Jim Barnes continues ‘tall task’ of trying to elevate Iowa volleyball after 0-20 Big Ten slate

IOWA CITY — Jim Barnes knew “it was going to be extremely tough” to rebuild Iowa volleyball when he took the helm after the 2021 season.

"Year 2 was actually going to be the toughest,“ Barnes said, remembering what he told people close to him. ”Unless things go really our way, it’s going to be the hardest year. But from there, we’re going to march up the ladder.“

The 2023 season — Barnes’ second at Iowa — was indeed a tough one for the Hawkeyes as they went 8-24 overall and 0-20 in Big Ten play. It marked the worst conference record in program history.

Along with ending the 2023 season on a 20-match losing streak, Iowa did not win any sets in its last nine matches.

“We needed to be healthy, and we needed things to go our way for us to win Big Ten matches,” Barnes said. “Unfortunately, neither one of those things happened for us.”

Injuries quickly “depleted” Iowa’s rotation, Barnes said. Outside hitter Michelle Urquhart, for example, missed extended time because of a concussion. Middle hitter Delaney McSweeney was playing through a torn labrum and “couldn’t even pick up her arm through practices.”

Barnes also cited the challenges he inherited when taking over the Iowa program after the 2021 season, including Iowa’s NCAA penalties that were levied about 19 months before his arrival.

“One of the greatest, if not the greatest challenge in college volleyball is rebuilding a Big Ten school from the ground up after coming off NCAA sanctions and all of that,” Barnes said. “There’s a lot of building that needs to get done before you can win Big Ten matches.”

Many of Barnes’ predecessors at Iowa have failed to do what he is hoping to do — elevate Iowa into a winning Big Ten volleyball program.

Iowa has not finished above .500 in Big Ten play since 2000. In the 23 seasons since, the Hawkeyes have gone 66-380 (.148) against conference foes.

“We are not even talking about a rebuild,” Barnes said. “We’re talking about a build. This has never been built here.”

Barnes, who is under contract through June 2028, continues to have the support of interim athletics director Beth Goetz.

“It’s a tall task,” Goetz told The Gazette. “There’s no doubt about it. But we continue to support Coach (Barnes) in the way that he’s going about it and are excited to see that continue to grow and develop.”

This year’s setback at Iowa comes amid the sport’s burgeoning popularity elsewhere in the Midwest.

Nebraska set the NCAA volleyball attendance record when 92,003 fans packed Memorial Stadium for this year’s match against Omaha. The Cornhuskers are in the NCAA semifinals, along with Wisconsin.

In another neighboring state, Marquette broke the NCAA regular-season indoor attendance record this year when 17,037 fans attended its match against Wisconsin.

Iowa averaged 1,556 fans this year, which ranked 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams, in the 5,100-seat Xtream Arena.

“If we’re winning games, that’s going to certainly bring (fans) in,” Barnes said. “But I’m more impressed that we’re not winning and these fans still see what’s building here.”

While many Xtream Arena seats — and Iowa’s Big Ten win column, for that matter — remain empty, Goetz is full of optimism about the culture Barnes has been building.

“I think we’ve got the right culture,” Goetz said. “When you have a team that has had that much challenge through a season, when you got a losing record and you still see them competing together at the end and together as a team — it tells you a lot about the culture.”

Looking ahead, Barnes anticipates adding five transfer portal players in addition to the four incoming freshmen “that we absolutely love.” Two portal players already have committed.

"We got some very significant players we’re talking to,“ Barnes said.

The quick development of Nataly Moravec is another reason for Barnes to be optimistic. The redshirt freshman played in 66 sets in conference play and was second on the team with 164 kills against Big Ten foes.

“She’s going to be one of our best players certainly moving forward,” Barnes said. “Normally, I wouldn’t want her as a freshman playing as much as she did. … Our depth, again, was depleting quickly.”

Barnes said success in 2024 would look like “moving up in the league and winning more and more games.”

“Because the more we’re winning, that convinces more and more players that this is where they want to come,” Barnes said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com