I love the Cyclones. Always have, always will. Perhaps my lofty perch as a sportswriter should preculde me from such declarations, but what the hell?

And as we’ve all heard ad nauseum, there’s no better time to be a Cyclone fan.

Right now it’s very easy to show your ISU pride, what with both the men’s and women’s basketball teams being the best in school history.

What are the odds of such a thing occurring? The men winning their first conference title since 1945. The women winning their first title ever.

The men winning their second ever conference tournament, the women winning their first in dominating fashion.

And I’ve been there for every game of this improbable run to glory which has seen both teams advance to the Sweet Sixteen but could mean so much more as this week progresses.

The thing that will stick with me the most from the greatest two weeks in the history of Cyclone athletics is not Marcus Fizer, or Stacy Frese, or even Justin Fries for that matter.

It’s the fans. Cyclone pride, I like to call it. And right now, Cyclone pride is at an all-time high.

I looked up at amazement first in Kansas City, then in Ames, then Minneapolis at the lengths to which ISU fans will go to support their teams.

Sure, three hours isn’t very far to drive — unless you’re doing it twice in three days, which is what thousands of fans did to catch both the men’s and women’s action this weekend.

Perhaps Bill Fennelly was right when he mused that I-35 will need to be repaved after this most decidedly sweet weekend.

It was also an emotional weekend. And the emotions really did run the gamut, from shock when Central Freakin’ Connecticut State made an improbable run to tie the Cyclones with only six minutes left Thursday, to relief and joy after a 14-2 run closed out Auburn Saturday to keep Iowa State alive and kicking.

There was also sadness. Over my four years here at Iowa State, I have very rarely missed a men’s home game, and the last two and a half, I’ve made it a point to venture to about every women’s game as well (OK, OK, I’m a bandwagon jumper. At least I admit it.)

And when I walked out of Hilton Coliseum for the last time as a student on Sunday night, I reflected on some of the best things I’d seen there.

The Kansas game freshman year, the loudest crowd I’ve heard here. Sophomore year, it was the Texas Tech women’s game that stands out. I never knew 3,188 people could make that much noise.

Along with the myriad of women’s highlights from a year ago, there was Michael Nurse peeling himself off a Kenworth to engineer a huge comeback against Western Illinois.

And the regular season finale which saw the Cyclones beat Kansas 52-50 (that’s right, 52-50) on a Fizer dunk with under a minute left.

Who would’ve thought then that the win would be the first of at least 19 in a row at Hilton?

And this year has been amazing, as both teams have combined to go 31-1 at home.

And really, of those 31 victories, only one has truly gone down to the wire, the women’s victory over pesky Kansas State.

But all that’s over now. The men now must venture outside the Ames area (which for Cyclone fans appears to be anything within a five-hour radius) and fend for themselves in Michigan.

But the women can make the leisurely drive to Hilton South, and expect the same kind of royal treatment from their supporters that they received last weekend at Memorial Auditorium in Kansas City.

The competition is not likely to be as yielding as Oklahoma State and Nebraksa were, however.

I’ll leave you today with a final story from the weekend, one I’ll always have with me.

Following the conclusion of the win over Auburn, I made my way to the upper deck (and in the Metrodome, I mean UPPER DECK) to greet my fiancee and father. They had made the long trek from Rockford, Ill., to see Iowa State advance to their third Sweet Sixteen in school history.

As I made my up (and up, and up) past all the positively glowing fans clad in cardinal and gold, my fiancee Angie came down to greet me.

“I got the feeling,” she said.

The feeling she was speaking of, which brought a tear to her eye and an extra thump to her heart? Cyclone pride.

I know it well.

Josh Flickinger is a senior in journalism from Rockford, Ill. He defies you to ask not what the Cyclones can do for you, but what you can do for the Cyclones!