How a year can change things. After earning Big 12 Conference all-bench honors a year ago, Iowa State’s lone senior, Tyray Pearson, is storming through his final season as the Cyclone’s leading scorer and rebounder.

Coming into this season, leadership responsibilities for the young ISU team were automatically put onto the shoulders of sophomores Jake Sullivan and Shane Power – due to their success last season.

But with his age and his talent, Pearson has quietly become the heart of the Cyclones, leading more by example than anything else.

“I think [the young guys] look up to all the returning guys,” Pearson said. “We know what to expect through the course of the year.”

It’s not like Pearson wasn’t a factor last season. He averaged 8.4 points in just under 15 minutes a game while making 64.5 percent of his shots.

Not many knew it at the time, but he was laying some groundwork for the future.

And that future has found the 6-foot-7-inch forward (add on a few more inches when the afro is flowing) the go-to-guy on the low post. He is tied with Kansas big-man Drew Gooden as the leading scorer in Big 12 games this season with 21.

“He’s really good,” ISU coach Larry Eustachy said. “Marcus Fizer was not better at catching on the low post and scoring; he’s really good that way.”

Pearson, who hails from Hammond, Ind., began his collegiate career at Kankakee Community College in Illinois where he averaged 22.8 points and 8.2 rebounds in 38 games. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer and field goal percentage leader, and he accomplished all this after playing only one year of organized basketball at Hammond High School.

The fact that his community college numbers nearly mirror his numbers in the Big 12 this season is a sign of his vast improvement.

“I like to think we coach him hard, and I’ve got great assistant coaches that give him unbelievable instruction; and he’s bought into it,” Eustachy said. “He’s a product of his environment.”

With Pearson weighing in at around 225 pounds, and with many of his opponents being taller than him, he astonishes crowds, teammates and defenses by scoring nearly every time he gets the ball on the low post.

“I feel real confident when I’m on the post,” Pearson said. “My team has done a real good job getting me the ball and coach is calling plays for me. Coach has a lot of confidence in me. I’m getting more minutes; I’m trying to make the most of those.”

Not only did Pearson quickly earn the respect of fans and other teams, his teammates have a lot of confidence in him and look to him to make big plays quite frequently.

“Offensively, Tyray is unbelievable,” Power said. “He definitely has my vote for the best low post scorer in the country. Unfortunately, other teams know that now.”

Other teams do know that now.

In his first game since earning Big 12 player of the week two weeks ago, Pearson proved he was human as he scored just 10 points on four of 17 shooting against Colorado Jan. 16, the worst shooting game of his career.

But that is all part of the bumpy ride that is the current season. After being a part of last year’s Big 12 Conference championship team, Pearson finds this year’s team sitting at 9-10, 1-4 in the conference.

“It’s a lot tougher,” Pearson said about this season. “We have a lot of young guys. We still have time left; we can get better as a team. We knew we were going to have ups and downs.”

With a goal to play out the rest of the season on an upswing, Pearson knows what he and others have to do.

“If the returning players don’t keep a positive attitude, it will be hard for the young guys to stay positive,” he said.

Eustachy will be sad to see Pearson go, noting there are not enough games and practices left for him.

But much like he is doing for this season, Pearson is staying positive about what awaits him in the future. If he keeps improving and learning basketball the way he has the last few years, his future looks very bright.

“I hope to play professionally somewhere; that’s my goal,” Pearson said. “But right now, I’m focusing on this team and this season.”

The Cyclones take on No. 2 Kansas tonight in Hilton Coliseum at 8. Iowa State brings in a five game winning streak against the Jayhawks.

Pearson will go head-to-head against Gooden, one of his toughest defensive challenges to date.

“I’m just trying to play my best defense I can play and help my team win,” Pearson said.