Iowa State rebuilds around three returnees for Fennelly’s final season

Iowa State is preparing a different kind of offense for Bill Fennelly's final season: more speed, more three-pointers and a roster with 10 newcomers.

The roster reset leaves senior guards Arianna Jackson and Evangelia Paulk and sophomore Freya Jensen as the only players returning from the 2025-26 team. Comparing the school's two rosters shows how much has changed around them. The current group has 13 players, including freshman guard Macy Comito, freshman forward Tjaša Turnšek and 6-foot-7 senior center Xiao Zhang.

Fennelly outlined the intended change at the team's Oct. 14 media day. According to Des Moines Register reporting, he wants Iowa State playing faster and putting up more threes after recent seasons built heavily around center Audi Crooks. Those are plans for the coming season; the Cyclones have yet to play their public exhibition.

The defensive work has a new lead, too. Associate head coach Caroline McCombs joined the staff after longtime assistant Jodi Steyer retired. The Register reported that McCombs has been tasked with improving that end of the floor. Fennelly expressed encouragement about the early work, though the first games will provide a different test from practice.

The rebuilding job gives the farewell season a practical focus. Iowa State announced on Oct. 12 that Fennelly will retire after 2026-27, his 32nd season at the school. He enters it with 656 Cyclones wins and 822 victories as a head coach. At media day, he asked that the attention stay on his players.

One familiar player will return to Hilton Coliseum in the other uniform. Crooks is now a senior at Oklahoma State, and Iowa State's schedule brings the Cowgirls to Ames on Jan. 9. Asked about that reunion at Tuesday's Big 12 media day, Fennelly told Sports Illustrated's Oklahoma State coverage that he did not know what reception she would receive. He credited her three seasons at Iowa State while acknowledging the difficulty of facing her.

First comes a chance to see how the new Cyclones fit together. Upper Iowa visits Hilton for an exhibition on Oct. 28, followed by the regular-season opener against Grambling State on Nov. 2. A Bahamas trip brings Belmont on Nov. 27 and USC on Nov. 29; the rivalry game at Iowa follows on Dec. 9. Big 12 play begins at Kansas State on Dec. 19.