By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — His first victory as Iowa’s men’s basketball coach secured, Ben McCollum took a lap around Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s floor and his players followed.

McCollum and the Hawkeyes waded into the new student section at the south end of the arena, then went along the east end to shake hands with the fans seated there. And while McCollum and guard Bennett Stirtz waited to talk to the BTN announcers broadcasting the game, the rest of the players went through the north end with more handshakes before heading up the tunnel.

The message was simple after Tuesday’s 101-69 win over Robert Morris — thanks for coming.

“I really, truly, believe that they need to be in it with us,” McCollum said. “Because, again, it’s not going to be like this every single night. I hope it is. It’d be really nice, but it’s not always going to be. And so that’s when you really, really need those fans. And so I think you got to show them that you appreciate them and that they’re there on the team with us. I mean, that’s what they are. And so hopefully we can keep them coming back and try to keep creating some excitement.”

“That’s an every-day thing,” guard Tavion Banks said. “You know, we’re serving other people, too, when we play. We’re serving the fans too, because they came out and supported us. I feel like it’s a big thing to thank the crowd, the students and  just anybody who came out. That can make their day.”

Attendance was 9,232 for the game. Carver-Hawkeye Arena holds 15,000, so, yeah, there were empty seats. It’s a work in progress to get the fan base back after the apathy that clouded the final seasons of Fran McCaffery as coach.

These Hawkeyes, an entirely new roster with the exception of Cooper Koch, the lone returning scholarship player, are going to take some time to get to know, but first impressions matter.

Putting up 100-plus points, a stifling defense that did plenty to ignite the crowd, and a share-the-ball mentality — 21 assists on 29 field goals — is a strong first impression, indeed.

McCollum knows there can be a combustibility to a team in its first year — good one night, a clunker the next. He cautioned, as he did during his press conference on Monday, that this is a “work in progress.”

“ I didn’t even know who’s going to be starting an hour before the game,” McCollum said.

So he went with familiarity. Four of his starters were players he brought with him from Drake — Banks, Bennett Stirtz, Cam Manyawu and Isaia Howard — with Koch being the fifth starter.

Stirtz scored 19 points, Banks had 17, Howard and Manyawu had 10.

“Some of those guys have played for me before, and so that’s part of it too,” McCollum said. “Cam, T, Bennett, Isaia Howard, those guys have played for me, and I’ve been in battles with them. And so you kind of know what to expect.”

It was Iowa’s defense that helped spark the 17-2 run that opened the game. Every stop, every turnover, brought a roar from the crowd, and McCollum was waving his arms to try to turn up the volume.

“We’re still trying to get them to stand,” McCollum said. “I’m trying. ‘Man, let’s go. Let’s get lit.’ What else are we here for? We’re not here to just spectate and watch. We’ve got to be a part of it, right? So, yeah, I mean, we need them on defense. Need them on offense. You just need noise. That’s kind of my theory.”

“I think we were all flying around, playing with a lot of energy,” Stirtz said. “We were amped up, but we were playing together.”

Stirtz was everything that was expected of him with his name on every major award’s watch list to start the season. He logged almost 35 ½ minutes, adding six assists and four steals along with his points.

“Guys like him make it look like you can coach,” quipped McCollum as he talked about the player who has followed him from Northwest Missouri State to Drake to now Iowa.

McCollum won 31 games and a Missouri Valley Conference title at Drake last season with a defense that was second nationally in points allowed and an offense that ranked 288th in scoring. His Northwest Missouri State teams topped the 100-point mark 19 times in his 15 seasons there, the last one coming on February 1, 2024 against Nebraska-Kearney.

“It’s the first time we’ve scored a hundred in a while,” McCollum said. “I think our defense might have led to some offense. I don’t know why we scored 100, I’d have to go back and watch it. No clue, to be perfectly honest. I’d like to say again, it was coaching, but probably we just made shots.”

There were some concerns — only a 26-25 rebounding edge, maybe not quite as much energy on defense in the second half when Robert Morris shot 63.2% from the field.

Ups and downs are always a part of November, especially one game in for a new team with, for many, a new coach.

The concerns didn’t seem to matter. It turned into a fun night, which is why McCollum and the Hawkeyes wanted to say thank you.

“Just keep coming, through the goods and the bads,” McCollum said. “It’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to be like this every night, but it can be really special if we have them on our side.”

McCollum admitted to what he called the usual “pre-game misery,” which tempered the emotions that could have come with the first game in a new home.

He was already thinking about the next game when the night was over.

“It’s cool, it’s arrived,” he said, “Now it’s on.”

Photo: Iowa coach Ben McCollum reacts during Tuesday’s season opener against Robert Morris. (Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com)