Last season was delicious for the Golden Flashes of Kent State. They won 24 games. They won the Mid-American conference tournament. The icing on the cake? A 77-73 win over Indiana in round one of the NCAA tourney.

Here they come again. At 25-5, Kent State is looking sweet as an Upset Special for smart bracketologists next week. Not bad for a team that started 4-4, after struggling with the loss of its leader.

Coach Gary Waters didn’t graduate, so to speak. But he did move on. He’s in the Big East now, trying to rebuild Rutgers (and doing a fine job -- the 18-12 Scarlet Knights will likely be in the NIT).

But what about the kids he left behind? Senior Trevor Huffman, for example -- Waters was the only D1 coach in America to offer him a basketball scholarship (he's now the school's all-time leading scorer). And senior Andrew Mitchell -- Waters stuck with him during the recruiting process even though he failed to get an initial qualifying score on the ACT.

A successful squad returning three senior starters was suddenly adjusting to an entirely new system. Their new coach, Stan Heath, came from a big-time program, Michigan State -- where he had his share of success in five years as an assistant.

The transition wasn’t easy. They lost early games to Kentucky, Xavier, Hofstra and -- worst of all -- Youngstown State.

"The challenge was just getting to know one another," Heath says. "They were used to seeing Coach Waters on the sideline, and he was a father figure and a mentor to a lot of them. They had to get used to me, and a somewhat different approach."

Heath brought with him a more structured offense, a tighter defense -- and an appreciation for MAC basketball. He played at Eastern Michigan, and was previously an assistant at Bowling Green. He has high praise for the conference’s caliber of play.

"We had bigger guys, more physical guys, and a deeper bench [at Michigan State]," Heath says. "But I would say at Kent State, we certainly have a higher skill level and maybe almost as good a basketball IQ."

Once accustomed to the new system, the Golden Flashes have been on a tear. They sport the nation’s third-longest winning streak (16), and have won 21 of their last 22 games (their only loss came in the final second -- literally -- to Buffalo). They have two first-team All-MAC players (Huffman and Mitchell), the MAC defensive player of the year (Demetric Shaw) and the MAC coach of the year (Heath).

Now, their sights are set on a third trip to the Dance in four years. Beyond that, they’re hoping to build on last year’s accomplishment and make it to the Sweet Sixteen. The Golden Flashes beat Marshall in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament on Thursday -- and while many consider them a safe bet for an at-large bid, they’d rather not leave it in the committee’s hands. "We want to win," Huffman says. "We want to go out on top, with one more feather in our caps."

If they do, it will be in large part because of their incredible balance. While many small-conference Cinderellas rely on one outstanding player (think Wally Szczerbiak at Miami of Ohio), this team has three leading scorers with almost identical averages: Huffman (15.8), junior forward Antonio Gates (15.6) and Mitchell (15.4). "We’re not totally dependent on one guy making a big shot or a big play," Heath says. "That’s helped us."

But as successful as this season has been under Heath, Gary Waters and his staff remain close to the seniors’ hearts. Three years of blood, sweat and tears do not fade so easily.

And their relationships have changed, but not ended. The older guys speak with their former coaches regularly. "I talk to them about once a week," Mitchell says. "Actually I just talked to a couple of them. They were getting on me about my turnovers."

"They are following us," Huffman added. "It feels good to know they care about us ... That’s what basketball is all about. We’ve developed a family here."

And blood runs deep. They didn’t lose their leader after all.

Kieran Darcy is an assistant editor at ESPNMag.com. E-mail him at kieran.d.darcy@espnmag.com.