It may be a gamble – but it’s a calculated one – and the ISU women’s basketball team sure has a youthful forecast.

“The future of our program relies on the freshmen now and the kids coming in,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “The expectations I have are probably a lot higher than anyone’s. I have to convince them and make them understand what my expectations are.”

The first wave of Iowa State’s youth movement started this season. It had no choice after losing five seniors from last season’s NCAA tournament team.

Enter Nicky Wieben, Heather Ezell, Amanda Nisleit, Gillian Bjerke and Rachel Pierson. As of March 1, combined, the five freshmen have logged 2,003 minutes out of 5,225 total minutes played by the Cyclones this year.

That number could have been higher, but Pierson only played 15 of those because of an early-season injury. She redshirted the rest of the season and has four years of eligibility remaining starting next season.

“I think we’ve put them in positions that we’ve asked a lot of them, that maybe they weren’t ready for,” Fennelly said. “The speed and physical nature has been a shock to them.

“Like every freshman, I think they’ve hit the wall, bounced back, and probably going to hit it a couple more times.”

It’s exhausting, but there is an element that attracts the rookies to the Big 12.

“One of the reasons I came here was to play at the highest level,” Nisleit said. “Every game you have to be ready to play, there’s no doubt.”

So how has the transition been for the freshmen?

“It was different to adjust to, much different than high school,” Wieben said. “The game’s a lot quicker and people are a lot stronger.”

Ezell, who has logged the second-most total minutes on the team with 921, said guidance from seasoned veterans helped her prepare for the caliber of Big 12 play.

“It’s as competitive as it was talked about, and some games are even tougher than I expected,” she said. “You never know who’s going to win.”

Until Sunday’s game against Texas A&M, Ezell had started 25 of 25 games as a Cyclone.

“It’s a dream come true,” she said. “When you go to college, you never expect to start as a freshman, and play the amount that I’ve gotten to play.”

The trick is balancing college life with lofty expectations placed upon them by a tradition-rich Big 12 women’s basketball program.

“A lot of people forget, it’s not just, you come to college to play basketball,” Fennelly said. “School’s harder and you’re away from home.”

So what’s next for this team?

It’s a team that is most likely not NCAA tournament-bound, but will finish with a record above .500, exceeding the expectations of most for this season.

“I expect whatever they gave us this year times ten,” Fennelly said. “When you look at this class, and next year’s class, that’s the future of this team.”

Time will tell.

“The next six months will be the most important months of their basketball lives,” Fennelly said. “They’ve had some very good on-the-job training this year, and have a great opportunity to move on to the next level.”