It was a season of streaks for the ISU men’s basketball team, with five winning or losing streaks three games or longer.

In the end, that trend headed south.

The Cyclones lost 10 of their last 11 games to finish 14-18, and just 4-12 in the Big 12, bowing out in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament with a 60-47 loss to Texas A&M. It was the first time since 1990-1991 that an Iowa State squad had back-to-back losing seasons.

The season proved to be another of adaptation during coach Greg McDermott’s second year in Ames. After inheriting a program that returned just four players with significant playing time under their belts, McDermott had to deal with early departures. Three players – Corey McIntosh, Ross Marsden and Mike Taylor – left or were removed from the team during the offseason, and two more – Marcus Brister and Clayton Vette – decided to test their fates elsewhere once the season started.

But despite fighting injuries and inexperience – walk-on transfers Bryan Petersen and Sean Haluska started the first game of the season – the Cyclones never stopped trying, fighting all the way to the end even though their postseason hopes were all but dashed.

“I am not disappointed. We went out there and gave it everything we had,” senior Rahshon Clark said after the A&M loss. “The guys never gave up. You know, we tried our best, and that’s all I could ask for …”

As in the final game, the inability to consistently put the ball in the hoop plagued Iowa State all year. The Cyclones finished in the national top 200 in just one offensive category – free-throw percentage – and scored 80 or more points just twice. Their average of 64 points per game was 255th out of 328 teams in Division I.

Part of that offensive futility can be attributed to the physical ailments some of the scorers suffered through. Sophomore Wesley Johnson missed five games due to injuries and was noticeably bothered by a lingering foot injury all season. Without his normal athletic ability, Johnson struggled to change his game. That adaptation could end up helping the team down the road.

“… And Wesley Johnson has learned to play the game when he doesn’t have all the athletic skills that he is accustomed to having because he is not healthy,” McDermott said. “That will bode well for him when he’s back and he is healthy, because he learned to play the game in a different way.”

The Cyclones’ two senior leaders, Clark and center Jiri Hubalek, couldn’t escape the injury bug either. Hubalek missed the two exhibition games and spent much of the preseason rounding himself back into shape. Clark fought through a lingering knee injury that forced him to miss practice occasionally and, finally, one game down the stretch. But, as he did his entire career, the fan favorite refused to quit on his team and the school he loves and refused to leave.

“This institution, and our athletic program and our basketball program in particular will always be indebted to him for that decision, because that is, in my mind, the ultimate sign of unselfishness,” McDermott said of Clark’s decision to stay on when he arrived, “because the easy thing for him to do would have been to leave, and nobody would have questioned it.”

With the departure of the two seniors, Iowa State will lose 31 percent of its scoring and 39 percent of its rebounding. Although that is a large void in the stat sheet to fill, the continuous development of two key freshmen should help dull the loss.

After living up to his preseason hype early on, forward Craig Brackins hit a prolonged slump in Big 12 play that left both him and his coach scratching their heads before a late-season surge saw him return to form.

“As a coach, I think that’s the thing we have to take as a positive from the last two weeks of this season … that Craig Brackins went into one of the biggest funks I have ever had a player go into,” McDermott said. “It happens to a lot of freshmen, and most times they don’t come out of it.”

But Brackins did. After a seven-game stretch when he scored in double figures just once, the freshman averaged 19 points over the final three contests. That success has given the former five-star recruit confidence going into next season and has left him excited for what the team could accomplish in his second year.

“Our team’s confidence is really high right now,” Brackins said. “We’re excited to just get ready and start for the next season, and we’re expecting our young guys to come in next year and be really good.”

Sometimes forgotten behind Brackins, freshman point guard Diante Garrett didn’t start the season with the same fireworks as Brackins, but his improvement and growing confidence give the team another weapon. His shifty ability to get into the lane is a skill no other Cyclone possesses.

Next year’s squad will miss the seniors, both on the court and in the locker room. But as much as their absence will be felt, it might be harder for the departed.

“I will always be a Cyclone,” Clark said. “But I just won’t be able to step on the floor with these guys and play with them anymore. I will just miss this whole experience.”