Opening late last week, Cyclone basketball players and coaches are acclimating to their setup as the new Iowa State Basketball Practice Facility in West Ames is still filled with that new court smell.

The $8 million facility brings the men’s and women’s team under one roof for practice, weight training and relaxation while the coaching staff can enjoy the office amenities upstairs.

“I would venture to say it exceeded our expectations,” said men’s head coach Greg McDermott. “You don’t know when you see the shell of a building what the finished product is going to be. Obviously we’ve seen it on paper for quite some time now, but to have it finished in the classy way that it is, we couldn’t have asked for more.”

The main entrance separates the women’s side on the left and the men’s to the right, but from there, the nearly identical halves fill their space with touches that both women’s coach Bill Fennelly and McDermott feel will immediately improve their programs.

“Especially for our guys that have been here for a couple years, having to bounce from State Gym to Forker for workouts, to Lied Rec for weight training and to another part of campus for treatment, now they can do that all under one roof,” McDermott said. “Just their day-to-day life has gotten so much better, because everything is here for them.”

The lower level boasts Wetter Court for the men’s team and Hunziker Court for the women’s team, and each side has an adjoining lounge with a kitchenette, recreation and study space and five wide leather chairs with cup holders and lighting control that are seated in front of a 65-inch flat screen television, complete with Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and DirecTV connections.

The facility holds 33 televisions and projectors total, with the largest coming in the team film/theater room. A 120-inch screen takes the picture from a projector, overhanging 21 leather seats engraved with the Iowa State logo that swivel and pivot.

The locker rooms are custom designed, with 17 players’ lockers occupying the space, with adjoined showers and bathrooms.

The new weight and training room sits down the hall. With free weights, machines and medicine balls, the Cyclones will only have to walk 10 feet past the sports drink fridge to get from lifting to recuperation, where four tape tables and five flat injury tables wait. The training room has an office, as well as a hot tub and cold tub that each sit six people.

The complex security system allows players and coaches to come and go in their designated gyms, rooms and offices 24 hours a day.

With television monitors scattered around the building, the facility internally resembles a medieval fortress, complete with coaches’ ability to walk out to the top floor balcony and watch and film practice from 15 feet above.

A sound system also resonates through the facility’s halves, with players able to plug in iPods and hear their music played throughout the gym’s speakers.

“I have a nice TV, a PS3 and a Wii, so people come to my house, but I don’t have anymore friends because they come [to the practice facility] and don’t come to my house anymore. It’s a little lonely now,” star power forward Craig Brackins said.

The XOS software technology, a program designed to store and analyze game film, is boasted around the facility as well.

Throughout the media tour, Director of Basketball Operations Ron Smith took time to point out a room for film cataloging, as well as a room overlooking both courts that has four monitors and the capability to record eight games at one time.

Simpler additions within the facility include wood-carved entry signs to the coaching offices, new basketball shooting return machines and well-decorated offices, a process finished off with couches and televisions by the university design staff.

“My first impression was just, ‘Wow,’” Brackins said. “It’s amazing, the last time I saw it, they had the beams and they were about to put the drywall up, so I had no idea it would look anything like this.”

Smith mentioned during the tour how the program visited practice facilities when taking road trips in recent years to get a grasp for how it wanted to design the building, and coaches and players believe it turned out better than expected.

“It puts us on an even playing field. There aren’t many people in our league that don’t have [practice facilities],” McDermott said. “The one that we had, we couldn’t really show anybody before, so it gives us another thing to sell, with all the great things academically at Iowa State and the tradition of our program. And now we have a training facility that matches up with some of the people that we’re recruiting.”

The recruiting impact of the facility will be seen in the future, but fans won’t have to wait long to see if the exclusive structure three miles off campus can bring more wins for men’s basketball and continue the strong winning tradition of the women’s team.