After Wednesday’s 77-75 loss to Colorado, ISU coach Fred Hoiberg said the preparations for the 2011-2012 season would begin “tomorrow.”

The program is saying goodbye to seniors Diante Garrett, Jamie Vanderbeken and Jake Anderson, but will welcome the addition of five transfer players onto next season’s roster.

“We’ll miss those guys a lot next year,” Hoiberg said about his outgoing seniors. “People think we’re going to automatically be better next year, but we’re going to need people to step in and fill the shoes of those three guys. We’ll figure out over the summer who is going to be the leaders on the team next year.”

This summer, the team will travel to Italy for extra practice and playing time before the start of the season.

It will be an opportunity for the group to play together before the start of practice and for Hoiberg to start to fill the shoes of his outgoing seniors.

There will be five regulars returning from this season’s squad: junior Scott Christopherson and freshmen Jordan Railey, Calvin Godfrey, Bubu Palo and Melvin Ejim.

“I feel like they can be real, real good,” Garrett said. “Guys going through the adversity we went through this year … those guys being in the fire right away is going to build on each and every year for those guys to get a lot better.”