school to enter the NBA draft.

White averaged better than 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists as I.S.U. posted a 23-11 record and averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds in two NCAA Tournament games this past weekend.

“It’s been decided by the people that I trust that to become a professional is probably what’s best, so I won’t be returning next year to Iowa State,” White said. “But again, thank you to the Cyclone Nation and everybody who supported me in this journey.”

White says the decision was reached after the Cyclones returned to Ames following a season ending loss to top ranked Kentucky. He says he talked with coach Fred Hoiberg and says he talked with others he cared about and took it from there.

White says he is not sure where he projects in the NBA draft. “The draft guys have moved me up on some of the mock drafts, but I’ve been told that that really doesn’t matter,” White said. “Right now I am just going to go back and work and try to improve my game because this is really just the start of it and there’s always the chance that I don’t make it. And that’s something that I’m willing to live with.”

White began his college career at Minnesota but transferred to Iowa State before he ever played a game for the Gophers. He says his team at Iowa State made him a better player and a better person. “My life was not in a great place when I first arrived here two years ago. The basketball thing was one piece, but more so, this community, and living in this community and see how great it is, how well it functions and how much the people do for each other here, really allowed me to reflect and find myself as a man and become better off as human being and move forward with who I want to be for the rest of my life,” White said.

Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg believes White has the skills needed to make it in the NBA. Hoiberg says the spacing is better in the NBA and there are not a lot of people who can stay in front of White, and he will do well in the league.

Hoiberg says he visited with a number of people he knows in the NBA about White’s potential draft status. “There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but from the initial thoughts from the people that I talked to that I trust…it made it a pretty easy recommendation to him and let him make the choice,” Hoiberg said. “And that was the big thing…we wanted to gather as much information as possible and then let Royce make that final decision.”

Hoiberg says while he would love to have White play for the Cyclones next season he supports his decision to move on. White was an All Big 12 selection this past season and was named the league’s newcomer of the year.

The Iowa State Cyclones face a tough challenge in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday when they face the South Region’s top seed Kentucky in Louisville. The Cyclones improved to 23-10 with an impressive 77-64 win over defending national champion UConn on Thursday night.

The Wildcats opened with an 81-66 win over Western Kentucky to improve to 33-2 on the season. Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg says they will try to expose any weaknesses they can against Kentucky and try to keep the game close.

The Cyclones canned six three pointers in the first 12 minutes on Thursday night to build a 36-14 advantage. Senior guard Scott Christopherson says UConn limited the Cyclones’ three point attempts the remainder of the game and he expects Kentucky to try the same thing.

“We still did a good job when they started taking away threes of attacking the paint…all you can do is get yourself good looks at the basket and from that point on it’s having faith that they are going to go in,” Christopherson says.

The Cyclones will be a substantial underdog and guard Bubu Palo says that’s what they want. “Obviously they are a great team and noone is really giving to give us a shot…we just have to go out and execute,” Palo says. He says they’ve played some great teams in their league and won’t be intimidated by Kentucky.

Tip off is 6:45 Iowa time.