The Cyclones three-game losing streak has proven that even a Herculean effort from your best player doesn’t produce a win if nobody else shows up to play.

Sophomore forward Craig Brackins has scored an impressive 76 points in the last three losses while his teammates have accounted for only 86 points — just 10 more than Brackins.

Iowa State’s three starting guards, Bryan Petersen, Lucca Staiger and Diante Garrett, have seen their points drop and turnovers increase all in the last two weeks.

“We haven’t made shots. If we don’t turn it over and we’re not making shots, that’s one thing. We can’t compound our problems by turning it over along with missing open shots,” said head coach Greg McDermott.

In the last two contests, Brackins has accounted for 57 percent of the scoring while Iowa State’s three starting guards have only scored 23 total points, just more than 11 points per game.

“I’m in a little slump right now but I’ll get out of it. I just got to keep my confidence, keep my head up and just keep playing,” Garrett said.

Staiger, Garrett and Peterson are all in their second season in the program and have each had a breakout offensive game early in the season. Staiger scored 24 points off of eight 3-pointers versus Drake. He opened the Big 12 season with 15 and 18 points against Texas and Nebraska respectively, but has scored below six points every game in the recent three game slide.

Garrett scored a career-high 26 points early in the year versus Hawaii and has hovered around 10 points-per-game all season. During the losing streak, Garrett is 5-of-20 from the field with 10 turnovers.

“They’re disappointed in their recent performance and they’ve been in the gym working some things out,” McDermott said.

The senior of the group, Petersen, has only scored 18 points in the five conference games.

With the three back court starters struggling, Iowa State has also failed to get any offensive contribution from its bench. Sean Haluska, Charles Boozer and Cameron Lee are used for their defensive abuse on opponents but aren’t relayed on to put up crooked numbers in the scorers’ column.

The Cyclones’ main 3-point threats off the bench are Wes Eikmeier and Jamie Vanderbeken, but they too have hit dry spells.

Brackins may be in one of those zones that fans will be telling their kids about, but unfortunately for him, everyone else on the team has picked the same time to go ice cold.