There was a time when WNBA two-time All-Star Caitlin Clark made Carver-Hawkeye Arena feel hot just by stepping on the floor to launch one of her signature 25-foot step-back three-pointers in Iowa basketball colors.
These days, the arena is hot for a much less legendary reason as the NCAA Tournament gets underway. Thousands of Hawkeye fans and college basketball supporters are expected to be packed into a 15,000-seat, sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena building with no air conditioning when Iowa faces No. 15 seed Fairleigh Dickinson to kick off its NCAA Women’s tournament run.
Temperature forecasts are pushing into the mid-80s before the women’s college basketball game is hosted in a building infamous for lacking a central air conditioning system in its main seating bowl. Meanwhile, Villanova fans accused officials of ‘rigging’ the game after a lopsided foul count spurred their first-round March Madness exit…