Hawkeyes’ funk isn’t the kind that have their fans dancing, or suggest a Big Dance berth ahead

IOWA CITY --- The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.

Author Elie Wiesel famously said it. The notion could have been ringing in the ears of Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz as she watched Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes men’s basketball team fall to Minnesota Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 72-67.

That ringing would have made more of a noise than was heard in Carver through parts of the game. The announced attendance was 8,004. That’s tickets sold, not warm bodies. That half of the digits in that total are zeros is purely coincidental.

It was a predictably small crowd, and you can only blame the frigid weather for part of it. Fans with tickets wouldn’t have considered missing an Iowa women’s game last season just because it was 3 degrees out. A major snow event, yes. Er, maybe.

As a devotee of college basketball, I hate to see it or say it. You can’t pretend it isn’t true, though. Indifference is the byword these days when it comes to Hawkeyes men’s hoops.

Tuesday’s game had no juice beforehand. Iowa had just endured back-to-back double-digit losses with awful defense in Los Angeles against USC and UCLA. Then you add an 8 p.m. weeknight tipoff, the cold, and the fact the opponent was a Minnesota team that showed up with a 1-6 Big Ten record.

Box office catnip, it wasn’t.

Still, there once was a time when all people had to know was that there was a conference game at Carver at some time on some day, and the arena was full. The average attendance was 14,976 in 2013-14. Iowa has had 40 seasons of average home attendance of at least 11,635.

Those days are gone. This season’s average is 8,806, and that’s tickets sold. An actual throng of 10,000 raises eyes in a good way instead of a concerning one.

It did the program no good whatsoever that it lost Tuesday, and often looked lost in doing so.

Minnesota took the lead with 13:08 left in the first half and never it let it go. The Gophers turned their 32-28 halftime lead into 38-28 with consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half. Iowa made 3 of 17 threes the whole night. McCaffery suggested and Payton Sandfort flat-out said Minnesota fouls weren’t called.

OK. Minnesota, however, played a savvy and crisp offensive game. It melted shot clocks and got desired results. Once, it drew a 3-shot foul with eight-tenths of a second left to shoot. Another time, it was fouled with one-tenth of a tick remaining.

The Hawkeyes were down 63-46 with 6:17 left and then did what they typically do in Carver when they’re in a hole late. They came back with a fury. It was 70-67 when Seydou Traore of Iowa missed the front of a one-and-one with 10.8 seconds left.

Minnesota’s Femi Odukale rebounded, was fouled, made both free throws, and his team celebrated. At times, the Minnesota sideline was noisier than the entire Carver “crowd.”

Excuses can be made for Iowa, one supposes. It’s been said NBA teams often play poorly in their first home game after a long Western or Eastern trip. Perhaps that factored into Iowa’s dullness after six days in Los Angeles. Perhaps.

“It was just a low-energy day,” said Sandfort. “Completely unacceptable, you know. People looked defeated early in the game, and that can’t happen.”

That was simple truth. It wasn’t as if the senior, who had 21 points, was burying his teammates.

“We’ll figure it out,” said Sandfort. “Teams go through these funks in a year. The only thing we can do it stay together. I believe in everybody in that room. I believe in the coaching staff and myself. We’ve got a lot of basketball left, a lot of opportunities.”

They do, indeed. They also have a home loss against Minnesota. It’s one thing for McCaffery’s teams to have never had a deep NCAA tourney run. Now, they’ll have to do some great things in the next six weeks to avoid missing the big tournament for the second-straight season.

Iowa’s next game is at Carver on Friday at that unwelcome 8 p.m. starting time. The foe is Penn State, not a drawing card. Good seats are still available.

Between now and then, it’s a safe guess fans’ comments will make their way to Goetz’s ears and eyes. At least those people will care. Her department can’t afford much more indifference about men’s basketball.

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