Tuesdays With Torbee

Friday night I will drive up to Iowa City after work, find a fantastic parking spot close to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, go to my assigned season ticket seats and then pick among thousands of better, closer seats to watch the rebuilding men’s basketball team compete against Nebraska.

There will likely be between 6,000 and 8,000 fellow fans in the cavernous, 15,000-plus capacity arena, despite it being a coveted weekend home game.

The contrast with the raucous, sold-out whether at home or on the road women’s basketball program couldn’t be starker, and that’s understandable. Iowa women’s basketball is a legit national title contender led by an incandescent, generational star. The men are hovering near the bottom of the Big 10 standings, don’t look like an NCAA tournament team right now and have never managed to get past the first weekend of that tournament under Coach Fran McCaffery.

That said, the fan apathy towards Iowa basketball is neither productive nor – in my opinion – warranted. It further cements the reputation of the Iowa basketball fan base as fair weather and makes McCaffery’s recruiting sales pitch (and thus Iowa’s future potential) more difficult.

With Keegan and Kris Murray both moving on to the NBA early, this was always shaping up to be a rebuilding year. Iowa is not a blue blood, plug-and-play type program. Much like football, it is developmental. While this team may not be NCAA caliber, not being entertaining is surely not one of them. Like most McCaffery team, it plays a fast pace, scores a ton and produces plenty of dunks and deep three pointers.

The freshman duo of Owen Freeman and Brock Harding is intriguing, with Freeman already stacking up Freshman of the Week hardware and Harding being lauded by unbiased announcers as perhaps the purest passer in the conference already, as a frosh. Tony Perkins can be inconsistent, but as the kids today say, has that “dawg” in him and backs down to no one. Payton Sandfort can get absolutely torch-hot from three. New transfer center/forward Ben Krikke is a scoring machine, despite being undersized. They also seem like a likeable bunch, good citizens on and off the court and have affection for their coach.

Speaking of affection for the coach, this to me is the crux of the problem. Whether it’s due to his emotional outbursts on the sideline or lack of NCAA tournament success, it is increasingly apparent that many Iowa fans plain don’t like Fran McCaffery. This is particularly jarring when you realize that among basketball experts, opposing coaches and those around the game, he is far more respected and liked than among Iowa fans themselves.

The “failures” of Iowa’s men’s basketball are far from profound and pretty much every season McCaffery puts out an entertaining, winning product that finishes in the conference higher than sportswriters predict. Ones that typically feature highly skilled (often nationally recognized) individual talents. And yet, dwindling support or interest from fans. I believe it must be antipathy for the coach, because objectively, Iowa fans have supported worse products better in the past, in nearly every sport.

I hate that I’m coming to this conclusion, but I’m beginning to believe we won’t see the needle move significantly on fan engagement with men’s basketball until the McCaffery era ends. I think that’s a shame because he has been a very solid builder and maintainer of the program – even if his post-season success has failed to deliver the way we’d like.

I hope this doesn’t come across as being the “fan police” – enjoy Iowa sports how you choose. I just find it frustrating because the only way Iowa will find more post-season success is by attracting better talent. Talented players want to play in front of big, enthusiastic crowds. In much of the McCaffery era, that simply hasn’t existed – even when he’s had All-Americans and teams that finished Top 4 in the Big 10.

I readily admit I’m a basketball junkie and will risk life-and-limb on icy Interstate 80 to make every home game I can. I recognize this makes me a bit of an anomaly these days.

However, if you can’t support the team you allege to be a fan of, you also can’t really expect them to improve either.

Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and the 12 Saturdays Podcast @12Saturdays.