No. 5 Iowa State hopes "amazing environment" can help topple No. 9 Kansas Saturday at Hilton

AMES — Jamarion Batemon sidled into his courtside seat two years ago at Hilton Coliseum.

The then-standout prep basketball player from Milwaukee was on an official visit to Iowa State, but already could envision himself in a Cyclone uniform.

And the game that dramatically — and loudly — unfolded before his wide eyes sealed the deal.

“(I) was, like, ‘I’ve gotta play in front of his crowd,’” Batemon, a spark-inducing backup freshman guard said of watching ISU beat Kansas, 79-75, that late January day.

Now he has — and at noon Saturday, he’ll get to play the tradition-rich Jayhawks for the first time at Hilton in a game that will be televised nationally on ABC.

Ninth-ranked Kansas (19-5, 9-2 Big 12) beat the No. 5 Cyclones (21-3, 8-3) by 21 points a month ago before its raucous home crowd at Allen Fieldhouse. It ignited a seven-game win streak for the then-struggling Jayhawks. It also started a brief two-game skid for ISU, which countered that by winning five straight before Tuesday’s 62-55 setback at TCU.

So expect another sold-out Hilton crowd to be at its earsplitting best for Saturday’s rematch.

“Big opportunity,” said junior forward Milan Momcilovic, who still leads the nation in 3-point accuracy (52 percent) despite a 3-for-11 night from beyond the arc in the loss to the Horned Frogs. “I don’t think our (new) guys have seen the best Hilton is and I think they’ll see that.”

They’d better. The Cyclones are 13-0 at home this season, but Kansas is the first top-25 team they’ll have played in Hilton this season.

“I’m confident Hilton will give us an amazing environment,” said ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team also will face No. 3 Houston at Hilton on Monday night. “We’ve had that same fortune at home where our fans show up for us. They have tremendous energy, enthusiasm. There are certainly stretches in every game where that crowd energy, the passion for our team, the fan base — like, that really helps push you forward. … So we’re excited for Hilton to be a raucous environment, for our fans to show up in a major way. And our guys are going to reflect that same energy of the fan base with the intentionality and the spirit that they play with.”

That’s what the surging Jayhawks did when they knocked off No. 1 and previously unbeaten Arizona, 82-78, Monday night in Lawrence. Kansas head coach Bill Self credited his home crowd’s support in that win, and if the Cyclones are to respond in kind it will need to shake off its offensive doldrums that framed most of Tuesday’s loss at TCU. ISU made just five of its 22 3-point attempts and struggled to move the basketball while scoring a season-low 55 points.

“We had a couple good, wide-open looks, but I feel like our shot selection wasn’t the best,” Momcilovic said. “We took a lot of forced shots, a lot of kind of mid-range (shots). We didn’t get all the way to the basket a whole lot, so when the ball’s moving, it kind of feels like we’re getting everything at the basket, and then wide-open 3s. Then, it kind of just feels like we’re in a flow state.”

That’s how Batemon felt as a rapt observer of ISU’s home win over Kansas two years ago — and he’s eager to replicate that state as a player this time.

“I really can’t wait,” he said. “It’s gonna be fun.”

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