Hilton South brings energy for Cyclones away from home
March 20, 2017
While Hilton Coliseum provides one of the best college basketball atmospheres in the nation, just three hours south, Iowa State enjoys another home-court advantage.
At the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, the Cyclones enjoy a packed crowd full of Iowa State fans every season at the Big 12 Tournament. That environment has helped the team grab three tournament titles in four years.
It certainly helped in 2017, as Iowa State coasted to a win against West Virginia to clinch the title once again. The Sprint Center drew a crowd of 18,972 people in that title game, and most of them were clad in Cardinal and Gold.
“We call it Hilton South for a reason,” guard Naz Mitrou-Long said. “It’s a blessing, because us guys up here, we didn’t have our senior night two weeks. We had another home game here tonight, yesterday and the night before. It’s an advantage when you have the best fan base in the country willing to travel through rain, sleet, snow, doesn’t matter and come out to support us and will us to this win. It’s a blessing.”
The Iowa State fan base has a well-chronicled reputation for traveling to away games. During the 2017 NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, Cyclones fans showed up in droves.
For the first game against Nevada, which Iowa State won, there was a large contingent of Cyclone fans in the nosebleed seats and in the lower bowl behind the team bench.
There was an even better showing against Purdue two days later.
“Obviously, it helps a ton when you’ve got the crowd behind you like that,” coach Steve Prohm said. “It’s a special fan base. You just look around and put on the TV. It’s just not like that everywhere, and that’s why this is a special job.”
But nothing can compare to the atmosphere at the Sprint Center in Hilton South. In 2015, the Cyclones defeated Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament title game. Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the Jayhawks, is just a 45-minute drive away, but the fans from Ames still rivaled their fans.
Naz Mitrou-Long, who finished his Iowa State career in 2017, said there was a class of cardinal and blue in the stands, but the Cyclones won out.
The Big 12 Tournament is slated to be in Kansas City through 2020. And it doesn’t look like there are plans to move the tournament away.
Until that changes, Iowa State will have some of the best support in the Big 12 in the Sprint Center.
“We have ‘Hilton South,'” Mitrou-Long said. “And it is Hilton, just in a different location. How well we travel, that’s why I feel like we have an advantage over any team.”
