ISU men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy would love to have things go the same for his team this year as they did last year.

Much like this year’s team, last year’s was picked to finish anywhere in the middle to the bottom of the Big 12.

But the underdogs of 2000-2001 had a first-round draft pick and four starting seniors that led them to their second consecutive regular-season Big 12 championship.

This year’s team is a bit different.

With the odds favoring a starting line-up of four sophomores and a senior, and no future first rounders at this point, Eustachy is dealing with a bigger underdog than he is accustomed to.

The Cyclones are picked in the middle of the Big 12 at No. 6 in the coaches’ poll. Eustachy isn’t fazed by that at all.

“I think all that’s kind of corny,” Eustachy said. “I think it’s about coming to practice every day and putting in a good workout and get in a game that gives you a chance to win.”

But with Eustachy’s experience coaching the underdog, sophomore forward Shane Power is confident in his coach’s ability.

“I think coach does a great job of preparing you when you you’re an underdog,” Power says.

Power said the team uses the underdog status as motivation to earn respect, but Eustachy isn’t into all that because he already has his respect.

“I’m not a motivator; I don’t put signs on the wall, `You know this one’s for your grandmother,'” Eustachy said.

“Here’s the game, here’s how we have to beat them, if it doesn’t work out, lets move on to the next one.”

Along with that strategy, Eustachy says they have been focused on building toughness, particularly mental toughness.

Scheduling 4 a.m. practices, setting deadlines for his men to get stronger and even losing 20 pounds himself are just some of Eustachy’s ways of building that mental toughness.

Despite having so many new faces on the court, Eustachy and company definitely aren’t looking at this season as a rebuilding or transition year.

“We don’t put all this work in and coach doesn’t coach as hard as he does for us to come out and have a transition year,” Power said.

And though Eustachy admits his team is young, the team goals haven’t changed from the past.

“We plan on winning every game. We set our sights on the ultimate goals every year,” Eustachy said.

“You can call it rebuilding, you can call it whatever you want, but we are very young and very inexperienced.”

The last thoughts ISU fans have of men’s basketball is losing to Baylor and Hampton back-to-back to end the season last year, but that has been forgotten in Eustachy’s eyes.

“We understand what happened as a team, and we really just ran out of gas,” Eustachy said about last season. “It just shows you how much that team overachieved last year. But that’s over. Some of the guys on this team couldn’t tell you we lost to Hampton.”

So looking ahead to this season is Eustachy’s main focus, and he’s already pumped.

“In the long-term, big picture, I’ve never, ever been more excited about a program I’ve been involved with,” he said. “This isn’t the type of team that can play bad and win. But we know that going in. Our players have confidence in themselves. That’s why they’re at this level.”

Eustachy said the Big 12 is going to be stronger this year with some of the young guys, on teams such as Kansas, becoming more mature. He attributes some of the Cyclones’ past success to good timing around the league.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Eustachy said. “And I think our non-conference schedule is as difficult as we’ve had since I’ve been here.”

With lots of hard work still on the horizon for this young team, Eustachy feels the measuring stick won’t be wins and losses, at least early on.

“I think in the short term, it’s going to be a lot of work and we’ll go backwards before we go forward,” Eustachy said. “I know our team will always come out and try. We’ll be a much better team at the end of the year than we are right now.”

As far as the players go, Power confesses the team is going to come out trying to get respect.

Everyone will have their opinion of the new-look Cyclone basketball team, but nothing really matters until the games are played. With the team right where Eustachy expected them to be, he can really only say one thing.

“I’m never gonna say never.”

Oh, and about that 36-game winning streak at Hilton Coliseum?

“It has to end sometime,” Eustachy said.