By assigning Iowa State a Pac-12-style double-game weekend in Arizona, the Big 12 didn’t just cut back the Cyclones’ traveling schedule.
It also created an ideal wintertime travel opportunity for Cyclones fans: A Saturday afternoon game at ASU and a Monday evening at McKale Center.
No snow. No ice. Just warmish sunshine. New venues to check out. And the nation’s No. 3 team to cheer on.
Ben Will was one of them who jumped on it, quickly planning a trip from his home in Kansas City to attend both games with his 8-year-old son, Alex.
“Right when the schedule came out, we were like `Yeah, we’re gonna do this,’' Will said.
Ben Will and his son Alex, 8, shown watching pregame warmups, were two of many Iowa State fans scattered among the McKale Center crowd on Monday.
It wasn’t difficult, either. Will said he was able to buy tickets for the Cyclones’ game Saturday at ASU through the Iowa State alumni association, while he simply went through UA to buy tickets for Monday’s game.
Still reporting 400 tickets available for the UA-ISU game as of last Friday, Arizona held a 24-hour flash sale that day that reduced the price of upper-level sideline seats from $60 to $45, plus fees. Even cheaper upper-level tickets were available on Seat Geek after UA announced Sunday afternoon that the game was sold out.
Will said he thought Iowa State fans made up about 40% of the crowd at ASU, where an ESPN announcer referred to them as “Hilton Southwest,” a reference to ISU’s Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State appeared to have about 1,000 fans on hand Monday, scattered all over McKale.
White out (with sprinkles)
All those Cyclones fans put a cardinal-colored accent on UA’s marketing attempt to create a "white-out" for Monday’s game.
While UA fans overwhelmingly wore white, there were sprinkles of the Cyclones’ cardinal-and-gold in every non-student section, and, as usual, a few UA fans who still wore red anyway.
Holmes pays a visit
Four-star class of 2026 Arizona recruiting target Cameron Holmes of Goodyear Millennium took in the game from a low-level corner seat near the UA bench.
The younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward DaRon Holmes, a one-time UA recruiting target who went on to star for Dayton, Cameron has been a longtime target of the Wildcats already.
In an interview with the Star at the Section 7 recruiting showcase last June, DaRon said Cameron was already better than he was at a similar stage. Cameron is a a versatile 6-5, 190-pound junior at Millennium this season.
“Oh yeah,” DaRon said. “He was definitely better than I was (then). He’s like, top 16. I wasn’t up there. I worked hard, but that guy had me.”
Heads up
During the first timeout Monday, Arizona honored its baseball team for winning the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles last season, then implied that fans might want to stay alert.
That’s because they handed red T-shirts to the baseball players to throw out to the crowd, and most of them were bullets fired well into the stands.
Colorblind
Also producing a splash of color to Monday’s whiteout: For the second straight game, Arizona coaches wore shoes painted by pediatric patients at Diamond Children’s Hospital to raise awareness and funds during what is the annual “Suits and Sneakers” week.
But, after his staff first wore the shoes on Saturday against Colorado, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he was glad for the chance to help the cause but didn't exactly pay a lot of attention to anyone's feet.
“I don't notice eye color,” Lloyd said. “I don't notice if people are in wrist bands. I don't know if they're wearing head bands. I don't know if they have a T-shirt on under their jersey, and I definitely don't know what shoes they have on. I couldn't tell you one thing about anybody's shoes.”
Townsend hits 2,000
Forward Trey Townsend hit the 2,000-point mark for his college career by making a layup with less than four minutes into Monday’s game.
The assist was credited to COVID.
The extra year granted to players who participated in the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season allowed Townsend to play a fifth season at Arizona after a prolific four-year career at Oakland.
Initially a walk-on at Oakland who worked his way into the starting lineup for his first game as a freshman in 2020-21, Townsend wound up scoring 1,813 points over four seasons with the Golden Grizzlies.
He had 185 at Arizona entering Monday’s game.
