Iowa State has a men's basketball coach ... will it have a team?

It's no surprise  Craig Brackins will turn pro, and it's unfortunate Marquis Gilstrap has been denied a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

But now comes the news from Iowa State that men's basketball players Justin Hamilton and Dominique Buckley are transferring. Unreal.

Hamilton, who started 32 games for the Cyclones this season, wants to be closer to his Utah home.  He's a junior-to-be center who seemed to be growing into his role with the team. He averaged 6.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Sophomore Buckley didn't get many minutes even when Coach Greg McDermott was down to eight scholarship players available following Lucca Staiger's sudden departure and injuries to Charles Boozer and Jamie Vanderbeken.

So ... while McDermott was given his reprieve from Athletic Director Jamie Pollard recently, he now has to reassemble a roster. Again.

Whatever happened to recruiting players who you could keep for four years (I'll cut McDermott slack for Brackins leaving a year early)? This is a yearly occurrence at ISU. It's like Iowa and Iowa State have weekly (daily?) battles to out-messy each other in men's hoops.

Staiger and Hamilton were starters. You can't tell me Staiger still couldn't have played pro ball in Germany had he stuck out another two months in Ames. When a starter of a Big 12 team is willing to sit out a year and play somewhere else ... I don't care how you spin it. It's not good.

This season's Cyclones were no great shakes, but they at least competed most of the time. They played Texas hard and close Wednesday night in Kansas City four days after winning at Kansas State.

Next season's Cyclones? Boozer and Vanderbeken better get well soon. And oh yeah, it would help if there were no more transfers. And some wonderful new talent coming in.

I remember when every conference home game in Hilton and Carver-Hawkeye were lively events. Now, they've become wakes.