For four years, Diante Garrett was a part of the ISU men’s basketball team. He rose to 16th on the all-time Cyclone scoring list and started more games (128) than any other Cyclone ever.

In his final year as a Cyclone, he was the emotional and statistical leader of a team that had lost key players like Craig Brackins and Marquis Gilstrap.

Now? Now Diante Garrett is gone, and coach Fred Hoiberg and his team have to find a new leader to take them to the so-called promised land that is the NCAA tournament.

“It’s got to be a group effort I think,” Hoiberg said when asked who the new leader or leaders might be. “You always lean on your seniors, and having two of them this year in Scott [Christopherson] and Chris [Allen], we’ll definitely lean on those guys.”

The “Big Four” transfers — Allen, Chris Babb, Royce White and Anthony Booker — as they’re called, finally get to see the court in 2011 after having to sit out a season due to NCAA transfer rules. The four players bring talent, experience and, in the case of White, tremendous hype.

White, once the 19th-ranked player in the class of 2009 by Rivals.com, transferred from Minnesota after never having played a game. Allen came to the Cyclones having played on two NCAA Final Four teams. Babb and Booker were both major contributors to Penn State and Southern Illinois.

Now, someone among the four, along with key returners Chrisopherson and Melvin Ejim, must emerge as a leader to help guide the Cyclones in 2011-12.

“You can’t replace Diante Garrett,” White said. “He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with. You’ve got to look to adapt and find areas that we can be better where [last year’s team wasn’t] as good.

“I’ll definitely lead as well as I can. I strive to lead every day in my work ethic and things that I say. But we have a lot of leaders on this team.”

Former ISU guard Bryan Petersen played with Garrett for two years, then coached him for two more as a graduate assistant under Hoiberg.

He’s seen Garrett in a light no one else has, being a teammate and coach. Knowing what Garrett brought to the table, Petersen has a good idea what it will take to replace that.

“It’s going to take a lot [to replace Garrett],” Petersen said. “I think our fans will really appreciate what DG did for us the last four years — especially the last two.

“I don’t know if it’ll be one guy, but like Coach said, two or three guys that are leading our offense like Babb, Scott, Chris Allen, know [Hoiberg]’s system [and] have the potential to do it.”

Apart from just on the court, Garrett led his teammates on an emotional level. Ever the jokester, Garrett led the team on a personal level. That’s something a player like Babb believes he can do.

“Yeah, definitely,” Babb said when asked if he saw himself as an emotional leader of the team. “I’m always trying to figure out what I can do to help our team. I was in Coach’s office almost every day [last year]. I’m kind of the barrier between the coaches and players, so that’s a good feeling to have the guys see me as a leader.”

Part of the questions raised around who will lead the team on and off the court is who will be the leader at the end of close games.

With two sharp-shooters in Allen and Babb, and the multi-talented White, any one of the three could handle the ball late in games. Being able to balance that and find “the guy” at the right times will give way to success.

Allen, having come into Iowa State as the most well-known of the four major transfers, certainly believes that to be true and thinks he can be the guy to do it and to fill Garrett’s role as a leader.

“I can’t try do out-do [Diante], I’ve just got to do what I can do. Regardless of what he did last year, I’m not looking at that, because that was last year,” Allen said. “That [late-game] atmosphere, and my IQ for the game, I’m going to be the guy with the ball in my hand and I’m going to be the guy to make the decision of who’s getting that shot.”

In the end, coaches and players don’t seem to be worried about the last shot or guys competing for the ball among themselves. It’s that goal of reaching the tournament, that light at the end of the tunnel that drives them.

“As a competitor, yeah, I want the ball in my hand when the game’s on the line,” Christopherson said. “But what I want more is to win.”