By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – With approximately 11,400 tickets already sold for Saturday’s game between the Iowa men’s basketball team and UCLA at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Ben McCollum’s goal of packing the arena again is moving in the right direction.

He still has a ways to go, and it won’t be easy.

But assuming most of the 11,400 show up for what looks to be an appealing Big Ten matchup, McCollum’s team should have a noticeable home-court advantage.

The arena won’t be full, but it should have enough fans to sort of block out the empty seas, and create a tough environment for the Bruins.

McCollum had two goals when he accepted the Iowa job last March; rebuild the roster and rebuild the fan support.

It seems fair to say that both projects are progressing nicely with Iowa 11-2 overall, ranked in both polls (23rd and 25th) and No. 13 in the NET rankings.

And if more fans decide between now and the 5 p.m. tipoff on Saturday that they also want to attend the game; the attendance might climb above 12,000 or even higher.

And while seven of Iowa’s 11 wins were against vastly overmatched Quad 4 opponents, Iowa still crushed those seven opponents, and its only two losses were against top-10 powers Michigan State and Iowa State on the road by scores of 71-52 and 66-62, respectively.

The Michigan State game got away from Iowa, but that’s been known to happen at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan.

That isn’t an excuse, just a fact.

But there also shouldn’t be any excuses if Iowa loses to UCLA, unless something unforeseeable were to happen; such as the officials calling no fouls on UCLA and 50 on Iowa, including seven technical fouls.

This is a huge opportunity for Iowa, on the court, and in the stands, but with that comes the risk of losing, which would certainly be deflating.

The days of UCLA being a dynasty are long gone, but the Bruins are still very formidable and a threat under head coach Mick Cronin.

UCLA is 10-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten, while Iowa is 11-2 and 1-1.

The Bruins have won three straight games and five of its last six, including wins at Washington (82-80) and at home against Oregon (74-63) to open Big Ten play.

UCLA’S three losses have all come on neutral floors against Arizona (69-65), California (80-72) and Gonzaga (82-72).

UCLA has four players averaging in double figures with forward Tyler Bilodeau leading the team in scoring, averaging 19 points on 54.8 percent shooting and a Big Ten-best 92.9 percent from the free throw stripe.

Skyy Clark averages 14.2 points with a team-high 33 3-pointers and a league-best 49.3 3-point percentage. Donovan Dent averages 12.6 points, 6.6 assists and 1.6 steals, and Eric Dailey, Jr., averages 10.6 points and a team-high 5.6
rebounds.

“They’re good,” McCollum said. “They’ve got the two guards; Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark, really good, and then they’ve got a  good inside presence and they’ve got a couple decent wings that are good athletes, good three-and-d guys.

“And so yeah, they’ll be a problem.”

That why it’s important to have a strong home-court advantage to create problems for the visiting team.

When Carver-Hawkeye Arena is more than two-thirds full, as it should be on Saturday, it can be a problem for the visiting team.

Just ask any women’s basketball player from a visiting team and they’ll tell you just how hostile and distracting Carver can be.

Much has been written and said about the declining attendance that contributed to Fran McCaffery’s demise as the Iowa head coach after 14 seasons, and after winning more games than any other Iowa men’s basketball head coach in program history.

But in fairness to Fran McCaffery, there were also multiple games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in which the building was packed and highly energized.

Fran McCaffery inherited a mess in 2010 and then rebuilt the program without help from the transfer portal, which wasn’t around back then.

He led Iowa to seven NCAA Tournaments, and to the 2022 Big Ten Tournament title.

But he never led Iowa past he second round of the NCAA Tournament, and that eventually caused a disconnect with fans, and that led to historically low attendance figures in his last two season as head coach.

Iowa also didn’t make the NCAA Tournaments in McCaffery’s final two seasons as head coach .

Fran McCaffery has since returned to his college alma mater, Pennsylvania University, to continue his coaching career, while McCollum is coaching the team for whom McCollum cheered for as a kid growing up in Storm Lake.

His rise from Northwest Missouri State, where he spent 14 seasons as head coach and won four Division II national titles, to Drake, where he finished 31-4 in his only season as head coach last season, to now Iowa, where he has the program moving in the right direction; is a feel-good story that Iowa hopes will feel even better as time moves on.

But you have to win games, especially conference games at home against respectable opponents.

It doesn’t help that the Iowa students are on winter break, but there should be enough to fill the new student section behind the south basket.

If there isn’t, just fill those seats with anybody as long as they’re full.

McCollum and the Iowa players, which includes one of the top players in the country in senior point guard Bennett Stirtz, have made it a priority to reach out to fans, literally and figuratively.

They have started a post-game tradition in which the players and coaches form a line after each home game and walk around shaking hands with fans just to show their appreciation.

Every little thing helps when trying to re-energize a fan base.

But there isn’t anything that helps more than winning.

UCLA (10-3, 2-0) vs. Iowa (11-2, 1-1)

When: Saturday: 5 p.m.

Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV/stream: Peacock

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Saturday’s game is the 10th meeting all-time between Iowa and UCLA. The Hawkeyes lead the series, 5-4.

Iowa is 2-0 all-time against the Bruins in Iowa City, winning 80-63 in the first meeting in 1950 and 88-71 in 1990.

After Iowa won the first four meetings all-time, the Bruins have been victorious in four of the last five contests. UCLA won 94-70 last season in Los Angeles — the first meeting since 1990.

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