In a three part profile, the Iowa State Daily was able to catch up with men’s basketball Coach Greg McDermott about the state of Iowa State basketball, where it is, and where it’s headed. This is Part 2.

Will Iowa State’s leading scorer and rebounder be returning for another season to wreak havoc on the Big 12? Will he bring a sense of winning recent Iowa State teams haven’t tasted? Is Craig Brackins NBA bound?

“Of course we’ve spoken about it, but that’s my responsibility -to try to advise him the best I can, and along with my coaching staff to collect as much information as we possibly can about it, so that when it comes time for Craig to make a decision, it’s an educated one,” said coach Greg McDermott.

With the biggest of decisions yet to be made for No. 21, all Cyclone fans can do is get red in the face debating , and the coach can only divulge bits and pieces of knowledge.

McDermott acknowledged that he had been talking with other coaches and advisors that have sent players to the NBA, and that all he could do was seek input and help provide the best information possible for his star player.

“We’ve been able to bring guys in that are talented enough to play on that level, and then have helped them develop to the point where they have an opportunity to continue their careers at the professional level,” McDermott said.

“That’s certainly been a plus in our recruiting, and it’s my hope that we’ll have other guys down the road that have an opportunity to test the NBA waters early, so it’s important, that if they’re going to give Craig Brackins a call, that we’ve done right by Craig and did due diligence in trying to help him make that decision.”

Approaching the off season and recruiting time and with the team’s most important player still indecisive, is it time for the coaching staff to have an idea of what the picture would look like without Brackins in the middle?

“We’re doing our individual workouts and strength training, and Craig’s part of it, as if he were going to be on the team next year,” McDermott said. He’s gotta do all that regardless of whether he’s going to come back or makes a decision of trying to jump to the NBA.”

Solidifying the roster

Bringing in 6-foot-2-inch point guard Chris Colvin and 6-foot-6-inch swing man Marquis Gilstrap will boost the team’s athleticism and bring some outside slashing ability that Iowa State lacked this past season.

“They’ll upgrade our athletic ability, which is something that needed to happen,” McDermott said. “We were not an athletic enough team a year ago, across the board, and guys like Chris and Marquis will help with that.

“I’ll be disappointed if both of them aren’t competing for significant minutes on our team.”

With three graduates and two transfers in Wes Eikmeier and Clinton Mann, and a possible NBA departure in the near future for Craig Brackins, the team will hope to fill in some gaps and be as competitive as possible. The transfers weren’t completely out of left field though, and the coaching staff had been working on solutions if the situation came up.

“Part of it was already in place with L.A. Pomlee redshirting and Scott Christopherson sitting out after his transfer year, so you could argue that those two guys can replace Wes and Clint,” McDermott said.

A big question that can’t be answered until the season begins is whether or not the new players can mesh into the current mold. Other Big 12 schools appear to be losing more than Iowa State is expected to lose this off season, notably the Griffins departing Oklahoma, A.J. Abrams from Texas, Leo Lyons and DeMarre Carroll from Missouri, and possibly Cole Aldrich leaving early from Kansas. The appearance of other team’s lineups may have more to do with success than the appearance of the Cyclone lineup.

“We need to move our program out of the bottom half of the Big 12 and into the top half,” McDermott said, with some emotion coming through with talk about the future. “If you can do that, all the postseason play takes care of itself, and that’s our goal every year when we go into the season — try to position ourselves so that when we get into February our games are very meaningful, we have an opportunity to play for a championship when the season winds down, and we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

Colvin and Gilstrap will provide some of that athleticism and commitment to running the floor, but Cyclone Nation agrees that next year’s schedule would be best navigated with the return of a certain power forward.