Tuesday's upset win over No. 9 Nebraska didn't feature a capacity crowd, but it did feature one of the rowdiest atmospheres men's basketball has seen in years.
In its glory days, Carver-Hawkeye Arena was perennially regarded as one of the loudest venues in college basketball.
Iowa basketball's longtime home still retains that mantra - for women's basketball. Caitlin Clark's legendary career for Iowa women's basketball filled the stands each night, but the fall of the Iowa men's basketball program under Fran McCaffery showed.
The Hawkeyes suffered through record-low attendance numbers last season, but the hiring of new coach Ben McCollum last offseason has brought the excitement back to Carver-Hawkeye - slowly.
Winning basketball games is obviously McCollum's primary job, but he's also tasked with reviving a broken and hungry Iowa fanbase. Flash-forward to February. The stands aren't filling up each night, but anyone who attends a game at CHA has to be pleased when they walk out of the building - win or lose.
Saturday's blowout loss to then-No. 13 Purdue in front of the season's first sell-out crowd was not the impression McCollum and his players wanted to give their fanbase, but they responded on Tuesday against No. 9 Nebraska.
Carver-Hawkeye was far from filled to capacity on this night (11,483), but the place was absolutely rocking from the start. Sure, a top-10 opponent coming to town definitely gets people jacked up for a game, but there's been plenty of times where CHA feels like a library for these very contests.
Not on Tuesday.
I've been attending/covering Iowa basketball games inside Carver-Hawkeye for over 15 years, and this game easily tops the list of the loudest men's basketball atmospheres I've experienced here.
It's a very low bar to choose from considering the noisiest game prior to tonight was the 2017 NIT game against TCU, but Tuesday's crowd showed that McCollum's goal is on the right track to completion.
It's one thing to have a raucous atmosphere behind you, but it's another thing to actually deliver for the fanbase. The Hawkeyes missed golden opportunities to secure big home wins against Illinois and Purdue, but it didn't let another one slip away against Nebraska.
This game was a 40-minute rock fight, but Iowa got just enough from Bennett Stirtz and its defense and came away with a signature 57-52 victory. It marked the Hawkeyes' first ranked win of the McCollum era and gives them a major boost on their NCAA tournament resume.
Not only was this triumph big for the basketball team, the Iowa fanbase really needed this one. Some fans are still waiting to fully buy-in to the program again, but the postgame court storm and celebration was years in the making.
Is this Hawkeye team a threat to compete for an NCAA championship? Probably not, but potentially reaching the the Big Dance in year one is a massive step forward for Iowa basketball.
Who cares if the fans stormed the court? They showed up, and now they get to celebrate a major victory.
McCollum's rebuild of this fanbase is far from complete, but one thing is clear.
Carver-Hawkeye Arena is coming back to life.
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