It’s finally come to this.

Yep, we’ve come to the end of the regular season, which on Wednesday meant the last home game for the six seniors on this year’s squad, including all five starters. So, in this week’s column, I’ll take an extremely short look at their careers here at Iowa State.

I’ll first start with the non-starter of our select group, and that is the man Ha-keem Abdel-Khaliq. Ha-keem has been the quiet reserve during his time here, seeing little playing time during this tenure. However, he has been the head cheerleader and spiritual leader for the guys as they’ve streaked toward greatness and the Big 12 title. We’re going to miss the man who was like the rest of us, giving his all despite little playing time.

Next, I’ll bring you the starters, and I’ll begin with Kenny Pratt. Pratt may have had some off-court troubles this season, including being academically ineligible the first semester of this season and being arrested earlier this season. However, this never started his work effort and his aggressiveness on the court, as he fought hard and played well against players who were often bigger than he. He is in fact the working man’s player.

This brings us to our other forward, Shawn Bankhead. As far as defensive players go, Bankhead is it, being our number one defender. When given the best player on the other team, he usually held him to next to nothing.

On offense he was steady, averaging 9.5 points per game this season as well as getting the rebounds when we needed them.

Then we have the man in the middle, otherwise known as Kelvin “Swat” Cato. Cato has simply been impenetrable this season. Lurking in the paint by the basket, any foe that dared come near him was forced to face the inevitable possibility of being “swatted” away by Mr. Cato. And, of course, the dunks that always brought the crowd to its feet and got the pep band playing. In other words, he is one of the most exciting players to ever grace the floor of Hilton Coliseum.

Then we have the leader of the pack on the floor, point guard Jacy Holloway.

Holloway, having played four years here, starting three of them, took some criticism during some of his career here for not shooting enough, despite the fact he was leading the team and dishing the ball to the great shooters.

However, this season he caught on fire and simply lit it up, including 12 points Wednesday night against Colorado.

Finally, we have Dedric Willoughby. If there is any face that would be recognized around here, it would be him.

Willoughby has been almost unstoppable the entire season, averaging 18.2 points per game, including 36 points against Kansas on February 9.

Hopefully, after we win the NCAA tournament (you heard it here first, folks), this leads to a long career in the NBA.

With that, I, along with the rest of us at Iowa State, bid these fine seniors farewell. Now it’s time to end the season right by kicking the holy crud out of anybody who stands in our way of a title.

Rob Daniel is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Zion, Illinois.