Iowa guards Lucy Olsen, 33, and Kylie Feuerbach, 4, take a moment in the fourth quarter of Iowa’s 75-69 women’s basketball win over Iowa State on Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. shared. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
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IOWA CITY — This is AC’s first year here. After Caitlin.
With the out-of-this-world Caitlin Clark missing at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, there was no way some air would escape from the balloon. In recent years, the crowd has reached an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 and we had a great time here. I can’t reproduce this.
Exclude …
However, on Wednesday night, when Clark was thrown into Carver without knowing she was a first-year WNBA veteran and tricked into thinking she was coming back for one final college season, she was blindfolded and in public. It’s different. The announcer never mentioned the players’ names and only heard the noise from the crowd…
You could say Clark is still here doing Clark’s work.
No. 21 Iowa State trailed for much of Wednesday’s game, but dominated in the fourth quarter, defeating No. 18 Iowa in front of a capacity crowd of 14,998 who tried to blow the roof off the dump with their cheers. They defeated State University 75-69. Not just during the 10-point deficit in the third quarter, but throughout the game.
“It was really fun,” said Iowa guard Lucy Olsen, who scored 25 points, matching her career-high as a Hawkeye. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Olsen was the nation’s third-leading scorer last year at Villanova, which plays in the Big East, a powerhouse women’s basketball conference. But her 22-win team, the Wildcats, averaged 2,005 fans at home and 2,617 on the road.
There was no guarantee Olsen would be able to play here in front of crowds as much as Clark, Kate Martin and Gabby Marshall enjoyed last season when Carver’s preseason sale was sold out. Still, 14,998 tickets are sold for each game.
Olsen, who may have already set the single-season team record for smiles, has fans for her talent.
“In the first exhibition game, her eyes were like, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing,'” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said. “And I said to her, ‘Wait until you actually hit a game where the fans aren’t going to give up their tickets, okay?’ You wouldn’t believe what that would be like.”
Jensen is a first-year head coach at the University of Iowa, but she’s been here since 2000. This sell-out event is still new here. It wasn’t a full house two years ago when No. 10 Iowa State lost here to No. 16 Iowa State, 70-57.
A future Player of the Year (Megan Gustafson) and a future Big Ten Player of the Year (Kathleen Doyle) were on the Iowa teams that beat the Cyclones here in 2016 and 2018. There were 4,579 and 6,289 fans at those games.
So why is Jensen so sure Carver’s volume dial will stay around 11 this season?
“I think it’s probably because I’ve been here 24 years and I know a lot of fans,” she said. “They were with us.
“We had a really great group of fans who were in the top 25, top 20 (in NCAA attendance). But, what’s remarkable is the kid who was named Time (Magazine) Athlete of the Year yesterday. That means there was someone there.” And she took shots off Kinnick and did it with a flair we’ve never seen before.
“And this fan base, what I miss so much is that they were rewarded for being a part of it. And I never thought they would all be gone.”
Longtime fans knew that the Iowa teams coached by Lisa Bruder and Jensen didn’t just start playing fun, up-tempo, fast and skilled games when Clark joined them. Meanwhile, many who jumped on the Clark Rocket quickly grew to love the Hawkeyes team.
“We didn’t know if we were going to sell out (during the season),” Jensen said. “But I didn’t think there would be enough fans.”
She said she was thrilled when she found out all the tickets had been purchased for this season. Emotions were seen and heard throughout the arena Wednesday.
If the opponent is good, it won’t be an important match. Cyclones sophomore center Audi Crooks used the Audimatic for three quarters of the way on his way to 31 points. Afterwards, ISU coach Bill Fennelly praised the crowd and the Hawkeyes.
“It’s cool when the buses arrive and there’s traffic and people,” Fennelly said. “That’s what young people deserve. And I think our state is one that has embraced women’s basketball for a long time.”
It is 1AC. But traffic-stricken, carver-cone-sniffing fans are still hooked. The Hawkeyes rewarded them again Wednesday.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
