Carver Needs to Get Loud

I've been to a handful of Iowa basketball games this season and two things have occurred to me:

1. The crowd needs to be more engaged and vocal during games.
2. The PA/speaker system at Carver needs some serious work.

I'm excluding the Michigan State game from this overall conversation because I couldn't go to that game, and it sounded like the crowd was into it.

But overall, fans need to start showing up and supporting this team. I'm specifically looking at you, students. At last night's game against Nebraska, the student section was almost empty. I realize a lot of kids are still off on break, but you're telling me there aren't still a couple thousand around Iowa City to fill the spots? The students set the tone for the crowd. If you don't have any students showing up, you're not going to have much of an atmosphere.

As for my second point, the speaker system in Carver-Hawkeye Arena sucks. It's terrible. Flat-out awful. Am I being direct enough? You can barely hear the public address announcer, and the music used during the starting lineups is inaudible. The pregame elements, especially the starting lineups, should get people hyped up. They should engage the entire crowd. They should add to a raucous atmosphere. None of that happens inside Carver.

The Hawks are #19 in the country and 3-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2003. This team deserves the best. Let's give it to them.

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