Anyone who has followed Iowa State women’s basketball over the past four years has gotten used to Seanna Johnson and Jadda Buckley running the show. That won’t be the case in 2017-18.

Johnson and Buckley combined to start 217 games for Iowa State over the last four years. The duo combined for five All-Conference honors, including a first-team All-Big 12 appearance by Johnson after the 2015-16 season.

Without those two, Iowa State has a lot of production to replace. Luckily for the Cyclones, head coach Bill Fennelly has seen some legends come and go without letting the program miss a beat.

The next torch-bearer is obvious. Returning junior Bridget Carleton was a unanimous selection for the All-Big 12 first-team in 2016-17 and it will be her job to lead Iowa State next year.

“I think Bridget’s role will change in the sense of, she’s the best player on our team, and everyone knows that,” Fennelly said. “She’s gotta be more vocal now and assume the leadership responsibility.”

But one player can’t carry a team. Junior forward Meredith Burkhall and senior guard Emily Durr saw increased roles at the end of last season when Iowa State won its final five regular season games. Their roles will increase again in 2017-18, as they are the only Cyclones aside from Carleton who have started a game at the Division I level.

“It’s gonna be really big,” Fennelly said. “Those two need to have good years. They need to play at a very high level.”

Burkhall, who started 28 games last year as a sophomore, averaged 8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. She was thrown into the fire early in her career and has steadily improved over the last two seasons.

“The good news is [Burkhall] has played a lot,” Fennelly said. “The bad news is she had to play a lot. But I think she’s stronger, she’s had a great mindset in the spring and the summer with her strength and conditioning.”

The team will also be counting on Carleton, Durr and Burkhall to step into leadership roles.

“Emily Durr for sure [has to be a leader],” Fennelly said. “[Burkhall]’s a talker. If you came to practice you would hear my voice and you would hear hers.”

Even with three solid returning players, there are open spots in the starting lineup and open roles off the bench. The Cyclones have brought in some impressive high school talents, led by Indiana product Madison Wise. All of the newcomers will be given the chance to earn minutes next year.

“They’re all gonna have a great opportunity to play, now it’s up to them to earn it,” Fennelly said. “The adjustment to college is so dramatic. There’s not many people like Bridget or Seanna.

“We’ll be in a position where people can fight for minutes probably more than we have in a long time. When you look at our roster, we have a lot of kids that have the ability to play or think they can play, and have shown signs of it, but now it’s just a matter of doing it on a more consistent basis.”

For example, who will replace Jadda Buckley at point guard? Buckley started all 61 games at point guard for Iowa State over the last two seasons and played over 34 minutes per game both years. She was among the Big 12 leaders in assists in both her sophomore and junior seasons.

“[Point guard] will be the question that we have to answer on July 19th and we’ll probably be answering it on March 19th,” Fennelly said. “We don’t have a prototypical, look-in-the-dictionary point guard. We don’t have that person.

“I could see us starting Nia [Washington], I could see Emily Durr starting [at point guard], I could see Madison Wise starting, I could see us not even starting one.”

Durr working on injury recovery

Following the end of Iowa State’s season last March, Emily Durr underwent Tommy John surgery to fix a ligament tear in her elbow.

While she isn’t quite 100 percent healthy yet, Durr should be good to go when the season rolls around, Fennelly said.

“She’s behind a little bit but not bad,” Fennelly said. “She hasn’t been completely released by the doctor but when we start school she’ll be full-go, I’m sure.”