Replacing Angie Welle and Tracy Gahan, who combined for 35 points last season won’t be an easy task, but ISU women’s head basketball coach Bill Fennelly is optimistic.

“That’s what college basketball is all about,” Fennelly said.

“Kids graduate through the program all the time. It’s other people’s opportunity now. If they didn’t have that opportunity in the past, they certainly have that opportunity now.”

Gone are Welle and Gahan, but the Cyclones do have point guard and All-Big 12 performer Lindsey Wilson returning.

The 5-foot-9 senior from Seattle, Wash. averaged 19.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists for the Cyclones last season.

“Our guard play is going to be very good,” Fennelly said. “Lindsey Wilson, I wouldn’t trade her for any point guard in the country. She’s tough, and she knows how to win.”

“Guard-wise, if we were playing in a 6-foot and under league, we might not lose a game.”

Fennelly likes the look the Cyclones will give other teams, but also worries about the obstacles it will create for them.

“I think people are going to have a hard time guarding us,” Fennelly said.

“But on the other hand, how are we going to guard them? You may see us play Lindsey, Megan McCracken, Erica Junod and Anne O’Neil all at the same time. We could have four point guards on the floor at the same time. That’s a real possibility.”

The biggest void Iowa State will have to fill is at the post position.

Sophomore Lisa Kreiner returns much stronger and more confident from the player who averaged 1.9 points and 2.7 rebounds per game last season.

Redshirt freshman Brittany Wilkins is expected to provide help in the paint as well for the Cyclones.

“Strictly from a basketball standpoint, we go from all-conference center to someone who’s going to play center who hasn’t played,” Fennelly said.

“[Wilkins] hasn’t played a minute of college basketball and one of them, Lisa Kreiner, is playing a new position.”

Despite the lack of experience, Fennelly said he likes the changes he’s seen in Kreiner.

“You guys won’t recognize her. You won’t recognize her as a player. You won’t recognize her as a person,” he said. “I don’t know what she did over the summer, but I wish all our players would do it. She’s confident. Her talent level, her game is better. She’s only 6-1, but at the same time, I think she can play bigger than that.”

Although Fennelly seems slightly worried about winning without taller and more experienced players like Welle and Gahan, he said it can be done and the Cyclones have been given a model to follow.

“We’ve got great girls who are here to win at any level,” he said. “If you look at Oklahoma’s team from last year, they didn’t really have a true center and they played in the National Championship game.”

Despite the problems the Cyclones may have matching up against teams in the Big 12 Conference, they’ll also be able to do some things they haven’t been able to utilize in the past.

“We don’t have anybody like last year that we can just post up,” Fennelly said.

“I think if you come watch us practice, all of our players here are doing it. Every single player is learning how to post up. Every single player is learning how to shoot threes and dribble the ball.

We’ve got to be more aggressive off the dribble and get to the free-throw line.”

Wilson is excited for the opportunity.

“Sometimes it might be the best matchup for me to post up,” she said.

“There are a lot of guards who are smaller than me. I’ll post up once in a while in motion. It will be fun. It will be awesome to kind of push people around down there.”

Wilson also plans to take advantage of the fact that the Cyclones will be considered the underdog in many of the games they play.

“It’s a bit of a change,” she said. “I love being ranked high, but at the same time, it’s kind of fun to be the underdog. With as many new and young people that we have it might be better to play with less pressure.”

Wilson said recognizing the team’s strengths and weaknesses will go a long way to measuring the type of success Iowa State has.

“I think we’ll just have to make an adjustment according to what teams are playing against us,” she said. “Maybe pick up our defense as well.”

And for a run-and-gun type player like Wilson, faster is what she wants.

“I’m excited to be so much more up-tempo,” she said. “We’ll just get the rebounds and then go. It’s definitely going to be different.”

Fennelly said defensively the Cyclones need to be more aggressive to create some easy scoring opportunities.

“Last year, we created turnovers about once every half,” he joked. “Maybe we can do that more.”