With the season opener for the ISU men’s basketball team a little more than a week away, the Cyclones are finally starting to feel caught up.

Coach Greg McDermott will embark on his second year as head coach, and University of Iowa transfer Alex Thompson will be back in action after redshirting with the Cyclones last season.

McDermott said Monday he is definitely feeling more at home this year.

“Yeah, there’s no question,” McDermott said. “Mostly because I think we feel like we’re caught up recruiting and that was the problem last year.

“I took the job late – we had to put together a recruiting class for last season’s team and, while we were doing that, it’s hard to spend time on the future.”

Last year, McDermott was forced to compete with a total of just nine scholarship players, only four of whom were returning players.

McDermott installed an entirely new system, leaving the returning players and newcomers with an equal lack of knowledge of the schemes.

“Last year we didn’t know what to do,” said senior forward Rahshon Clark. “When a new coach comes in, it’s always going to take some time to figure out what he wants and how his system is. But now that we have returning guys . it will go a lot faster.”

Thompson agreed and said the year off made it easier for him to learn the schemes so he would be comfortable with the team’s plan of attack this year.

“I feel like we’re caught up, especially the guys who are coming back from last year,” Thompson said. “I think just the overall comfort level and just knowing what you’re getting into, just knowing what you’re doing, makes you that much more comfortable on the court.”

Now, with players like Thompson, Clark, Wesley Johnson and Jiri Hubalek all back with significant playing time from last season, the Cyclones will have a few seasoned veterans to teach newcomers the offense.

With everyone learning a new system last year, development in other areas during practice was slowed for freshmen and seniors alike, Clark said.

“[Having experience with the system] is great because we don’t have to take as much time as we did last year to try to figure out what position we should be in now and when to rotate,” Clark said. “We can move a little bit faster and, with us knowing the system, we can teach that to the younger guys.”

Thompson said the complexity of some aspects of the system can be overwhelming for new players, so it will be up to the experienced players to take pressure off the newcomers.

“We run a lot of sets, and you have to know where to be at the right time and what to do. It takes a while,” Thompson said. “These new guys are doing real well, but it takes a while because sometimes your head is spinning out there. We just have to try to help them along as much as we can.”