What makes Mackey Arena such a tough place to play

Not to sound like a broken record, but Hawkeyes guard Connor McCaffery is old in the context of college basketball. He’s exhausted all six years of his eligibility, and he’s seen quite a bit in his 156 career games. But one thing he hasn’t done as a Hawkeye is go to Mackey Arena and beat Purdue.

McCaffery was on last year’s team that beat the Boilermakers to win the Big Ten tournament, but that was in Indianapolis. The last time the Hawkeyes beat Purdue in West Lafayette was in 2016, a year before McCaffery’s freshman season. As far as road atmospheres go, going to play the Boilermakers is not something he’s looked forward to over the previous half decade.

“What’s the toughest place to play? Mackey,” McCaffery said. “I think it’s the fans who show up 90 minutes before and then when we get there the students are around the block ready to sprint in. I would say that that’s a big reason why they’re high up on that list and it definitely, definitely gets loud in there.”

Funny enough, Mackey Arena actually houses fewer seats than Carver-Hawkeye (14,222 vs 15,000). However, the unique circular structure of the arena gives the home team a noise advantage. Similar to Kinnick Stadium, the close proximity creates a prominent echo.

“I remember during shootaround — every time we would dribble the ball, the ball’s echo would bounce off the roof because the inner roof is like lined with like metal,” Hawkeyes forward Filip Rebraca recalls. “I don’t even know everything that goes into that. So when you do have all their fans in there it gets so loud that it just becomes a ringing noise.”

Sophomore Payton Sandfort has some not-so-fond memories of Mackey Arena, too. Last year it was his first Big Ten road game. He played just seven minutes and missed both of his shot attempts.

“It was pretty crazy,” Sandfort remembered. “I knew it was all that, but now I’m ready for it, being through 20 games now on the road. It’s very loud and intimidating. We’ll be fine, but it’s really loud.”

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