Peterson: Fan loyalty can play a major role in recruiting, and if you don't believe it, ask Steve Prohm

I read coworker Matt Bain’s interview with Jalen Coleman-Lands, Iowa State’s newest basketball recruit. The part about the Emerald Coast Classic basketball tournament in Florida was especially interesting, yet not really surprising.

"(The gym) was packed with Iowa State fans and I was, like, 'Man, this is different,'" he told Bain. "For it to be in Ames, Iowa, and for them to travel really goes to show you how indebted the fans are, and just anybody who has a correlation with Iowa State. It speaks volumes on the school, the environment and the program."

Coleman-Lands was referring to the 2015 Thanksgiving weekend tournament in Niceville, Florida. He was referring to the hundreds of fans he saw cheering on the Cyclones throughout the tournament, and especially during the 84-73 championship-game win against an Illinois team of which he was a freshman member.

I covered the tournament. I, too, noticed the multitude of Iowa State fans, both in the arena, around town and on the beaches. If you don’t think fans play a part in recruiting, you’re dead wrong.

If the 6-foot-4 graduate-transfer wing who most recently played at DePaul can regain the long-range shooting touch that earned him a four-star ranking out of high school, he could be a significant piece on a team that just might surprise some folks in the Big 12 Conference.

And if Memphis transfer Tyler Harris gets a waiver from the NCAA to become immediately eligible? Iowa State has had success like that before, remember — like Rasir Bolton last season.

Repeatedly last season, the Penn State transfer talked about Iowa State’s traveling band of fans.

“This place is like a home game,” I recall Bolton saying while scanning at the pro-Cyclones crowd at last season’s Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

It’s the straight stuff, when coaches always mention crowds after games. The successful Coleman-Lands recruitment proves it, and if he thought the Florida crowd was big — it was nothing compared to more recent Thanksgiving tournaments.

Iowa State fans flocked to the Bahamas for last year. Clearly, they outnumbered fans from other participants, including North Carolina and Michigan.

Maui over the 2018 Thanksgiving break? It was tough to tell which team had the most rooters — the Cyclones or a Duke team that featured Zion Williamson. Orlando in 2016? Iowa State fans outnumbered fans from other teams, including Miami of Florida and Florida.

If coach Steve Prohm’s 2020-21 recruiting is over, it finished on a high note, with an immediately eligible player with an extensive starting resume.

There’s 10 scholarship players available for next season, and it's 11 if Harris gets his waiver. That size of roster is fine, considering it wasn’t long ago that injuries made it impossible to play five scholarship players against five scholarship players in practice.

Even without Harris, there’s six with college starting experience. Those six — Coleman-Lands, Bolton, Tre Jackson, Solomon Young, George Conditt and Javan Johnson — have a combined 254 starts, including 121 by four players as Cyclones.

No one’s saying Coleman-Lands will be a star. He shot 42.2% from 3-point range during 34 games (and 24 starts) as an Illinois freshman, but just 30.6% in two seasons at DePaul. He’s had leg surgery.

He’s also an experienced player who has performed well at a big-time level, and a player that can recognize a loyal fan base when he sees one.

“If you can show a recruit that you put 14,000 fans in the arena for every single game — that’s huge,” Prohm said recently. “Then you go to Maui, and your crowd outnumbers the others. Same with Orlando and the Bahamas.

“It’s a reason we get invited to premier tournaments like that.”

More recently, it’s a reason behind Coleman-Lands’ decision to finish his career at Iowa State, and this just in:

Coleman-Lands was impressed with the number of Iowa State fans in Florida. Well, just wait until he sees how the Cyclones take over Kansas City during the Big 12 Conference tournament.

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson has been writing for the Des Moines Register for parts of six decades. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, 515-284-8132, and on Twitter at @RandyPete. No one covers the Cyclones like the Register. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal to make sure you never miss a moment.