Cyclone fans saw something they hadn’t seen all season inside Hilton Coliseum on Monday.

ISU guard Wesley Johnson took a steal from Bethune-Cookman’s Josh Cummings and passed it to teammate Diante Garrett before getting the ball back for a layup in the paint and potential 3-point play after being knocked to the ground by the Wildcats’ John Holmes. As Johnson was helped up to a pat on the back by Garrett, a rare look of satisfaction passed over his face in an otherwise frustrating early season for the guard from Corsicana, Texas.

The play, which made the score 46-28 with 16:50 to play, didn’t make a monumental difference in the grand scheme of Iowa State’s 80-57 victory over Bethune-Cookman, but the ramifications could make a difference in Iowa State’s season.

Johnson has battled an injured left foot all season, an injury that had ISU coach Greg McDermott considering a redshirt on the sophomore less than two weeks ago. Monday night, Johnson looked to take a large step in the opposite direction, scoring a team-high 16 points in 23 minutes of action.

“I’m pleased with his offense. Defensively he still has a hard time pushing off,” McDermott said. “He had one dunk tonight but he had two other ones that his head would have been up by the rim a year ago.”

Johnson spent the night driving to the hoop with relative ease, and unlike previous appearances this season, looked comfortable running up and down the floor on fast breaks. He said he wasn’t fully comfortable taking quick steps off the block on offense earlier in the season, but felt better about it on Monday.

“At first I was hesitant to do that, I wasn’t doing a lot of that just jabbing and going, but now I know I’m getting better, so I am going back to my old moves,” Johnson said.

Since Iowa State’s 56-47 victory over Iowa on Dec. 8, Johnson had over a week to rehab his foot between games. While he said he still wasn’t feeling completely in shape, the week off helped him with recovery from the injury.

“Really it was just a lot of rehab, and just in practice doing extra stuff, trying to get the wind back,” Johnson said.

McDermott said he was anxious to see how Johnson would respond after practicing four straight days leading up to the game, but said the fact that he could go four days in a row was encouraging.

Now the Cyclones come back to play Texas-Southern on Wednesday to continue the Las Vegas Classic, and then go to Las Vegas to play against Purdue on Saturday and Alabama or Missouri State on Sunday. Playing four games in the span of a week should test exactly how far he has come.

“If he can get through this week and still be seeing gradual progress – I don’t think we’re going to be seeing great strides, because we’re playing too much this week – but as long as he keeps getting better and we don’t have any situation where it sets us back, then I think we can keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can continue to play,” McDermott said.