After their shootaround, the home-team Hawkeyes were greeted with MSU “boos” as Iowa players walked back to their locker room. In contrast, when the Spartans took the floor for warm-ups, the 110-strong Spartan fans jumped and yelled like they were back in East Lansing. After they welcomed the Green and White squad to the floor, the Izzone took a lap around the arena chanting and singing the fight song.

Two Izzone members, Ellen Robinson and Courtney Neubauer, woke up at 6 a.m. and made the drive to celebrate their 20th and 19th birthdays, respectively, sporting birthday hats and party favors.

“When we first got down here, we went down to the court, and even the players were pumping us up,” Neubauer said.

Just 15 minutes before tipoff, the girls and their colleagues outnumbered the Iowa student section, which didn’t even seem interested in showing up to the biggest game on their team’s schedule to date.

I felt bad for Iowa’s athletics department. They printed up all sorts of signs and T-shirts for the game, and there was no one at the arena during the beginning of the game to use them. My ISS class could have filled the home team’s student section better than the Iowa students.

Honestly, I’ve seen high school student sections that would put the Hawk’s Nest to shame. Who knows — maybe there was a big party going on Saturday night in Iowa City.

I congratulate the Nest members who were in attendance early and fueled their team and the rest of the crowd. It’s just sad and disappointing that the rest of those empty seats could have been filled with students. Instead, they missed out on the chance to be a part of something so special as knocking off a top-ranked team and storming the court.