After bottoming out five games into its Big 12 Conference schedule, the ISU men’s basketball team fought back to salvage its season and make it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000 and the 13th time in school history.

“When we started out, we started 0-5 [in conference] and we bounced back,” said sophomore guard Curtis Stinson. “Nobody in the world would have ever thought that would happen. We made a great run; we’re just proud that we made it this far.”

Sitting at 8-8 and mired in a six-game losing streak, the Cyclones rallied to win 12 of their last 15 games. Their season ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 95-62 loss Sunday to North Carolina in Charlotte, N.C.

“It means a lot to the team [to get this far]. When we were 0-5, nobody really paid any attention to us,” Stinson said. “There’s a lot of people around that still don’t recognize us.”

It was a season of breaking streaks for the Cyclones, as they snapped their 28-game Big 12 road losing skid that stretched back to Feb. 24, 2001, and won its first conference overtime game since Feb. 11, 1995.

Iowa State ended its road losing streak on Feb. 5, defeating then-No. 20 Texas. Iowa State also defeated ranked teams Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and then-No. 2 Kansas — at Lawrence — on consecutive Saturdays.

Since the 1999-00 season, Kansas is 3-3 at Allen Fieldhouse against Iowa State and 42-0 against all other Big 12 teams.

Things started to turn around for the Cyclones following a 54-52 overtime loss to Colorado at home on Jan. 22.

“After our home game against Colorado, we had a team meeting where we just discussed some issues and where we’re going to go from this point in the season,” said senior center Jared Homan. “We had to regroup and figure some things out. I think that player’s meeting really determined a lot of stuff and got us on the right path.”

Stinson also said that meeting had an effect on the team.

“A lot of guys showed their emotions after that game, and we looked each other in the eye and told each other we’re not here to play to lose,” Stinson said.

With the end of the season, the Cyclones bid farewell to starters Homan and Damion Staple.

“They will be missed a lot; they were the backbone of our team,” said freshman Rahshon Clark. “They were our leaders.

“We just feel bad that we couldn’t make it farther in this tournament for Jared and Damion.”

Homan leaves Iowa State the No. 1 shot blocker in school history, with 235 rejections. He also finished with 1,124 career points, ranking 20th on the ISU career scoring chart, and 777 rebounds to rank sixth.

“He’s been a warrior his whole career. He fights every second he’s on the court, and he’s been great for us,” said head coach Wayne Morgan.

“The whole time he’s been at Iowa State he’s worked to get better, and I think he has a big future playing this game.”

Coming into Iowa State as a fairly unknown player, Homan grew into one of the Cyclones’ go-to players this season. He earned all-Big 12 Conference third team honors and was named to the all-underrated team.

Stinson followed up his Big 12 Freshman of the Year campaign with an amazing sophomore season. In just two seasons, Stinson reached the 1,000 career point milestone, a mark only two other Cyclone players have reached faster.

Stinson was named to the all-Big 12 second team and was twice voted Big 12 Player of the Week. He finished the season averaging 17.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest.

On the negative side for the team, one of its biggest weaknesses was its lack of depth. In the season-ending loss to North Carolina, the Tar Heels had 10 players score to Iowa State’s six. The most minutes for a Carolina player was 37. Three Cyclones played that much.

Homan said depth was Carolina’s most effective weapon.

“We play about six guys, and they got about 10 guys who can come off the bench that are very talented and skilled — that hurts,” Homan said. “You got guys who are out there the whole time wearing out, and they got fresh guys coming in and out.”

With freshmen Clark and Tasheed Carr returning, Morgan said Iowa State has a good perimeter coming back, along with good players coming in.

“We’re not finished recruiting yet. I think we’ll add a few big guys to that,” Morgan said. “If we can increase our depth in the frontcourt, we have a chance to be very, very good once we have that front court get used to the rigors of the Big 12.”

Homan said there are some good players coming in and that a lot of people may forget how young the team is.

“We got a lot of freshmen and sophomores who are only going to develop and get better,” Homan said. “I have all the confidence in the world that these guys are going to be back here next year. They’re going to get these young guys coming in, get them ready for the Big 12 and the NCAA tournament.”

Stinson said getting to the tournament this season gives the team the experience to do it again next season.

“We fought back, our backs against the wall. We had a great season,” Stinson said. “It gives us experience; we can’t put our backs against the wall like we did this year, and maybe we’ll get a better seed.”