In all honesty, no one – fans, coaches or players – is happy with the way the season turned out for the ISU men’s basketball team.

A trip to the NCAA tournament in 2005 and the return of three starters and several key role players from a team that lost in the second round of the tournament to eventual national champion North Carolina had the buzz around ISU basketball as high as its been in years.

And then the season began.

“We had goals set at the beginning of the year and we definitely didn’t meet them,” said ISU guard John Neal.

“Our goal was to finish in the top four of the Big 12 and to make the NCAA tournament.

“We’re frustrated and I can see how the fans would be frustrated because they had high expectations for us.”

An exhibition loss to EA Sports was a bad omen, and falling at home to Iona and Fresno State didn’t ease the Cyclone Nation’s mind.

A losing season in the Big 12 for the fourth time in five years also has fans restless, with much of the blame shifting to ISU coach Wayne Morgan.

Two of those losing seasons have come under Morgan, with Larry Eustachy’s final two campaigns making up the other two.

The “Fire Wayne Morgan” mindset is preposterous, according to the Cyclone’s best player.

“Point the finger at me,” Curtis Stinson said. “I’ll take the blame. Give it to me, give it to Will [Blalock], give it to the players. We have to go out and play.

“He does his job by coaching and getting us ready. It’s his job and he does a good job at that. If anyone wants to point fingers, point them at me. I’ll take the blame. I think it’s completely wrong for them to be pointed at coach Morgan.”

Losses to fellow Big 12 cellar dwellers Baylor and Kansas State haven’t helped Iowa State.

“Give me the blame. I’ll take it,” Stinson said. “I don’t care what nobody says. I’m going to play the game regardless.”

The Cyclones are guaranteed a sub-.500 record in the conference, meaning their chances for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament are zero. No Big 12 team has been selected with an 8-8 record, and the best Iowa State can do this year is 7-9.

“Obviously, we’re not right now a favorite to make an at-large bid,” Neal said. “We have to try to turn it around and make any positive thing we can to give us something to remember.”

The only chance Iowa State has of making the big dance is to win the Big 12 tournament in Dallas.

“We just take each game one-by-one and go play hard like it’s our last game,” Neal said. “There’s no guarantees now. Just go in and play hard and see what kind of results we can get.”

Taking home the conference tournament championship trophy would mean winning four games in four days.

With the top four teams in the regular season standings receiving byes, no team has ever come from outside that top echelon to win the tournament.

“We would like to go there and do well,” Morgan said. “We would like to go there and play great.

“There are a lot of teams in this league that if they get hot for four days, would have a chance to win the tournament. I think we’re one of those teams, that if we got really hot for four days we would have a chance to do that.”

A likely first round match up for Iowa State would be Kansas State, Oklahoma State or Texas Tech, with a second round game against a team such as Texas A&M, Nebraska or Colorado.

“Expectations are to go in there and win – to win the tournament,” Stinson said. “Play hard as a team and keep playing basketball.”