Iowa men’s basketball should become Iowa’s team, and even occasionally play in Cedar Rapids

MOLINE, Ill. — This was how big-time college basketball is supposed to feel.

A highly-competitive game with 16 lead-changes and nine ties. A sense that the game mattered to each of the 8,488 fans present, that being here mattered.

This was Iowa playing Washington State in men’s basketball at Vibrant Arena. It was 61 miles from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It may as well have been 61,000.

Iowa’s 76-66 win — a deceptive margin of victory because of 10 Hawkeye free throws in the last 71 seconds — was two hours of true entertainment for the Quad Cities. The Quad Citians returned the favor by supporting the home-away-from-home Hawkeyes to the hilt.

“The crowd absolutely played a huge factor in getting us that win,” Iowa’s Payton Sandfort said.

“I’m not opposed to driving up here for every game for a home game.”

It was a stark contrast to the atmosphere for the Iowa men in their home arena. Now, if you had put this game in Carver on a Friday at 7:30, it would have drawn better and had a better vibe than Iowa’s first three home games, weeknights against mid-majors.

Requesting people to drive from any distance for an 8 p.m. Tuesday game against South Dakota, as the Hawkeyes did three days before this game, is a big ask.

Yet, there was a time when any Iowa home game filled most or all of the arena’s 15,000 seats. The announced crowds of the first three games, with the season ticket sales factored in, averaged 7,871. The reality is only 2,500 or 3,000 people were at each.

It was quite a contrast from Tuesday’s men’s game to the Iowa women’s basketball game against Toledo at Carver the following night. That was a sellout, as are all of the women’s home games again this season, and probably around 10,000 were on hand for a 6 p.m. game that was even more one-sided than expected.

There was a time not long ago when the same game at the same time would have had a mere 2,500 or 3,000 fans.

It’s been asked over and over what the men’s program has to do to get the fire burning again with the public. Winning every game would be a good start, but isn’t especially realistic.

An answer in the nonconference portion of the schedule may be to make Iowa more of a regional team. The Hawkeyes actually are doing that this season. They’re playing Utah State in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, and will face Utah in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Dec. 21.

The Sioux Falls game is guaranteed a great atmosphere. It’s in the 3,250-seat Sanford Pentagon, a terrific basketball venue. It will have a gym-full of Hawkeye fans making the fairly short trek from northwest Iowa, as it did in Iowa’s games there in 2017 and 2021.

Sandfort compared Friday’s Moline experience to Iowa’s game in Sioux Falls three years ago when he was a freshman.

So, why not put an annual game or two somewhere in Iowa other than Iowa City?

“We obviously love playing in Carver,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said after Friday’s game, “but we have an incredible fan base over here. We’ve got an incredible fan base in Des Moines.

“From a business perspective, we’ve got people that will make those decisions. But I think overall if you were at this game, you would be in favor of that, obviously.”

I say put a game in Cedar Rapids every three years of so. Yes, it’s only a half-hour up the road from Iowa City. No matter. You’d get a different group of fans, people excited to have the Hawkeyes in their midst. It would be an event.

Sports writers aren’t supposed to be promoters like some were when newspapers and dinosaurs ruled the earth. As you probably noticed, however, a lot of rules no longer apply or are enforced these days.

So I’ll volunteer to call Bruce Pearl at Auburn and get his dynamic team to come up to Cedar Rapids for a game. Or I’ll give Greg McDermott a jingle at Creighton and pitch having the Cascade native bring his always-tough Bluejays to Alliant Energy PowerHouse.

Or, I’ll persuade the Big East’s Butler Bulldogs, with Connor McCaffery on its coaching staff. Maybe I’ll have my people to talk to Caitlin Clark’s people, and offer that new Butler fan some incentives to come to the game herself.

With several months to promote the thing, we can make it a mega-event. It’s a great idea if I do say so myself.

Meanwhile, Iowa hosts Rider Tuesday night at Carver. Good seats are still available.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com