The road to college basketball success was supposed to be a fairly simple one for a former Miss Iowa Basketball. Pick the school of your choice, get acquainted with your new school and team and start winning games.

For ISU guard Anne O’Neil, that path has taken many twists and turns.

O’Neil was the 2000 Miss Iowa Basketball after leading her Cedar Rapids Kennedy team to back-to-back appearances in the state tournament, including a championship in 1998. She graduated as the all-time five-player career scoring leader, racking up 2,494 points in her four-year career.

O’Neil chose to attend the University of Illinois before coming to Iowa State, where she started all but two games her freshman year for the Illini, earning Big Ten all-freshmen first team and all-Big Ten honorable mention.

“It was a personal decision for me to leave Illinois. As far as basketball was concerned, it wasn’t really meeting my expectations,” O’Neil said. “Iowa State was closer to home, so my family can come and watch the games.”

When O’Neil decided to transfer to Iowa State, head coach Bill Fennelly was elated.

“She made the decision that she wasn’t happy with Illinois,” he said. “We obviously had recruited her out of high school, and she came over and talked to us. She really wanted to come to Iowa State, which I was excited about, and I’m glad it worked out that way.”

O’Neil joined the Cyclones, but had to sit out a year due to NCAA regulations for transfer student-athletes. She was able to practice with the scout team, but was not allowed to see any official game time. When spring workouts began, O’Neil was able to play with the rest of the team.

During the last day of the workouts, O’Neil tore her ACL. Most athletes fear this injury, and it can change a player for the rest of their career, but O’Neil said it was almost for the best.

“The knee injury was kind of hard, but it gave me a chance to fit in with my teammates,” she said. “It actually worked out well for me.”

Fennelly said the injury was tough on O’Neil.

“That was a really disappointing thing for her, when you sit out the year, and then you come back and get in with your teammates and you’re getting ready to go,” he said. “Anne’s a kid who really enjoys the work, and working on her game, and she couldn’t do that all summer.”

O’Neil recovered in time to start the season, and it didn’t look like she had missed a step. After averaging 11 points per game at Illinois, O’Neil came off the bench and reached double figures in two of the first three games. Then Fennelly inserted her in the starting lineup, and O’Neil showed she belonged there, scoring 22 points in the Cyclones’ 109-46 win over High Point.

Teammate and former roommate Mary Fox says O’Neil has kept a positive outlook throughout everything she has experienced.

“She has the funniest personality. She knows how to bring humor to the court, she’s just so funny,” Fox said. “She really cares about her teammates.”

Fox says O’Neil is going to be an even bigger part of the team next season, when the two assume the leadership role that will be vacated by senior Lindsey Wilson.

“She is going to be phenomenal in the next two years because she is so versatile,” Fox said. “She can play guard, she can post up and she’s got great handles, juking people left and right.”

Fennelly has been expecting bigger things from O’Neil all season, as she plays catch-up to get into the form she would be if not for the injury.

“I still believe she’s three months behind. It set her back to have a redshirt year and six months of rehab,” Fennelly said. “She’s playing with new teammates, and we’ve asked Anne to play a lot of different positions which makes it hard as well. She literally is catching up on the job.”

Wilson has been impressed with the dedication O’Neil has shown.

“She’s kind of had some ups and downs, as the whole team has, but she made the commitment when she transferred, to be a part of a better team,” Wilson said. “She’s become much more of a leader. It’s been really difficult, sitting out and then having the knee injury. She’s always working hard and trying to do what’s best for the team. She’s not really one to complain.”

O’Neil said everything she has been through in her college career has made her a better and smarter player. She’s even worked on her impersonation skills.

“Being on the scout team, I was playing other people, like [Texas forward] Heather Schreiber, so I didn’t really get to work on Anne O’Neil,” she said. “Getting to study the players and other offenses did kind of help me out.”

O’Neil and the Cyclones take on Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday, and then return to Hilton next Wednesday to do battle with Colorado.