I’d argue the program bottomed out a little before Theresa Becker.
It was really bad but Becker truly bottomed it out.
Her predecessor Pam Wettig only once in 8 years had her team in the #8 (last) seed in the conference tournament and that one time was not her last year (6th). In fact, she didn't finish worse than 6th any of her last 3 years at ISU so she left room for ISU to be worse. Becker said "hold my beer" and locked down the 8 seed all three years.
She was an assistant at Nebraska before she came to head the Iowa State program. She quit at ISU three years later to go...be an assistant at Nebraska.
Becker still holds the all time low winning percentage at ISU of .222. Her predecessor, Wettig was .452 at ISU.
She did get Jayme Olson to Ames though.