The Hawkeyes’ funk isn’t the kind that makes their fans dance or suggests a Big Dance berth ahead

IOWA CITY — The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.

Author Elie Wiesel famously said it in 1986. The sentiment might have rang in the ears of Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz as she watched Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeye men’s basketball team fall to Minnesota on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 72-67.

That ringing would have made more noise than was heard in Carver through parts of the game. The announced attendance was 8,004. It’s tickets sold, not warm bodies. That half of the digits in that total are zeros is purely coincidental.

It was a predictably small crowd, and one can only blame part of that on the cold weather. Fans with tickets wouldn’t have considered missing an Iowa women’s game last season just because it was 3 degrees outside. A big snow event, yes. Eh, maybe.

As a college basketball fan, I hate to see it or say it. However, you can’t pretend it isn’t true. Indifference is the byword these days when it comes to the Hawkeyes’ men’s hoops.

Tuesday’s game had no juice upfront. Iowa had just endured back-to-back double-digit losses with terrible defense in Los Angeles against USC and UCLA, two faces in the packed Big Ten crowd.

Then you add in an 8:00 pm tip, the cold, and the fact that the opponent was a Minnesota team that showed up with a 1-6 Big Ten record.

Box office catnip, it was not.

Still, there was a time when all people needed to know was that there was a conference game at Carver at some point in the day and the arena was full. The average attendance was 14,976 in 2013-14. Iowa has had 40 seasons with home attendance of at least 11,635.

Those days are long gone. This season’s average is 8,806, and that’s tickets sold. An actual crowd of 10,000 raises eyebrows in a good way instead of a worrying one.

It didn’t do the program any favors that it lost Tuesday, and it often looked lost doing so.

Minnesota took the lead with 13:08 left in the first half and never relinquished it. The Gophers turned their 32-28 halftime lead into 38-28 with consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half. Iowa made 3 of 17 threes all night. McCaffery suggested and Payton Sandfort flatly stated that Minnesota offenses were not called.

Perhaps. However, Minnesota played a savvy crisp offensive game. It melted shot clocks and got desired results. Once it drew a 3-shot foul with eight-tenths of a second left to shoot. Another time it failed with a tenth to go.

Down 63-46 with 6:17 left, Iowa then did what the Hawkeyes typically do in Carver when they’re in a hole late. They came back with a fury. It was 70-67 when Iowa’s Seydou Traore missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10.8 seconds left.

Femi Odukale rebounded, was fouled, made both free throws and his team celebrated. At times, the Minnesota sideline was louder than the entire Carver “crowd.”

Excuses may be forthcoming for Iowa, one suspects. It has been said that NBA teams often play poorly in their first home game after a long Western or Eastern tour. Perhaps that contributed to Iowa’s lethargy after six days in Los Angeles. Perhaps.

“It was just a low-energy day,” Sandfort said. “Totally unacceptable, you know. People looked defeated early in the game and that can’t happen.”

It was simple truth. It wasn’t as if the senior, who had 21 points, didn’t bury his teammates.

“We’ll figure it out,” Sandfort said. “Teams go through these funks in a year. The only thing we can do is stay together. I believe in everybody in that room. I believe in the coaching staff and myself. We have a lot of basketball left, a lot of opportunities.”

They also have a home loss against Minnesota. It’s one thing for McCaffery’s teams that they’ve never had a deep NCAA tournament run. Now they will have to do some big things in the next six weeks to avoid missing out on the big tournament for the second consecutive season.

Iowa’s next game is here, Friday at the unwelcome start time of 7 p.m. 8 p.m. The enemy is Penn State, not a drawing card. There are still good places.

Between now and then, it’s a safe guess that many fans’ comments will find their way to Goetz’s ears and eyes. Her department can’t afford much more indifference around men’s basketball.

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