The last time ISU fans saw Jake Sullivan he was helped off the floor during a loss against Missouri in the first round of the Big 12 tournament last March.

The result of the injury that night was what Sullivan described as a bad concussion and a torn tear duct in his left eye. He had surgery over the summer and everything is 100 percent.

“No goggles for me,” Sullivan joked.

Surgery isn’t the only thing that changed Sullivan over the summer. He also lost roughly 20 pounds in an attempt to gain more quickness and agility.

“I think anyone that watched can see why I needed to get a lot quicker,” Sullivan said. “I want to be a better all-around basketball player, I think that’s the biggest thing. I can shoot and do all that kind of stuff, but I want to win basketball games; I want to get this program back to the top.”

A new diet and lots of running is what Sullivan said was the key to his weight loss. Pretzels instead of chips, fat free yogurt instead of ice cream.

“I could sit down and just eat chips forever,” Sullivan said. “I had to give up all that kind of stuff.”

Head coach Larry Eustachy is happy with Sullivan’s weight loss as well, and said Sullivan is vastly improved over the “Jake” of the past few years.

“Jake is better than ‘Jake,’ ” Eustachy said. “He’s a better offensive weapon. When he got here he was a catch and shoot guy. He’s worked hard to take it at guys and legally get separation between them and shoot a fall-away, kind of like Jordan’s move.”

The summer of 2002 found Sullivan on the Big 12 Conference All-star team where he led them to a 6-0 record on its Scandinavian Tour, averaging a team-high 12.7 points.

“It was the best experience,” Sullivan said.

“I had a lot of success over there because of the guys I played with, and I kind of learned the more guys you have around you the more success you’re going to have.”

Sullivan will be using his summer knowledge to help support his biggest focus of the coming season, which is winning ball games and not putting any emphasis on personal achievements.

“I’m concerned about winning games,” Sullivan said. “If I score two points, if I score 20, I don’t really care this year, I want to win basketball games.”

Another aspect of Sullivan’s game that has improved is his maturity level. As a junior, and the most successful player on the roster, he is naturally in a leadership position on the team.

“He’s handling [leadership] much better, he’s playing with a lot more confidence,” Eustachy said. “He’s just a better athlete. He dunks the ball now, he needs a boost, so I don’t think we’ll see one in a game.”

Eustachy also likes how Sullivan has developed what Eustachy calls a tremendous urgency to become the best player that he can be.

“Hopefully he’ll stay healthy. He’s certainly one of our leaders,” Eustachy said.

Sullivan averaged 16 points a game last season and led the Big 12 in three-point percentage and ranked third nationally. He also ranked fifth in the country in free-throw percentage making 90 percent of his attempts.

After being a member of a Big 12 title team in 2001 and a team with a sub-par season last year, Sullivan is beginning to feel like the wise old man.

“I feel about a hundred times older. I feel like I’ve been here 20 years,” he said.

“Everything is a little bit easier this year. Last year was the hardest year I’ve had, there is no question. I learned a lot from it and got a lot more mature, and hopefully that is going to help this team win this year.”