When ESPN analyst and former Purdue head coach Nell Fortner said Bill Fennelly “must be the happiest coach in the country” after his team was selected as a three-seed in the Midwest, everyone turned to look at the ISU head coach.

Fennelly, too, turned to look for this supposed excited coach after learning that SEC powerhouses Vanderbilt and Tennessee were also in the Midwest.

“I don’t know what Nell Fortner’s smoking,” he said, laughing.

An excited bunch of Cyclones gathered in the basketball offices of Hilton Coliseum Sunday to find out if they would host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, and they got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that for the fifth year in a row Iowa State (23-8) will host the NCAA Midwest Region Subregional.

The bad news is that if they advance, second seed Tennessee and top seed Vanderbilt will be waiting.

“Obviously with the exception of UConn – I don’t think anybody wanted UConn in their region – with the exception of that I don’t think anybody can argue the fact that the Midwest regional is gonna be the toughest,” Fennelly said.

First up for Iowa State will be Atlantic 10 champion Temple. The Owls are the 14th seed in the Midwest. Two other teams, BYU (11) and Florida (6), will also travel to Ames.

If Iowa State survives the first two rounds, then it will play at home again, as Hilton Coliseum is hosting the Midwest Regional games. The Cyclones’ reward will likely be a game with Tennessee.

“It’s a very tough bracket,” said Angie Welle, the Cyclones’ leading scorer and rebounder with 20.3 points and 11.0 boards per game. “We’re at home. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage.”

Iowa State isn’t the only Big 12 Conference team to be at home. All seven of the league teams that made it into the NCAA Tournament are hosting the first two rounds as a result of being a top 16 team.

Oklahoma, Baylor, Colorado, Kansas State, Texas and Texas Tech all join the Cyclones as first-round hosts.

“We were expecting that,” said ISU guard Lindsey Wilson. “We’ve known for a long time that the Big 12 is such a tough conference. I think the rest of the country is starting to realize that.”

“To see seven of the Big 12 teams that are hosting, that says enough right there, how tough it’s been,” Melanie Bremer said.

But none of the other conference teams, barring Kansas State, drew as tough a bracket as the Cyclones. If Kansas State wants to go to the Final Four in San Antonio it will likely have to go through 33-0 Connecticut.

Fennelly thinks that because his team is hosting the Midwest Regional, they got a tougher bracket.

“I don’t think that was an accident,” Fennelly said. “Because the regional is here, if the possibility came about that Iowa State ended up in the regional, they were gonna make sure that if anything happened they were gonna have a reason for it. I’m not surprised at all.”

Fennelly isn’t too excited about a possible matchup with the Lady Volunteers. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt was on ESPN’s Selection Sunday show and wasn’t too pleased about getting a two seed.

“I thought we deserved a No. 1 seed. Obviously the committee didn’t,” Summitt said. “But that’s their job and our job is to go to work and see what we can do.”

Fennelly had his own take.

“God she looked mad,” he said of Summitt.

But first Iowa State must get past Temple. So what do the Cyclones know about the Owls?

“Nothing,” said Tracy Gahan. “Dawn Staley is the coach; that’s about all we know right now.”

They have until 8 p.m. on Saturday to learn.