What are the characteristics of a successful basketball program?

Try these on for size:

Conference regular season and tournament champi onships (see 1999-2000, 2000-2001 seasons)

Top-notch competition arena (see Hilton Coliseum)

Top-notch practice facilities

Highly regarded All-American/Pro-caliber players (see Fizer, Tinsley, Frese, Welle, Taylor)

Highly regarded coaches (do I really need to name names?)

So we’ve established that ISU basketball has the trappings of all the “big-time” basketball programs. But I still think there is one area where the Cyclones would do well to take yet another step in the right direction.

I’m talking about the establishment of an organized student cheering section.

Yeah, I know there are a few student seats in the parquet section, but I’m thinking more along the lines of the Cameron Crazies at Duke, The Izzone at Michigan State and, even closer to home, the Hawk’s Nest at Iowa.

Actually, this idea is about a little more than besting the U of I in yet another area (although frankly, that is an end in itself).

A well-organized student cheering section gives a visiting team yet another foe to think about. It’s kind of like having a sixth man – on the floor, not off the bench – since the noise is going on the whole time.

The student section yells at the other team, heckles, and waves big noodles, anything and everything to get the visitors off their game. And the things some student sections will say about opposing players (and their mothers) are pretty much unprintable. On the positive side, they are also the ones that go completely nuts when the home team has a good sequence of plays.

Truth be told, there have been some unfortunate incidents with student sections.

One that comes to mind was the incident during a Duke-Maryland game after which Duke players were pelted with newspapers, some of which contained batteries and ice.

Duke player Carlos Boozer’s mother was hit in the head with a water bottle. It was a pretty nasty incident all around. So to say that I can understand the skepticism of opponents of this idea would be an understatement.

However, the fact that there is a possibility of immature behavior does not make it OK to dismiss the idea outright.

I still think that the effort that goes into including students in cheering at the ball games leaves quite a bit to be desired. I mean, seriously, there are five sections out of 42 reserved for student seating in the lower levels. All the rest of the student seating is up in the balcony, better known as the “nose bleed” seats.

Now, unless we’re planning to do our heckling via satellite, I’m guessing the students would like to be a little closer to the floor. For Pete’s sake (and/or the love of Mike), the average age in the lower sections has got to be in the 55-60 range.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe alumni are an integral part of any athletic program. But the trend of involving alumni at the expense of students is just not very intelligent. We can certainly provide seating for donors without banishing all the students into the deepest reaches of outer space.

In keeping with my philosophy of trying to suggest a solution in any situation I’m critical of, let me drop a few morsels of my legendary wisdom.

Maybe we could get some cardinal and gold T-shirts and big foam “#1” fingers to handout to an organized group of students in the section behind the opposing team’s bench.

We might have some crazy placards and signs, maybe a number of people in face and body paint.

And we could choose a wacky and/or corny nickname like the “Eye of the Storm” or something along those lines. Heck, I bet it’d make a hell of a contest to “Name the Student Section.”

The bottom line would be that a lot of people would have a lot of fun. Call me crazy, but isn’t that what college basketball is all about?

Emeka Anyanwu is a senior in electrical engineering from Ames.